In November's election, California voters will be given the opportunity to vote on one of the most staggeringly, eye-poppingly stupid ideas to ever disgrace a ballot: A one-time "billionaire" wealth tax. Now this is a stupid idea in and of itself. Not only will it drive even more wealthy, productive people out of the once-Golden State, but sure as the sun comes up in the East, if California's Left manages to eke out a win on this, it won't be the last time they go to the well. No, they'll do it again, and again, and again, until everyone with a higher net worth than a bum sleeping in a tent in Skid Row will finally leave the state.
This is stupid on stilts, and that's for sure and for certain.
The San Francisco Standard reported that according to Jane Natoli, who sits on the party's resolutions committee, an initial vote barely failed to clear the 60% bar required for ratification, earning 59.2% support. But another vote cleared the threshold, scoring about 61.7% support, the outlet noted.
As the close votes demonstrated, Democrats are divided on the issue.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., supports the proposal.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited from running for re-election, has said he will vote against it.
Ro Khanna, mind you, has all of the economic acumen of a pocket gopher. Maybe less; a pocket gopher has enough foresight to cache food for the winter, a very elementary sort of resource planning that is lost on most Democrats. But Governor Newsom is opposing this measure. Why? Well, his why is even worse.
"But I’m voting no because this measure dedicates almost all of the revenue it raises to a single category of state spending," he (Newsom) wrote in a June Substack post. "So here is what I support: 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."
How in the name of all that's sane does the governor of one of our major states retain this level of ignorance of the Constitution? Forget the practical aspects of this, forget the mind-numbing economic stupidity, forget the fact that most of the wealth they propose to tax isn't liquid and the necessary conversion would destroy the nation's economy. All of that's valid, but there's a bigger problem, and it's rather hard to believe that a state governor, who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, doesn't seem to be aware of it. That problem is simply this: The Constitution forbids what he's proposing to do.
Here's Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4:
No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
That means that every tax must be apportioned to each state in proportion to its population. Every tax.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, states:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.
To get around this and implement the income tax, another dumb idea but we'll leave that for another time, the 16th Amendment was passed and ratified:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Without regard to any census or enumeration. That's a tax on income. Not wealth. These are different things. And if he is implying that this tax would only apply to income, it won't do much; most people at that level are compensated by and large in equity, not in paychecks.
Governor Gavin Newsom may not know this. If so, he's manifestly unfit to hold the office he does. He may just not care, in which case he's even more unfit. But in either case, Gavin Newsom's pandering on this issue is shameful, all the more so coming from a guy who is in a position where he really ought to know better. But then, that's par for the course for Democrats today.
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