Are we going to be New Deal Democrats or corporate Democrats? Are we standing with the working class or the tech oligarchs? Proposition 40, California’s billionaire tax, is the most important ballot initiative in America and a fight for the soul of our party.
Senator Bernie Sanders and I stand with the nurses and healthcare workers who put Prop 40 on the ballot. Governor Gavin Newsom stands with Peter Thiel, Sergey Brin and Elon Musk, Trump backers who all oppose it. Prop 40 is a one-time 5% tax on the roughly 250 billionaires who live in the state.
Together they hold wealth equal to half of California’s economy. That wealth is up 20% this year alone. If they paid this tax, they would be worth the same as they were on Labor Day of this year.
That’s the speed at which their wealth is growing. The tax would raise about $100bn, 90% of it for healthcare. It would help keep 3 million Californians from losing coverage.
Trump’s cuts could cost Medi-Cal more than $30bn a year, and this tax would help fill that gigantic hole. Thiel, Brin and Musk have all funded Trump and his party. Thiel gave $1.25m to elect Trump in 2016.
Brin gave nearly $500,000 to the Republican National Committee last year. Musk spent roughly $290m to help return Trump to power. On 8 October, Trump awarded Brin and Musk the National Medal of Science.
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