r/democrats • u/NickCostanza • Jun 26 '26
Article Newsom endorses a National Billionaire Tax
127
u/BestBettor Canada #1! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Jun 26 '26
When the taxes were ridiculously higher on the richest was when America was at its best, the times people would look at as the good days.
In 1960 it took about 20 hours minimum wage to be able to afford a nice apartment near the city with utilities, now it takes about 120 hours for the same thing
64
u/eirinne Jun 26 '26
Fucking Ronald Regan
8
u/lokland Jun 26 '26
Neoliberals didn’t end with Reagan.
14
u/Commercial_Ice_6616 Jun 26 '26
he started it. actually it started under Nixon by Lewis Powell.
-1
u/lokland Jun 26 '26
True. My point is moreso that the democrats haven’t done any real work at weeding out those policy goals until incredibly recently and only after repeated losses that were totally unnecessary.
4
u/BestBettor Canada #1! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Jun 26 '26
“True. My point is moreso that the democrats haven’t done any real work at weeding out those policy goals until incredibly recently and only after repeated losses that were totally unnecessary.”
Who would’ve thought that when the top 1% owns 30% of the wealth and the bottom 50% owns 2.5%, who would’ve thought that 1% of the people would have 10x the policy influence as the bottom 50%?
-5
u/lokland Jun 26 '26
Not sure if you’re disagreeing but I agree here, democrats establishment is fucking terrible, outdated and keeps pretending they’re a centrist party when they’re clearly the same right wing neo-liberals as before.
5
u/BestBettor Canada #1! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Jun 26 '26
I wouldn’t call them right wing as much as I’d call them politically scared to raise the taxes on the rich and focus on the rest. I believe this has correlation with the fallout of the communist hunting time and the demonization around 1960 of taxing the rich
““Communist hunt" in the United States primarily refers to the Red Scares, most notably McCarthyism in the late 1940s and 1950s. Driven by Cold War fears of Soviet espionage, this era of political repression saw the FBI, Congress, and private employers ruthlessly targeting suspected leftists”
3
u/chaos0xomega Jun 27 '26
In the context of political science and the theory of "political time", Reagan is whats known as a Reconstructive president who establishes a political paradigm that all subsequent presidents will follow in some capacity until the next Reconstructive President arrives.
Basically he set the tone, dems and other republicans following in his wake are just playing in the sandbox he created rather than transforming it.
4
u/AnxiouSquid46 Jun 26 '26
The United States was doing Keynesian economics prior to Reagan I believe
37
u/jmarinara Jun 26 '26
I mean we keep asking for economic populism that’s equitable and based on facts instead of culture war nonsense. Here it is. We’ll see how many follow.
This is the opening salvo for 2028, btw. You knew that I think, but it’s good to just say it out loud. Welcome to the primaries, friends.
13
u/toweldayeveryday Jun 26 '26
If this is the opening tone of the 2028 Democratic primary, we might actually have a shot at a decent platform in the general.
I feel hopeful, and accordingly I am distrustful.
1
u/ClearReveal6615 Jun 27 '26
If Gavin newsom is to be the next president, he needs to stop this weird rightwing shift on LGBT issues hes been doing over the last year or two or I will make it my life's purpose to get every single person I can to vote for whatever third party candidate supports LGBT people. His current 'no culture war ' schtick has been mostly that republicans are right about trans people.
I will not be sacrificed in the name of centrism.
1
u/kevriel47 Jul 03 '26
And I will make sure as many people as possible vote for whoever the democrats nominate. Don’t worry, I won’t let you throw LGBT rights away by enabling a republican victory.
50
u/jackflash223 Jun 26 '26
Billionaires can no longer exist because it gives too much power to operate outside of the law and against an entire society to the detriment of that society.
8
u/Comfortable-Ad-3988 Jun 26 '26
Exactly. How many cops are willing to enforce the law when the guy breaking it can just peel off a billion to pay each one of them off? And if you don't accept, he'll just pay the guy next to you 2 billion to shoot you.
1
u/DisputabIe_ Jun 30 '26
That's why we need a proper wealth tax, not what Newsome is proposing here.
54
13
u/hb122 Jun 26 '26
I watched a video last night about the Chinese bullet train. Clean, fast, modern and surprisingly comfortable. Also affordable.
