You can run, but you can't hide

David Strom on the Democrats next great move:

The billionaire tax is not on income but on assets, especially on unrealized capital gains. That is to say, notional money that could evaporate if a big bet on a company goes bad. He knows it is a horrific idea, just as the $25/hour national minimum wage is, but he also knows that the mood of the Democratic Party is radical socialism and practically revolutionary, so "Eat the Rich" is a good pitch to the base. 

And Jonathan Turley, on the same topic:

Eat the Rich: Sanders and Khanna Introduce Federal Billionaires Tax

“Enough is enough.” With those words, Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt) launched a push to impose a 5% annual wealth tax on America’s billionaires. With Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Cal.), the legislation, “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,” echoes the growing “eat-the-rich” mantra on the left — seeking to replicate a disastrous push in California that has led to an exodus from that state and an estimated loss of $2 trillion in taxable assets.

It is also flagrantly unconstitutional.

Under the plan, Congress would target 938 billionaires to tap them for $4.4 trillion. That money would then be redistributed as a $3,000 direct payment to every man, woman, and child in a household making $150,000 or less – $12,000 for a family of four.

The timing of the move is telling. Not only is it calculated before the midterm elections, in which the Democrats hope to retake power, but it follows the push by California Democrats and unions to impose a similar wealth tax in that state.

Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, has supported the state law, which includes a ruinous provision for startup entrepreneurs. The law would not only be retroactive to try to trap wealthy taxpayers who have fled the state, but also base wealth calculations on the voting shares of corporate executives. Often, with start-ups, entrepreneurs hold greater voting shares than actual ownership. However, just in case they need more incentive to leave the state, they will be taxed as if their voting shares represented actual wealth.

The practical problem is that the wealthy, like their wealth, are mobile. As a result, many are fleeing California. So now Khanna is joining with the nation’s leading Democratic Socialists to ensure there is nowhere to hide in the United States.  For billionaires in California, they could be double-tapped for ten percent of their wealth.

It has long been the dream of the far left. Years ago, Sen. Elizabeth Warren delighted Democratic voters in her run for the presidency by telling the rich she was coming after “your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts.” In one debate, she dramatically rubbed her hands together after saying she would take some of the wealth of fellow candidate John Delaney, a self-made millionaire.

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There is little reason to believe that a wealth tax targeting billionaires will not, if upheld, be later extended to lower tax brackets, starting with multimillionaires. That is the signature of economic factionalism, which feeds an insatiable appetite for greater wealth seizure.

The Sanders-Khanna plan is notable in its express commitment to direct wealth redistribution. It also explains why the left has made the packing of the Supreme Court a priority. As Harvard professor Michael Klarman explained years ago, the radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election” requires control of the Supreme Court to uphold such measures.

The problem is that the Constitution bars the implementation of such a federal wealth tax. When the 16th Amendment was ratified, it allowed for federal income taxes, and only income taxes: “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.”

The effort to expand federal taxation beyond income taxes will require either a constitutional amendment or an enabling, packed Court.

Nevertheless, these politicians will continue to dangle wealth distribution before voters. They will demonize figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk for their wealth while ignoring that these same figures are wealth and job creators, driving our economic growth. Instead, Sanders declared that “Billionaires cannot have it all.”

The irony of Rep. Khanna (who has been floating a run for President in 2028) turning on his own constituents in Silicon Valley underscores the appeal of wealth-redistribution campaigns. He is turning the very heart of his state’s economic growth as state deficits and out-of-state migration increase.

Related, and exactly the “mystery” I wonder at: how stupid are these people, who think that they’re not on the dinner menu?

Stephen Kruiser:

Hollywood Elites: Free Market Capitalism for Me, Socialism for Thee

Give me all of mine, but you can't have any of yours. 

Wealthy Americans who can afford to be socialism fetishists are a huge contributing factor to the rise of the progressive left and the decline of America it wants to bring about. It wasn't the poor and downtrodden who propelled Zohran "Commie" Mamdani into office in New York City. Generational-wealth Upper Eastsiders who have no appreciation for the real value of money voted for him, too. 

Some of the most full-throated Hollywood supporters of the Democrats are actors who became stars at a young age. They will all regale interviewers with stories about their "struggle years" and the regular jobs that they had to work. What they call struggle, most Americans call a typical workday. The reality is that most of them became millionaires in their twenties. Some had to wait until — Quelle horreur! — their early thirties before becoming what most of the population would consider rich. 

Socialist/Communist societies all have wealthy elites, of course. Maybe the Hollywood types are planning on being among them. However, if they'd read any history books not written by Howard Zinn, they'd know that it is the artists, writers, and entertainers who are the first to get the harsh gulag treatment. 

That's why there is still no thriving stand-up comedy scene in China.