Bernie Sanders Introduces His ‘Corporate Accountability and Democracy’ Plan

Victor Westerkamp
By Victor Westerkamp
October 14, 2019Politics
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Bernie Sanders Introduces His ‘Corporate Accountability and Democracy’ Plan
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks about his several proposals at George Washington University in Washington on July 17, 2019 (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced his plan to combat “corporate greed” on Monday, by mandating that corporate America give workers an ownership stake in the companies they work for.

Sanders, who is preparing for the fourth Democratic primaries in Ohio on Tuesday, released his “corporate accountability and democracy” plan on his campaign website on Monday, which entails undoing major tax cuts done in the Trump era and the revoking of major corporate mergers.

But the core of his proposal is shifting a percentage of profits and responsibilities from bigger companies—those with at least $100 million in annual revenue—to the employees, giving them 20 percent of shares in their companies and 45 percent of the seats on their corporate boards.

Sanders, who is preparing for the fourth Democratic primaries in Ohio on Tuesday, also proposed the creation of a Bureau of Corporate Governance at the Department of Commerce, which would only grant major companies operating permits on the condition that they stay in line with federal guidelines on corporate responsibility.

Similarly, Sanders last month unveiled his Housing for All plan which also has a hefty price tag. That plan, which he says would provide every American with housing, is expected to increase government spending by about $2.5 trillion.

Sanders, who has centered his campaign on income inequality, says his new “Tax on Extreme Wealth,” which will establish an annual tax on the top 0.1 percent of U.S. households, would pay for those proposed measures and more.

The tax plan would apply to individuals or households with a net worth of over $32 million and would raise $4.35 trillion over 10 years, according to Sanders. It will tax individuals or households based on a sliding scale that is broken up into eight brackets. The net worth of a household or individual is the value of their assets minus their liabilities.

Under the proposed plan, married couples with a net worth over $32 million will be taxed 1 percent on their wealth above the threshold. This rate will incrementally increase to the top rate of 8 percent on wealth over $10 billion.

The brackets are halved for people living in single-person households. For individual filers, the tax rate will start at 1 percent on wealth above $16 million and incrementally increase to 8 percent on wealth above $5 billion.

Epoch Times reporter Janita Kan contributed to this report

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