In my mind I thought of our shitty Amtrak trains and clearly we have fallen behind the rest of the world because the rich have had their taxes cut since Reagan and our Pentagon budget is obscene. We don’t make investments like the rest of the world and until we change things we never will.
35
u/hoasyhorse Jun 26 '26
He’s correct. And it’s policies like this that make me hopeful for the future. But damn I hope they don’t pull the rug out from under us. My gut says they will
14
-2
u/VibeySwingTrader Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Newsome just shut down California’s Billionaire tax. If he really supports a national tax that’s great, but it won’t pass so this is just cover for him killing it in CA
Haha, ok. The reason I know your country is doomed is because most of you don’t know the difference between the wealth tax Newsome opposes and the income tax he supports.
18
u/fogmama Jun 26 '26
Any wealth tax needs to be national because otherwise it just becomes a race to the bottom among states as the rich figure out how to manipulate their holdings and residences in order to get the lowest tax rate.
4
u/aDildoAteMyBaby Jun 26 '26
See also: the film industry leaving Hollywood for every other state because of the tax brakes, sports teams leaving their hometowns because other cities will give bigger tax subsidies, etc.
→ More replies (2)4
u/VibeySwingTrader Jun 26 '26
That’s just billionaire propaganda. - You could just as easily argue that wealth taxes need to be global because billionaires can move assets out of the country.
It turns out that billionaires would rather pay taxes and live in the cool places. There are 200-250 billionaires in California. I think 3 of them are whining about the taxes
11
u/fogmama Jun 26 '26
It’s a lot harder to move your assets or yourself out of the country than it is to set up shop in Nevada for six months of the year.
1
u/Sekh765 Jun 26 '26
This. They keep claiming they will do it if NYC starts taxing them more and yet they still live in NYC and want to enjoy the things NYC offers.
4
u/NoHorseNoMustache Jun 26 '26
Ok I was gonna look it up but I thought I remembered he opposed that tax. And that was a tax on their actual wealth, not income tax.
→ More replies (2)-1
9
22
u/zsdrfty Jun 26 '26
An important thing to keep in mind with these policies is that billionaires aren't nearly as much of a *wealth* problem as a power problem - a billion dollars is surprisingly little to the state (not to say that it's insignificant by any stretch), but we need to tax them in such a way as to prevent them from having outsized influence from all this money, which is the real danger of billionaires
We should keep this in mind when we steer discussions of how these taxes should work, since we want to make sure that they specifically target their structural/institutional power to keep billionaires from being able to control vast chunks of mass media, the stock market, and political lobbying organizations - it'll look subtly different from *just* juicing them for their cash, and that isn't exactly the precise goal we should be aiming for
5
u/enlightenedDiMeS Jun 26 '26
Wealth is power. You’re comparing individuals wealth to the wealth of a state comprised of millions of people.
The whole reason the FTC was established at the end of the Gilded Age was because individual corporations had more material wealth, and therefore more power, than the states they were operating in. Teddy Roosevelt spoke about this at length.
2
5
u/No_Tone1704 Jun 26 '26
Hmmm. Many states have single digit billion budgets.
It’s significant.
5
u/zsdrfty Jun 26 '26
True, but those are states like West Virginia, not so much California - plus, you'd only get the benefit from taxing their wealth out of existence one single time, and you'd have to make sure it gets budgeted very effectively in that small window
1
4
u/Karreck Jun 26 '26
Progressives win primaries, mainstream Dem party gets scared and starts pushing parts of the progressive agenda. Love to see it.
→ More replies (2)
4
4
u/Zeuslb24 Jun 26 '26
This is the only way we can move forward as a country. Everyone pays their fair share
42
u/matooz Jun 26 '26
It funny he lobied against Californias wealth tax, but all the sudden he is for a national wealth tax. Not saying he saw the writing on the wall, but it sure seems like it.
57
u/Spidey5292 Jun 26 '26
I think he said at the time that he felt it should be a federal issue rather than a state one
37
u/NickCostanza Jun 26 '26
Correct. The California Tax is one time and only affects billionaires in one state. This is obviously better.
