California -- where documentation is optional but cultural indoctrination is required -- has long been a breeding ground for radical liberal policy: schools that conspire against parents, public health care for illegal immigrants, and a green energy agenda that's skyrocketed the cost of living on hardworking families.
The state's latest dalliance with wokeism appears to be a bridge too far, even for the most diehard liberals.
Late last year, a California labor union filed a ballot initiative to impose a "Billionaire Tax" -- a one-time, 5% tax on individuals whose net worth is greater than $1 billion.
It would apply not only to their income but all their assets, on top of the taxes they already pay.
Few will be surprised to learn that the revenue would go to fund the state's out-of-control social giveaways.
The plan is evidently too much even for Gov. Gavin Newsom, the left's standard-bearer and heir apparent.
Newsom admitted recently he is "burdened by the facts" -- facts that clearly indicate many job-creating billionaires would choose to protect their hard-earned gold rather than live in the Golden State.
The billionaire exodus would result in reducing much-needed revenue and investment.
California already has the highest and most progressive tax rate in the country. What does it have to show for it?
The state's own analysis forecasts an $18 billion budget deficit this year, which is estimated to grow to as much as $35 billion annually. As the Legislative Analyst's Office puts it, "the state's negative fiscal situation is now chronic."
The Golden State doesn't have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. It turns out, all those feel-good government handouts have a price tag, and shifting costs onto honest, hard-working families isn't enough.
So, the state's answer appears to be to kill the golden goose -- as if a one-time revenue bump is enough to fix a broken welfare system.
No wonder California's last standing entrepreneurs, business leaders and corporations are fleeing in a mass exodus.
Major employers -- including Tesla, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Chevron and Toyota, to name just a few -- have pulled up stakes in recent years for greener pastures of states that won't tax them into the ground.
Now even the most dyed-in-the-wool liberals are making for the door.
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have reportedly already relocated their assets ahead of the incoming redistribution bomb, and another 20 or more individuals are considering the same. Who could blame them?
This incarnation of eat-the-rich socialism may appeal to some disenfranchised voters -- no doubt many steeped in such radical dogma by California's liberal schools -- but it would be better characterized as the ignorant eating themselves.
Wealthy Americans pay their "fair share" of taxes and then some.
An analysis by the Biden administration -- which loathed the top earners -- found the wealthiest 92 Americans pay a nearly 60% tax rate. The top 10% of income earners pay more than 60% of all federal taxes and 72% of income taxes.
Newsom is right on one thing -- his state's proposed Billionaire Tax would dry up revenue as the wealthy move out (and take their businesses with them), even faster than at the rate at which they already are.
The result would invariably be lost revenue over the long term, exacerbating the state's budget crisis further.
Being wealthy isn't a crime. It's part of the American dream.
But that's the trap of socialism: It says that the fruits of one's labor ought to be divvied up as decided by distant bureaucrats who somehow know what's best, better than those working for it. It has never worked, nor will it.
At the end of the day, socialism always has one goal -- to consolidate control among the elite, while telling ordinary people that they are better off for it.
It eliminates incentive and feeds big government. It contradicts the American spirit of risk and reward, on which our country was founded.
That the left's most fervent cheerleaders can't support California's Billionaire Tax reveals what a disaster it is.
But make no mistake, they will bend themselves into pretzels to find subtle ways to continue to foist their agenda on the public.
We can only hope voters have enough common sense to reject this initiative, which would hurt them -- not the wealthy it ostensibly targets.
Ken Buck received his law degree from the University of Wyoming and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2024 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district. He now serves as a Fellow with the Independent Center.
