CD (Portland) — Lawmakers in Argentina have approved a new one-time levy on the country’s richest citizens to raise money to address the devastating health and economic consequences of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Senators passed the bill, which imposes a tax of at least 2% on individuals with assets worth more than US$2.45 million, by a margin of 42 to 26.

Government revenue has declined amid the Covid-19 outbreak and resulting lockdown measures, and proponents of the legislation—dubbed the “millionaire’s tax”—hope it will generate US$3.7 billion for the pandemic recovery process.

“This is a unique, one-time contribution,” said Senator Carlos Caserio, a member of the committee responsible for the bill, according to a statement on the Senate’s website. “We’re coming out of this pandemic like countries come out of world wars, with thousands of dead and devastated economies.”

The funds will reportedly be used to pay for medical supplies, emergency aid for small and medium-sized businesses, financial support for students and social programs, and natural gas development.

“We must find points of connection between those who have the most to contribute and those who are in need,” said Senator Anabel Fernandez Sagasti.

While Argentina is unique for having passed a coronavirus-specific wealth tax to confront the current crisis, people in other countries are clamoring for similar measures, although most politicians have so far opposed such efforts. As Christo Aivalis explained in Jacobin on Friday, there is “massive support” for a tax on Canada’s super-rich, but 90% of the country’s parliamentarians last month voted against a proposal to establish one.

“A policy supported by nearly 80% of Canadians cannot muster 10% of the vote in the national parliament,” Aivalis pointed out, arguing that this demonstrates how politicians in the North American country are “just as much in thrall to big money as their US counterparts.”

A recent poll conducted by the New York Times and Survey Monkey found that two-thirds of the US electorate support a tax hike on individuals with annual incomes of more than US$400,000.

In August, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) introduced a Senate version and a House version of the Make Billionaires Pay Act, legislation that would establish a 60% tax on the wealth increases enjoyed by billionaires between March 18, 2020, and January 1, 2021, in order to pay for all medical expenses for every person in the United States for a year.

Unlike their counterparts in other wealthy countries, millions of Americans have lost healthcare coverage since the pandemic began.

Months after Sanders and Omar introduced their bills to tax a portion of the wealth amassed by US billionaires during the pandemic, the Institute for Policy Studies found in late November that the nation’s 650 billionaires had collectively gained more than US$1 trillion since March.

“There is no reason US billionaires should hold more than US$1 trillion in wealth while food lines stretch for miles and millions are on the brink of eviction,” tweeted Robert Reich last week. “Tax the rich.”

Originally published at Common Dreams. Republished by cc by-sa 3.0. Minor edits for style and content.

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