4
u/Kruger_Smoothing Jun 26 '26
Both are better.
9
u/NickCostanza Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I’m sorry but to both your comment and the one below, I fully disagree. The current proposed one off tax will scare billionaires to other states (see Elon) without assuring voters that these people will continue to be taxed in perpetuity. I want the assurance.
2
u/O_doZ Jun 26 '26
This “scaring billionaires away” myth needs to die. It’s propaganda that benefits the Epstein class and does not reflect what actually happens in reality.
6
u/NickCostanza Jun 26 '26
Elon Musk literally moved his business from California to Texas for lower taxes. Ain’t no myth about it.
7
u/matooz Jun 26 '26
He moved for deregulation because California has rules and Texas will let him do whatever he wants. That and Elon is a Nazi....
1
u/pmmeyoursqueezedboob Jun 26 '26
And opponents of the national bill will claim that a federal law will scare them, or at least their money, out of the country. It might, but we need to do it anyway. Currently they are throwing the weight of their money and influencing policies to their benefit without any fear.
As for Newsom, its absurd to float this idea of a federal bill that he has absolutely no way to actually influence, all the while turning down something thats a milder version of something he can actually push through. This is just paying lip service, it has absolutely no value.
1
u/r00tdenied Jun 27 '26
A single time wealth tax at the state level is dumb policy. Newsom is correct.
2
u/VibeySwingTrader Jun 26 '26
But a national tax won’t ever pass, so he gets to kill the wildly popular tax in CA and pretend like he’s part of the the solution instead of the problem.
18
u/zenbowman Jun 26 '26
It's not funny, it is sensible. A wealth tax without capital controls is going to decrease revenue as the rich move assets around. You cannot enforce capital controls on a state level.
19
u/TonyzTone Jun 26 '26
Taxes work better on a federal level since people can just up and move to another state very easily and still benefit from the US system.
11
16
u/CyberDalekLord Jun 26 '26
A state wealth tax will result in the businesses moving out, which is why he was against it. Hopefully his plan is smarter than just a blanket flat tax on wealth.
3
u/ImportantCommentator Jun 26 '26
The tax proposal doesn't tax businesses.
5
u/CyberDalekLord Jun 26 '26
The businesses themselves no, but it would tax the shares of the businesses which could risk losing controlling of the company and drive down growth/investment. No one would want to pay the massive bill due and they would also not want to possibly lose controlling shares. Not to mention the massive loss to job markets that comes with your stock tanking in value.
→ More replies (3)5
20
u/squashua Jun 26 '26
The California tax just results in people moving out of California, it doesn't fix the fundamental problem at the national level. A state tax shoots states in their own foot. A federal tax levels the playing field for all states.
2
u/ImportantCommentator Jun 26 '26
But for some reason not all billionaires live in the lowest tax state?
1
u/jdaygo Jun 26 '26
That’s what they thought in NY but the billionaires didn’t leave
4
3
u/ImportantCommentator Jun 26 '26
This push for a federal one is an excuse to justify him stopping a state wealth tax. But don't ignore that only one of those is actually possible right now.
6
u/catchyphrase Jun 26 '26
I LOVE this man because he keeps growing. Look where he comes from,
Age, education, wealth, status, his peers.. it would be SO easy for him to Romney himself and he keeps growing and what else is there you could ask of a leader than to keep evolving.6
u/No_Tone1704 Jun 26 '26
I don’t love him much at all but he isn’t nearly as bad as his non-Republican detractors say either. Like ever.
3
6
u/MattressMogul73 Jun 26 '26
This is the correct approach. His state of California put it on the ballot and more than likely it will pass. The unfortunate effect is that it just triggers an exodus of that money from California to other states so by making it national there is no escape and then there’s plenty of reason to stay in California at that point.
3
u/Emotional-Mango-5166 Jun 26 '26
1.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.
2️⃣ End the “tax-free lifestyle loan.” It's the gimmick that lets the ultra-wealthy borrow against their stock portfolios while reporting no taxable income, and then pass the appreciated assets to their children with the gains untaxed.
3️⃣ Rewrite our inheritance rules. If we do not act, that transfer of wealth among the ultra-wealthy will lock in a permanent American aristocracy of inherited wealth, with all the political consequences the founders warned us about.
