Bernie vs. the billionaires | Today, Explained

Sen. Bernie Sanders has a whole new reason to go after the world’s billionaires. This week, we ask the longtime Independent senator from Vermont about his proposed annual wealth tax and how he plans to rein in AI. He has called for a moratorium on AI data centers. But with aggressive actions like that, does he think the Democratic Party runs the risk of getting left behind when it comes to AI? Sen. Sanders recently introduced his Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, a 5 percent annual wealth tax on anyone making more than a billion dollars. It’s less than a thousand people, but they are some very big names. Elon Musk would pay up to $40 billion under the law. Mark Zuckerberg about $11 billion. But Sen. Sanders said it would fund up to $3,000 in direct payments for anyone living in a household that makes less than $150,000. This bill has little chance of becoming law. President Trump would almost certainly veto it, and it’s a hard chance it wouldn’t even get through Congress. But the effort speaks to something that’s been growing among the American public: disillusion with the wealthiest among us and the billionaire class. Sen. Sanders is sending out a signal for the 2026 elections — and for the 2028 presidential election, too. Today, Explained publishes video episodes every Saturday tackling key issues in politics and culture. Subscribe to Vox’s YouTube channel to get them. New episodes of Today, Explained drop every day of the week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favorite listening app. If you enjoy our reporting and want to hear more from Vox journalists, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/vox. Each month, our members get access to exclusive videos, livestreams, and chats with our newsroom. 00:00 Intro 02:10 Response to attacks on Iran 04:30 Wealth tax on billionaires 11:11 Moratorium on data centers 14:30 Impact of AI 17:36 Future of Democratic Party Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Vox.com is a news website that helps