Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder worth an estimated $196 billion, recently told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin that Americans in the bottom half of earners should pay nothing in federal income taxes, a position that lines up with a Senate bill that would make the first $75,000 in household income tax-free.
Bezos pointed to a nurse earning $75,000 a year as his example. Asking that worker to hand over a share of her paycheck to Washington, he said, "really makes no sense."
The comment lands at a moment when Congress is already debating how to reshape the tax code. Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat, has introduced the Keep Your Pay Act, Senate Bill 4042, which would eliminate federal income tax on the first $75,000 earned by households filing joint returns. Proportional cuts would also apply to single filers. And now the world's fourth- or fifth-richest man is making the same basic argument from the other side of the political aisle.
Tax Foundation data drawn from 2023 IRS figures paints the picture Bezos described. The average federal income tax rate that year was 14.1%. But the spread between top and bottom was enormous. The top 1% of taxpayers paid an average rate of 26.3%. The bottom half paid just 3.7%.
More than 76 million U.S. households fell into that bottom half. Their average federal income tax bill: $913.
Bezos framed the gap in blunt terms, as reported by The U.S. Sun. He claimed the top 1% of taxpayers already pay roughly 40% of all federal tax revenue, while the bottom half collectively contributes about 3%.
"I think what's going on is that it's kind of a tale of two economies, so you have a bunch of people in this country who are doing really well, but you also have a bunch of people in this country who are struggling."
That framing, two economies, one thriving and one grinding, is familiar to anyone who has watched grocery prices, rent, and insurance premiums climb over the past several years. The question is what to do about it.
Booker's bill takes the most direct approach possible: stop taxing the income that working families need to live on. Under the proposal, a married couple filing jointly would owe zero federal income tax on their first $75,000 in earnings. Single filers would see proportional relief.
Booker pitched it in March in terms any household budgeter would recognize:
"No income tax on the first $75,000 families earn would be a game changer for working people. This tax cut would immediately put more money in your pocket every month to deal with the high price of everyday expenses, an unexpected emergency, or to plan for the future."
The bill's full legislative status remains unclear. What is clear is that the idea now has a high-profile endorsement from a man who built the largest online retailer on the planet.
Bezos is not the figure most people would expect to champion lower taxes for nurses and hourly workers. Amazon's executive chairman holds an estimated net worth of $196 billion as of 2024, according to Forbes estimates. He graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, worked on Wall Street until 1994, then founded Amazon. He also runs Blue Origin, the spaceflight company he launched in 2000.
His personal life has kept him in tabloid headlines. He and his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie, announced their divorce in 2019; it was finalized on April 4 of that year. He stepped down as Amazon's CEO and president on July 5, 2021, moving into the executive chairman role. More recently, he served as honorary co-chair of the Met Gala alongside his partner, Lauren Sanchez Bezos.
None of that biography makes him a natural populist. But the substance of his argument is hard to dismiss.
Set aside who is saying it and look at the raw numbers. The bottom half of American taxpayers, more than 76 million households, paid an average of $913 in federal income tax in 2023. That is not a meaningful revenue stream for the federal government. It is, however, a meaningful hit to a family living paycheck to paycheck.
The top 1%, meanwhile, already shouldered an average rate of 26.3%. The gap between what the top earners pay and what the bottom half contributes is so wide that eliminating the bottom half's burden would barely register on the federal ledger, while making a real difference at kitchen tables across the country.
Conservatives have long argued that the tax code punishes productivity and that Americans deserve to keep more of what they earn. That principle does not apply only to high earners. A nurse pulling shifts at a regional hospital, a welder working overtime, a young couple saving for a first home, these are exactly the people the tax code should leave alone first.
The politics are messy. Booker is a Democrat. Bezos is a billionaire tech mogul who draws suspicion from populists on both sides. The bill itself will face the usual gauntlet of committee markups, scoring fights, and revenue-offset arguments. Critics will ask how to replace the lost revenue, even though the bottom half's total contribution is a sliver of the federal budget.
But the core question is simple: Should a family earning $75,000 a year owe federal income tax at all?
Bezos says no. Booker says no. The Tax Foundation's own data suggests the revenue at stake is modest. And 76 million households would feel the difference immediately.
Washington loves to talk about tax reform in the abstract. Here is a concrete proposal with a specific dollar threshold and a billionaire willing to say out loud that the current system makes no sense for working Americans. Whether Congress acts on it, or buries it in committee while arguing about something else, will tell voters everything they need to know about who is serious about relief and who just likes giving speeches.
When the richest man in the room and the working nurse in the exam room agree on the same policy, maybe the people in between should start listening.