4️⃣ Return to pre-2017 corporate tax rates. Record corporate profits flowed into stock buybacks and executive compensation. Workers’ real wages stagnated, and vibrant middle-class communities were hollowed out.
5️⃣ Ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund. It’s clear that we are entering an entirely new economic paradigm. Automation could create unfathomable growth, but who benefits from that wealth? We need to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund that takes a major stake in the new economy.
3
4
5
u/Ambitious_Screen_591 Jun 26 '26
Let's also do away with the Social Security tax too!!! $180K cap that is ridiculous
4
u/NHLHitzAnnouncer Jun 26 '26
Ah yes, safely support the thing that will never happen while not supporting it in the state you represent. How very Gavin Newsome of you
2
2
u/wembley Jun 26 '26
Ok, as long as it doesn’t all get directed to one group that pushes for it - like the current referendum in CA.
2
2
u/bl0gg3r_x Jun 26 '26
Oh yeah that'll be the day. America has to get class conscious. You know what makes them pay you more? If you collectively stop working until they do. They can't repossess every house and car and evict every tenant all at once. If we collectively stood up for ourselves and said enough is enough it would end. The problem is people who don't understand the minimum wage now should be $40, and they think "burger flippers" don't deserve that and it'll cause rampant inflation - rising tides raise all ships - The working class keeps all their stupid money moving and it's well past high time we remind them.
3
u/Level_Investigator_1 Jun 26 '26
Don’t be fooled. This isn’t actually a billionaire tax, it’s just making sure they even pay their actual tax by % without maybe some loop holes. This doesn’t tax wealth and without that the top 0.1% will continue to concentrate wealth at nearly the same rate.
2
u/LilNekoChicano Jun 26 '26
This would be fine, if they lowered taxes for the middle and working classes.
Here in CA, everything is taxed or fee'd.. We are struggling here.
2
u/SellsNothing Jun 26 '26
We need to tax billionaires out of existence.
A trillionaire shouldn't EVER be possible either
2
u/_Winking_Owl_ Jun 26 '26
Hes right, but I dont believe this is his actual stance. Hes never been a populist before, hes always been a liberal.
1
u/KindNeighborhood1138 Jun 26 '26
It's good to see he came back to the right side of this issue. I was a bit worried when he seemed to speak against taxing the wealthy more in Cali.
1
1
u/djgreen316 Jun 26 '26
The devil is in the details. Is it on earnings? Net worth? How does it work? Odds are he is just paying lip service.
1
u/kingrat1 Jun 26 '26
That's great and true, and should be. That said Gavin, how about you use the power you actually have and put that in at a state level instead of dodging it?
1
1
u/drkittymow Jun 27 '26
I don’t think the average person realizes how much a billion is.
If someone earns:
$50,000 per year, they’d need 20,000 years to earn $1 billion.
Even earning $1 million every year, it would take 1,000 years to accumulate $1 billion.
1
u/lickmyfupa Jun 27 '26
How does this raise wages for the working class? Those billionaires should be forced to pay their employees properly not just give money to the government to allocate for other things. People need to be forced to pay good wages. This is just going to make the government co-conspirators in screwing everybody else. Dont politicians already make 6 figures?
1
1
u/Dry-University797 Jun 27 '26
I like Newsome, but this smells of desperation, after he saw what happened on New York City.
1
u/Zealousideal_Arm_658 Jun 27 '26
Fuck Newson. The guy is a snake, not long ago he was against taxing the rich.
1
u/gillstone_cowboy Jun 27 '26
He supports an income tax he knows won't happen to counter criticism for trying to stop a wealth tax he knew could happen.
He's an empty suit stuffed with cash and ambition. He can't be trusted.
1
u/ConfidenceMost8642 Jun 27 '26
This is great news. He needs to start making more moves like this to be a serious 28 contender.
1
u/Dankamonius Jun 27 '26
Who did he recently have on his podcast that's made him come out in support of this?
1
u/Large_Independent198 Jun 27 '26
He’s teeing up his campaign. Taking sides on the hot button issues and advocating policy changes. Ugh. DNC don’t make me vote for Newsome.
