In 2026, America turns 250 years old. In a chaotic time, defined by widespread economic insecurity and an ascendant oligarchy, members of Patriotic Millionaires propose The MONEY Agenda—a bold, surprisingly simple economic framework that will unite working people, ignite the public imagination, and challenge the dark forces that seek to dismantle our democracy by permanently mitigating destabilizing levels of inequality and concentrated wealth that threaten democratic capitalism here and around the world.
Comprised of four powerful, mutually-reinforcing ideas, The MONEY Agenda will permanently stabilize the economic lives of working people, stimulate widespread economic growth, and ensure prosperity and stability for America’s next 250 years.
THE EQUAL TAX ACT
Because Money is Money is Money, regardless of how you make it.
- Equalizes tax rates for capital gains and ordinary income over $1 million, ending the preferential treatment of capital over labor while maintaining a benefit for small investors;
- Closes the stepped-up basis loophole, disrupting the “buy, borrow, die” strategy used to minimize/eliminate the tax obligations of the uber-wealthy.
The Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act
Because the federal government shouldn’t tax people into poverty.
- Provides a Cost of Living Exemption (COLE) on federal taxes up to a reasonable threshold for the cost of living for a single adult with no children (approximately $46,000 per year);
- Shifts responsibility for those revenues from the working class to the millionaire class, through a tiered surtax on income over $1 million.
The Low Wage Excise Tax
Because if you work full-time you should be able to support yourself.
- Creates an excise tax for companies with revenue over $32m that fail to pay their workers a wage that meets the cost of living;
- Uses the IRS Collection Financial Standards to define a “cost of living” wage floor to ensure private companies are paying their workers an appropriate wage.
The Anti-Oligarch Act
Because concentrated wealth destroys democracy, and democracy is better than billionaires.
- Phase 1 prevents further wealth concentration by implementing significant taxes on the intergenerational transfer of wealth, on large sums of trust-held wealth, and on the true economic income of America’s ultra-rich;
- Phase 2 dismantles the existing American oligarchy by taxing the wealth held by the ultra-rich sufficiently, including amending the Constitution if necessary.
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The Equal Tax Act
Because Money is Money is Money, regardless of how you make it.
The Equal Tax Act ensures wealthy investors pay the same tax rate on their income that working people pay on theirs, by taxing investment income at the same rate as earned income for earnings over
$1 million annually. It eliminates one of the ways the wealthy avoid taxes by ending the stepped up basis loophole, with unprecedented protections for family farms and businesses.
The Equal Tax Act
Because Money is Money is Money, regardless of how you make it.
- Creates a tax code that treats income the same, regardless of source. Those making more than $1 million in investment income would pay the same tax rate as those who work for a paycheck.
- Closes the stepped-up basis loophole, which would disrupt the “buy, borrow, die” strategy used by billionaires to pay zero dollars in federal income tax even as their wealth soared.
- Raises significant revenue exclusively from households that have more than $1 million in annual income. In 2021, OMB predicted that it would raise more than $322 billion over ten years.
Legislation
The Equal Tax Act has been introduced in the 119th Congress by Representative Delia Ramirez as HR 5336 and Senator Ed Markey as S 4112.
Original Cosponsors
- Senators Sanders, Merkley, Booker.
- Representatives Casar, Deluzio, Ansari, Jayapal, Espaillat, Garcia, Omar, McCollum, McGovern, Mejia, Schakowsky, Stansbury, Thanedar, Tlaib, Watson Coleman, Goldman, Holmes Norton.
Endorsing Organizations
- AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, Accountable NOW, American Friends Service Committee, Americans for Financial Reform, Americans for Tax Fairness, Coalition on Human Needs, Equal Rights Advocates, Housing Action Illinois, Indivisible, Institute for Policy Studies Global Economy Project, MomsRising, National Association of Social Workers, National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, NETWORK Lobby, Oxfam America, People’s Action, Public Advocacy for Kids (PAK), Public Citizen, Responsible Wealth, United for a Fair Economy, Voices for Progress
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The Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act
Because the federal government shouldn’t tax people into poverty.
The Working Americans’ Tax Cut Actcreates a federal tax exemption up to the “cost of living” for working-class Americans, and shifts responsibility for the lost revenues to those like members of Patriotic Millionaires with incomes over $1 million annually. The exemption is phased out in order to focus the benefit on those who need it most.
The Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act
- Provides a Cost of Living Exemption (COLE) on federal taxes up to the cost of living for a single adult with no children (approximately $46,000 per year), with proportionally larger COLEs for heads of household (1.3x) and married couples filing jointly (2x).
- Phases out the benefit of the COLE at 175% of the exemption amount to ensure the benefit accrues exclusively to low- and middle-income Americans, which extends tax relief to 104 million adults and 26 million children (Analysis by Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy).
- Transfers the responsibility to the millionaire class by establishing a surtax on incomes over $1 million for single taxpayers, 1.5 times that for joint filers: (Analysis by The Budget Lab at Yale.)
