Democrats are proposing wealth taxes in California and other states, hoping to appeal to voters with the gift of other people’s money. But 3,210 years after the people of Troy famously learned not to accept gifts from Greeks, voters might want to look closely at these particular Trojan horses.
Take California’s Billionaire Tax. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has reportedly spent $24 million to get the measure on the ballot, hoping that the tax will allow the state to support bloated contracts and pension deals.
Far-left economists and politicians pretend that wealth taxes can avoid repeating the failures of past socialist parties.
But the California proposal has reportedly cost the state trillions, even before appearing on the ballot, as billionaires have fled the state for friendlier red states, such as Texas and Florida.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” I discuss the growing threat of “economic factionalism” as politicians fuel rage against the wealthy based on the false premise that they are not “paying their fair share.”
I previously warned that such taxes rarely end with billionaires.
That is the case with the federal wealth tax being pushed by figures such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachuestts, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California.
Presumptively unconstitutional, they are starting with billionaires, but once allowed, they will be free to tax the art, real estate, and other property of Americans with smaller estates.
Politicians start with the least sympathetic group, but rarely stop there.
In California, there is no constitutional barrier to a wealth tax, but advocates are still selling the tax as only targeting billionaires — even imposing a retroactive tax to seek money from those currently fleeing the state.
However, the measure includes is a Trojan horse provision that would seemingly allow Democratic politicians to lower threshold from billionaires to the less wealthy — and add new assets to be taxed by a simple majority vote.
In California’s recent gubernatorial debates, candidates such as Katie Porter and Tom Steyer declared that the billionaire tax does not “go far enough.”
The billionaire tax represents the crossing of the Rubicon for our Republic. It is an effort to condition Americans to accept the idea of redistributing wealth.
It is the same effort that we are seeing in New York City, with calls from socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani for wealth taxes, including a new tax targeting luxury homes.
In Seattle, socialist Mayor Katie Wilson is facing a major budget deficit as wealthy citizens and companies flee the rising taxes and hostility in her city. Nevertheless, Wilson laughed when asked about the millionaires fleeing the city over rising taxes and crime. She delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!”
Jesse Proudman, a leading AI entrepreneur in Washington state, stated recently: “The reality is everybody that I know that has means to leave has either left or is in the process of leaving,”
Despite the line of UHauls leading out of state, Washington State’s senate majority leader, Jamie Pedersen of Seattle, predicted to Fox News that “the millionaire tax is not likely to result in businesses leaving.”
Like many Democrats seeking to redistribute wealth, Pedersen is treating millionaires as willing to stay to be fleeced, like a type of canned hunt. Many may indeed stay and pay the highest taxes in the nation while being portrayed as social parasites. However, wealthy citizens tend to be a bit more proactive in managing their estates.
The tax is also a disincentive for investors to come to Washington state, as others flee.
And Democrats’ radical proposals don’t stop at taxes.
At both the state and federal levels, Democrats are seeking to pack the courts to enable radical changes, including, but not limited to, wealth taxes.
Washington state Democrats have been complaining about a century-old precedent that treats income as “property” that, under the state constitution, cannot be taxed at a rate over 1%.
Pederson admitted: “I’d like to force the Washington State Supreme Court to reconsider its case law that considers income to be property.”
In the interim, Democrats are simply declaring the new tax an “excise tax.”
Of course, the Democrats have one thing over the Greeks: They are being open about what lies inside their Trojan horse. Once citizens begin to divvy up the wealth of their neighbors, they can develop an insatiable appetite for the possessions of others.
All that is required is a fiscal emergency declared by the very figures who produced it.
As Herbert Hoover once noted, “every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of ’emergency.'” The question is whether the voters will allow these politicians to take them on the same ride.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