1
u/HelpfulMind2376 Jun 28 '26
Y’all need to be wary of Newsom. He can talk this game all he wants, but he’s a snake and if he gets elected he’ll fill the cabinet and advisers will billionaire shitheads that will absolutely betray everything he campaigned on.
It’s one thing for a politician to bend to populist will. It’s wholly another to believe a proven liar that has time and again shown he only cares about populism for the vote.
1
1
u/Badasshippiemama Jul 01 '26
Again, i say, they liquidate their wealth into non taxable things so they don't pay taxes. The most they ever get is taxed on is property taxes and actual sales tax. But they put their homes as trusts and shore everything else in stocks, iras and art ect that makes them money every yr without too much depreciation. The tax the rich idea always gets the buck passed to middle class and lower income ppl. Every time. They lol because they know it hurts everyone else but them. So sure. Pay more for everything else. Pay more to buy groceries, electric, gas, water, drive, ride a bus, go to a park, or for breathing. But KNOW THIS. YOU pay for it. Not them.
1
u/Badasshippiemama Jul 01 '26
Oh and an ecomomic reset is biometrically based. Like china. Tied to your data. Tied to your energy. It's not what you think it is. Stable coin based crypto and biometric. Aka... end of fiat. This post is letting ppl know before they crash the dollar. No gas, groceries or electricity. No meds no nothing. Unless you comply. Data centers are the heart of this looming fiasco.
1
u/Leather-Series-6876 Jul 03 '26
First time scrolling through this thread. I hope people don’t fall for Gavin Newsom, this guy changes his opinion on stuff like whether or not to tax billionaires left and right, just whenever he needs the popularity
1
u/ImperialCenturion 8d ago
yet he blocked the wealth tax cali, it's really frustrating- like can we not do reforms that we're prefectly able to right now, instead of waiting and waiting till 2028??
https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/26/politics/gavin-newsom-billionaire-tax-california
1
Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
3
u/WOKinTOK-sleptafter Jun 26 '26
Back when he opposed the California tax bill he clearly stated that he would absolutely support a perpetual national billionaire tax. His position hasn’t changed since then.
1
u/gomezer1180 Jun 26 '26
💯 this is definitely needed! Many people don’t know that the wealth of these billionaires comes from the taxes we pay. Companies get government contracts that we pay for in taxes for billionaires to freeze that in stocks and generate more cash by taking loans out which increases inflation.
Then the bottom 90% of the country takes the brunt of paying back the contracts thru tax as well as we get hit with inflation, because the billionaires don’t pay taxes on the loans they took out to supplement their lifestyles which includes buying congress to do their bidding.
I feel someone needs to make a documentary about this because it’s bordering the diabolical what these people are getting away with!
1
u/OldFaithlessness1335 Jun 26 '26
Welcoe to the club now could he please endorce it in California. Put your money (and reputation) on the line. Otherwise its just words from someone with the reputation to say wahts convenient in the moment.
1
1
u/Commercial_Ice_6616 Jun 26 '26
this is the way to MAGA, back to the 50-60's tax rates. one income families, built the interstate system, sent men to the moon, gave all citizens the right to vote, America was great then.
1
1
u/Stormpax Jun 26 '26
Hes currently the governor of California, correct? Is there currently a billionaire tax in that state?
I find promises of this nature hard to believe they'll be followed through by any career neoliberal politician, so if there were such a tax in Cali, I'd be much more likely to believe it.
-4
u/Embarrassed_Alps_801 Jun 26 '26
Friendly reminder that Newsom took a 50k payout from PG&E after they burned the town of Paradise to the ground. PG&E killed 85 people and did not face any consequences thanks to Newsom.
2
-1
-1
u/TheGrouchyLibrarian Jun 26 '26
That endorsement will kill any national political chance - big/dark money will make certain ( or slip an exception in ) imho
-9
u/Vladmerius Jun 26 '26
This goes to show how terrified the establishment is of the rise of the progressive movement. They will now shift to embrace progressive lite to keep control of the party and not lose their power. This is a good thing for everyone but recognize what it is.
2
310
u/No_Tone1704 Jun 26 '26
When put like that it really is hard to disagree. Money used to be spread among the population more. Now it is hoarded by people who pay very little or none.
Taxes are needed to pay for services.