- A 5% surtax on any income over $1m single/$1.5m joint per year – 615,000 filers;
- A 10% surtax on any income over $2m single/$3m joint per year – 241,000 filers;
- A 12% surtax on any income in excess of $5m single/$7.5m joint per year – 77,000 filers.
- Is deficit-neutral and only applies to federal income tax, not payroll or local taxes.
Legislation
The Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act has been introduced in the 119th Congress by Representative Don Beyer as HR 7937 and Senator Chris Van Hollen as S 4083.
Original Cosponsors
- Senators Baldwin, Blumenthal, Blunt Rochester, Coons, Durbin, Gallego, Heinrich, Hickenlooper, Hirono, King, Markey, Merkley, Sanders, Schatz, Schiff, & Welch.
- Representatives Craig, Danny Davis, Deluzio, Dexter, Foster, Larson, Latimer, Mannion, McBride, Randall, Thanedar, Vasquez, & Waters.
Endorsing Organizations
- AFL-CIO, AFT, Americans for Tax Fairness, Demos, Indivisible, Institute for Policy Studies, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Oxfam US, People’s Action, Strong Economy for All Coalition, SURJ, Take on Wall Street, United for a Fair Economy, MoveOn, Accountable.US/Accountable.NOW, Community Change Action, Center for Community Change, Social Security Works, Democratic Capitalism Initiative, Responsible Wealth.
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The Low Wage Excise Tax
Because if you work full time, you should be able to support yourself.
The Low Wage Excise Tax will, for the first time, meaningfully connect the prosperity of American families to the prosperity of American businesses. It mandates a base regional wage for employees that if not met will trigger an excise tax, incentivizing companies with strong revenues of $10m or more to pay their workers a wage that is sufficient to cover the cost of living. As a clear revenue raiser that does not substitute for the minimum wage, this is a policy that can be part of reconciliation.
The Low Wage Excise Tax
- Applies to high revenue businesses of $32 million annually or more, thereby exempting “small businesses” as defined by the IRS.
- Creates an excise tax phased in over 10 years, starting at 10% of the wage underpayment for each employee paid less than the regional base wage, increasing by 10% each year until year 10, when the excise tax would be 100% of the wage differential. The tax will be non-deductible.
- Establishes a two-tiered regional base wage reflecting the localized cost of living, calculated using the IRS Collection Financial Standards. This calculation includes regionally specific numbers for housing, transportation, and utilities with national averages for food, clothing, and out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. The IRS Collection Financial Standards will be used to establish an hourly or salary wage for W2 workers, with an additional 10% increase for independent contract workers.
Background
Some of the largest and most profitable private companies in America rely on business models that depend on low wages. This new policy creates a system of accountability for private employers that take advantage of a depressed wage floor and establishes a new way to incentivize good employment practices, all in the hopes of creating greater shared prosperity. This bill requires high-revenue businesses to pay a small penalty to the government when they do not adequately compensate their workers. This is not a replacement for minimum wage law nor is it a substitute for corporate tax reform. Patriotic Millionaires has long advocated for raising the federal minimum wage, which needs to be increased after 17 years of stagnation.
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The Anti-Oligarch Act
Because concentrated wealth destroys democracy, and democracy is better than billionaires.
Because historically, without exception, over-concentrated wealth has proven to pose an existential threat to individual rights, personal freedoms and democracy, everything necessary must be done to prevent our nation from succumbing to this predictable fate. That process must begin by acknowledging that we have already crossed a threshold of wealth and power concentration that is in direct conflict with our democratic ideals.
The Anti-Oligarch Act will be implemented in two phases. The first phase will prevent the future accumulation of oligarchical wealth by 1) implementing a significant tax on the intergenerational transfer of wealth, 2) imposing a major tax on large sums of trust-held wealth, and 3) imposing a substantial tax on the true economic income of America’s ultra-rich. In its second phase, the Anti-Oligarch Act will tax the wealth currently held by the ultra-rich in order to dismantle the existing American oligarchy.
The Anti-Oligarch Act Phase 1: Stop the bleeding
- Convert the federal estate and gift tax system to an inheritance tax system, under which inheritances in excess of $1 million are taxable as ordinary income to the inheritor.
- Impose a progressive tax on large sums of trust-held wealth to limit the accumulation of dynastic wealth, along the lines of that proposed in Taxing Dynasties.
- Tax lifetime gains in excess of $25 million at progressively higher rates based on the length of the holding period of the asset giving rise to the gains or, if the taxpayer so chooses, annually on the appreciation of the asset.
The Anti-Oligarch Act Phase 2: Dismantle the existing oligarchy
- Decrease the level of wealth concentration by imposing a tax on the wealth of the richest Americans sufficient to reduce their wealth to a level in harmony with the ideals of democracy, amending the United States Constitution if necessary.
Background
The Anti-Oligarch Act is a long overdue response to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ warning from a century ago: “We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated into the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” The extreme concentration of wealth has always, without fail, translated into an extreme concentration of political power. The stakes for the nation couldn’t be more clear. We must act immediately.
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Download & Share
The MONEY Agenda is available for download here in PDF form: https://patrioticmillionaires.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/America-250-The-Money-Agenda-Exec-Summary.pdf