Bernie Sanders' latest horrible idea may wreck your 401(k) | Opinion
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont democratic socialist, has spent decades floating one bad idea after another. Thankfully, most of his plans haven't advanced much beyond his congressional website.
But Sanders' newest terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea may well be his worst yet. And as the socialist branch of the Democratic Party grows stronger, Americans can't afford to simply laugh at Sanders' way-out-in-left-field proposals any longer.
On June 18, Sanders introduced legislation in the Senate that would confiscate 50% of the ownership of America's most successful artificial intelligence companies.
By Sanders' own estimate, his bill would strip $7 trillion out of the private sector through a 50% tax on AI companies' stocks. The confiscated stocks would be deposited in a government-owned and managed fund, with plans to eventually redistribute a portion of the wealth through $1,000 payments to "everyone in America."
Sanders' plan also would force companies like Microsoft and SpaceX to split off their AI operations into separate businesses, a move that would shatter the value of their legacy stocks.
Does Sanders care his plan would hurt 401(k)s?
The damage that Sanders' proposal would do to the stock markets, Americans' retirement accounts and the overall economy is mind-boggling.
Sanders claims that his targets are "AI oligarchs." But the people who would suffer the most are tens of millions of ordinary Americans who have worked hard for decades, steadily invested a portion of their paychecks and counted on their 401(k) to underwrite their retirement.
It was easy for years to write off Sanders as the Democrats' eccentric uncle. Sure, he was strange, but with more reasonable adults in charge, he couldn't do any real harm.
That was before the Democrats' new love affair with socialists, who promise a free lunch tomorrow if we award them more power and control today.
Democrats keep sliding into socialism despite recent history
I will give Sanders credit for this: He just made the stakes in November's elections even more important and more personal for those of us who want to keep our own pieces of the American dream.
I'm not a fan of some of the places that President Donald Trump has taken the GOP, but when I look at the alternative that the Democratic Party now offers, it's not hard to pick the lesser of two stink bombs.
Democrats' slide into socialism arrives as several European nations, which long ago bought into the economic fallacy that more government control equals a higher standard of living, are struggling.
As The Atlantic reported in June, the United Kingdom's economy is on par with Mississippi's, the poorest state in these United States. In 2025, the European Union warned Finland that its surging debt load is unsustainable, despite the country's high level of taxation. And Germany's stagnant economy has put a strain on its generous pension and health care benefits.
Do we really want to follow Europe's model of slower economic growth and a lower standard of living?
But reality has never stopped Sanders and his socialist acolytes from promising a utopia they can never deliver.
The senator's plan to seize control of half of companies such as Nvidia and Google would send a chill not just through the stock markets. It also would discourage even small entrepreneurs from chasing their dreams.
After all, Apple, now the second most valuable company in the world and a major player in AI development, started out 50 years ago in a garage in California.
I see that as an only-in-America success story. Sanders and his fellow socialists see it as an opportunity for plunder.
What level of economic calamity are socialists comfortable with?
If Sanders were somehow successful in pushing his government power grab into law, there's nothing that would stop the socialist wing of the Democratic Party from attempting to take over other private enterprises.
Sanders' rationale for seizing AI companies is that they have benefited from publicly funded research and investments. But that also is true of airlines, pharmaceutical firms and a slew of other companies
It seems that Sanders' logic is contagious among Democrats. CNN reported that Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist who on June 23 won a Democratic primary to represent New York in Congress, posted on a now-deleted Twitter account that she advocated seizing utilities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies as well as taking over "all property from landlords" and banning private health insurance companies.
Where would socialists draw the line on the ownership of private property? How much economic destruction should Americans be prepared to accept in the name of equity? How much must my 401(k) balance be depleted before Democrats are satisfied?
I'm sure Bad Idea Bernie has all the answers. I'm also sure we're not going to like what the senator and his socialist comrades have to say.
Tim Swarens is a former deputy opinion editor of USA TODAY and former opinion editor of The Indianapolis Star.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bernie Sanders' latest horrible idea may wreck your 401(k) | Opinion
Reporting by Tim Swarens, Opinion contributor / USA TODAY
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This story was originally published July 12, 2026 at 5:04 AM.