Something shifted in the Democratic Party this week — and Gavin Newsom noticed.
Days after socialist candidates swept key Democratic primaries, California’s governor called for a national tax on billionaires, higher corporate taxes and a crackdown on inherited wealth, positioning himself at the front of his party’s increasingly aggressive push to tax the rich.
The timing raised eyebrows. Mr. Newsom had just weeks earlier blocked a union-backed ballot measure that would have imposed a 5% levy on Californians with assets exceeding $1 billion, arguing it would drive the state’s wealthiest residents to Florida, Texas and other low-tax states.
His solution: go national — and eliminate the escape route entirely.
“It’s time for a national billionaires tax and a new social contract,” Mr. Newsom wrote on social media. “10% of Americans own two-thirds of the wealth. Wages have stagnated. The cost of living has skyrocketed.”
His plan would restore the corporate tax rate to 35%, reversed from the 21% rate set by President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and end what Mr. Newsom called the “tax-free lifestyle loan” — a practice allowing the ultra-wealthy to borrow against stock portfolios without reporting taxable income.
Mr. Newsom, who polls second among likely 2028 Democratic presidential contenders behind former Vice President Kamala Harris, called the moment an opportunity for “an economic reset for America.”
Read more:
• Left-pressured Newsom calls for ’national billionaires tax’
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