Lawmakers consider new billionaires tax to help pay for $2 trillion in social spending

As Democrats cut President Joe Biden's social spending package from $3.5 trillion to nearly $2 trillion, they're also working out how to raise the revenue to pay for it. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema's opposition to raising corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthiest Americans, as the Biden administration had proposed, is a stumbling block in the 50-50 Senate. 

Lawmakers are considering a tax on billionaires to help cover the legislation's cost, which the White House has insisted will be paid for via revenue and not deficit spending. The proposal would apply to taxpayers with more than $1 billion in assets or who have an income of more than $100 million for three consecutive years, roughly 700 of the wealthiest people in the U.S.

"In a package that's supposed to be about giving everybody a shot to get ahead, it would be a big mistake, from both a policy and political perspective, not to ask billionaires to pay a fair share," Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said in a statement. "The Billionaires Income Tax is about fairness and showing the American people taxes aren't mandatory for them and optional for the wealthiest people in the country. No working person in this country thinks it's right that billionaires can pay no taxes for years on end, and sometimes never at all."