March 29, 2026
Nobody in American politics draws crowds of young people better than Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders, and he did it again today at a Tax the Rich rally at Lehman College in the Bronx. The school’s Center for Performing Arts was SRO with dozens more seated onstage behind the podium.
SRO crowd at Lehman College today.
NYSNA President Nancy Hagen spoke about how the union stood up for patients during the Nurses’ strike saying, “when we fight, we win.” A Nursing Assistant and 1199 member, Olivia Alvarado, said “you can tell a lot about a society by how they treat elders and the people that care for them.” She explained that the administration took $1T from nursing homes and gave it to ICE. NY State Senator Kristen Gonzalez introduced colleagues from the NY City Council, NY State Assembly & Senate noting Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are now represented at all levels of government in NY.
L-R: NYSNA President Nancy Hagen; DSA Members of NYC City Council and NYS Assembly; NY State Senator Kristen Gonzalez.
The theme of the event was Tax the Rich, a movement to address wealth inequality and quality of life issues including healthcare and childcare. Speakers said that passing bills in Albany to make real progress on this front is finally within reach. they also pointed to the election of Zohran Mamdani as evidence of popular support for DSA agenda. Then it was time for the keynote speaker, Senator Sanders.
The Senator started off gently, recalling his upbringing in Brooklyn. He said his Dad was a paint salesman and that he earned enough to support the family. He attended good public schools and pointed out that Brooklyn College was tuition free at the time. He transferred to University of Chicago and graduated with virtually no debt. All of this was to show that, despite having very little money, his mother was able to stay home and raise the kids back then.
“How many Working Class families do you know today where if Mom wants to stay home, she’s able to do so?” he asked.
He went on to recite a litany of stats that showed that even though the country’s wealth has never been higher, too many Americans aren’t seeing any of it. In fact, he explained, the Working Class is losing ground rather than making progress. There are many reasons for this, but the rigged tax system explains a lot of it. The very Rich often pay a lower tax rate than workers do. He gave examples contrasting Billionaires Musk, Bezos, and Bloomberg with the higher rates that average workers pay.
“Tesla SpaceX, Palantir and Ticketmaster paid zero in federal income taxes, these companies are worth $2.7 trillion combined. Their owners are worth over $880 billion. They made 15 billion in profits last year, and they paid zero in Federal income taxes. So let me make you ready for an extraordinary, radical statement. It is so radical that the vast majority of the American people agree with us, and that is that the time is long overdue for profitable corporations and the wealthiest people in our country to start paying their fair share.”
“We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth. Nearly half of older Workers have nothing saved for retirement. That’s right. You’re 65 years of age, worked your whole life. You’ve got nothing in the bank to retire on. Unbelievably, over 20% of our Seniors are trying to make it on less than $15,000 a year. How can anyone survive on $15,000 a year?”
“Over half a million Americans go bankrupt every year because of medical debt. Tens of thousands of our people die every year because they don’t have enough money to see a doctor in the richest country in the history of the World.”
Sanders has proposed a Wealth Tax that would raise $4.4 Trillion over 10 years.
“I can understand that billionaires don’t want to pay wealth taxes. I can understand that they’re more interested in buying another yacht for a few hundred million or buying their fifth mansion or another private island, not worrying about the needs of hungry kids or struggling working class families. I can I get that. I understand that. But what really bothers me, I want you to think about this for a moment, is that instead of being honest about where they’re coming from, instead of coming forward and making the case why they think it’s appropriate that so few have so much, the way people sleep out on the streets and they run five mansions.
“But what bothers me is what they are saying to the American people is that if you want justice, if you want fairness, and if you use the democratic process to bring that about, if you are successful in bringing about real tax reform and having rich pay their fair share, what they are saying is, we the Oligarchs, will punish you if you do that. They are extortionists. And what they are saying, if you are successful, if California is successful, we the billionaires are gonna leave California, New York City. You’re successful, raising taxes. We’re gonna leave New York City in America. We’ll go to Saudi Arabia and be with fellow autocrats. Tells you what they are saying in so many words, is they don’t believe in democracy. They’re saying that they, as oligarchs, have the wealth, they have the power, and that no matter what you do, you’re going to lose. Nothing you can do about it. That’s what these guys are saying. And I really regard that as quite disgusting. Yes, they’re not playing by the rules. They have the power to move their companies out.
“Brothers and Sisters, as you may remember, way back in 1933 Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis made a very profound statement. He said, quote, we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both. True 93 years ago, it is even more accurate today. Our job right now, in this extraordinarily difficult moment in American history, is to tell the oligarchs we will no longer tolerate their insatiable greed. They want to leave America and go to Saudi Arabia or wherever they want to go, let them go…
“This city, you the people in the city, showed the Oligarchs that when we stand together, when 90,000 people are prepared to go out and knock on doors, we can elect the city government that stands for working people all across this Country. Too many people are poor and dying for democracy. We’re not going to have an authoritarian government. Too many working class families are struggling just to survive right now, we’re going to have an economy that works for all, not just Musk and Bezos and the 1%.
“Let us have progressive taxation here in New York and all across this country. Let’s create an economy that works for All of us. Thank you very much.”
