Newsom warns that urgent reform is needed to prevent wealth concentration from harming democracy, which is why he is calling for a national "billionaires' tax," reports Associated Press. At the same time, Newsom opposes a California measure taxing billionaires, arguing the issue should be addressed federally to prevent billionaires from leaving the state.
Several billionaires including Mark Zuckerburg, founder of Facebook, and Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, have already fled California because of high taxes.
According to Politico, Newsom is using the national tax to “stake ground” with the economic populists as the Democratic primary for the 2028 presidential election draws closer. However, this has erupted in backlash from the left in his own state.
Newsom revealed support for the national tax soon after the California wealth tax was officially added to the November ballot, resulting in the Left naming him a “corporate phony.”
Kevin McGary is chairman of the Fredrick Douglas Foundation of California.
"We have to recognize that Newsom has no morals. He has no principles. He has no rationality. He's a chameleon. He will go where he thinks the latest momentum is driving, and the latest momentum in the Democrat Party is driving towards this communistic mindset,” McGary states.
He explains that this mindset is one of confiscation.
“You start to take businesses. You start to take what they would view as excess wealth. You confiscate that, and then you basically redistribute it,” says McGary. “This is pure communism, this is grotesque."
Newsom's billionaire tax proposal, he says, actually would encompass anyone with over $100 million in net worth.
"This is a much wider net that is cast on hardworking business owners, and you talk about an economic collapse. This would disincentivize business expansion, and it would cause a severe economic collapse in a very, very short period of time because there's no incentive,” McGary states.
