by Robert M. Traxler

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020, unveiled his plan to tax the assets of the nation’s wealthiest individuals. Senator Sanders has also called for the publication of a “national wealth registry.”

According to Mr. Sanders, the registry in combination with “significant additional third-party reporting requirements,” whatever in the world that is who knows, would help ensure the country’s rich are not able to shelter assets from the tax collectors.

As opposed to taxes levied on income and payrolls, a wealth tax would target the value of accumulated assets owned by very rich Americans – or their net worth. It would require the determination of the value of things like art, jewelry, real estate holdings, business ownership stocks, etc., on a continual basis. And how would you determine the value of stocks that may fluctuate wildly day to day?

The tax person would need access to your home and safety deposit box, even the jewelry box in your bedroom. Just how that squares with the fourth amendment will surely come up. It appears the socialists are saying, “the Constitution? We don’t need no stinking Constitution. We are the government and we are punishing the evil rich.” The Bill of Rights attached to the Constitution protects us from the government; damn the Constitution, full speed ahead with more taxes is the radical left’s mantra.

My leftist/socialist friends, be careful — the federal government has never kept a register generated by the law of the land to list your wealth. Income yes, in detail, very invasive detail, but not total assets. This hit list of private citizens’ assets and confiscation of savings and assets would plow new ground and be a giant leap into socialism. If the federals tax your worth, the states and other taxing bodies will surely follow.

Let’s look at the tax the highest rate. It would be 8% of your total assets, not counting state and local taxes; in five years the 8% would go down to 7%, as the tax has made you less affluent. A few years more it goes down even more as you have less to tax. Senator Sanders has maintained that his wealth tax will pay for a socialist utopia: free health care, education, electric vehicles, universal basic income and a few more freebies. Just how he will pay for the trillions in free stuff over time is the question.

The 8% top wealth tax rate along with the 13.3% top state income tax (California) and the top federal income tax rate of 37%, not including state/local wealth tax if they pass one, is 58.3%. Toss in sales tax, property tax and several others and it will not pay to be successful.

As the rich become less affluent, the revenue generated over time will decrease, so who pays now? Who cares? We live for today and tomorrow be damned. Our nation has existed longer than any socialist nation because of our Constitution. Senator Sanders’ wealth tax would violate the first, fourth and perhaps the fifth amendments. Who cares?

The rich are guilty of something, or else how did they get rich? Punishing the rich for being successful is social justice, right? The historical problem with social justice in income is that after taking from the rich and giving to the poor, eventually you run out of rich people to take from.

Ever notice how Senator Sanders has changed his call for taxes from one on millionaires and billionaires to a tax on only billionaires, as his net worth is currently in the multiple millions? Maybe millionaires are not so evil after all? Quite frankly I am disappointed in him; he used to practice what he preached. Many will say Senator Sanders is still middle class, as he only made $560,000 in income last year, and it is his wife who is rich, not him. Come on now folks, really?

The next presidential election will be a referendum on the very Constitution many of us took an oath to support and defend, an oath that never expires.