Gavin Newsom killed California's 5% wealth tax on billionaires. Said he opposed it "because this measure dedicates almost all of the revenue it raises to a single category of state spending."
But apparently he doesn't think it such a bad idea nationwide. Make it make sense.
The California Governor — who has never met a camera he didn't love or an economic principle he understood — rolled out his proposal for what he's calling "a national billionaires' tax. A true minimum tax on billionaires — a modern Buffett Rule — that ensures the people at the very top pay at least the tax rate their own workers pay." This is the man positioning himself as the Democratic frontrunner for 2028, and he's running on a platform that would make Bernie Sanders blush.
Here's what Newsom didn't mention while channeling his inner Marx. California's billionaires and wealth creators have been fleeing to Texas and Florida for years — not because of the weather, but because Sacramento treats productive citizens like ATMs with haircuts. He opposed the state-level wealth tax because he knew the remaining rich people would pack up the U-Hauls. A national version solves that little problem. Nowhere left to run.
Newsom framed this as a founding-era value. "The system America's founders built was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands," he declared, "but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades." He claims the top 10% of the country owns two-thirds of the nation's wealth, and apparently that's supposed to be an argument for government confiscation rather than evidence that some people are better at creating value than others.
The Founders argument is worth addressing because it's so spectacularly wrong. James Madison wrote in 1824 that "the eyes of the world being thus on our Country, it is put the more on its good behavior." George Washington called the American cause "noble" and "the cause of mankind." Neither man was talking about wealth redistribution. They were talking about liberty — the exact thing a billionaire tax undermines by letting government decide how much of your own money you're allowed to keep.
As Patriot Post's Thomas Gallatin noted, Newsom's California has gone from budget surplus to deficit by systematically punishing the business sector. The state that gave us Silicon Valley now gives us tent cities, rolling blackouts, and an exodus of taxpayers. That's the model Newsom wants to export.
The tell is in the sequence. Veto the state tax because the rich will leave California. Propose the national tax because they can't leave America. The policy didn't change. The escape hatch just closed.
When a governor turns his state from a destination into a cautionary tale and then asks for a promotion, the résumé should probably include the results.
