California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is proposing a federal billionaire tax and a “public equity” fund involving AI.
In a Substack post laying out his economic agenda, Newsom called for a national minimum tax on billionaires and a federal fund “to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI.”
“Here is what I support: A national billionaires’ tax,” Newsom wrote. “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.”
In his post, titled, “It’s time for a national billionaires’ tax and a new social compact,” the California governor also admitted, “It became certain that a wealth tax would be placed on the November ballot in California. I’m voting no.”
Newsom explained that he opposes this partly because he believes taxing the wealthy should not be done at a state level, but rather, by the federal government.
“The fight to make the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes is not one we should be fighting state by state,” the governor wrote. “The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place.”
“Today, the office worker can shoulder a higher tax rate than the heiress,” Newsom said. “The construction worker could pay a higher rate than the developer. And the delivery driver can end up paying a higher rate than the founder of the company whose packages he delivers.”
Newsom went on to blame a system that transpired from “decades of loopholes written by lobbyists and upheld by politicians who knew exactly who they worked for.”
“But this system can be undone,” he insisted, adding, “We should end the ‘tax-free lifestyle loan,’” claiming, “This loophole exists only for the extremely wealthy.”
“We also need to rewrite our inheritance rules,” he continued. “Over the next twenty years, this country will live through the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in human history, with roughly $124 trillion changing hands.”
Newsom further claimed “the federal tax code, a corporate code, and an inheritance code” are all standing in the way of the country’s “working coalition” of “blue-collar and white-collar, urban and rural” Americans.
On the topic of artificial intelligence, Newsom called for an AI “public equity” fund, writing, “It’s clear that we are entering an entirely new economic paradigm. ”
“Automation could create unfathomable growth, but who benefits from that wealth?” he added. “We need to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund that takes a major stake in the new economy.”
Newsome further described his agenda as “a once-in-a-century chance to renew the American Dream by funding universal child care, making higher education and career training free, funding healthcare, and making a down payment on a real industrial policy for the AI century.”
The governor also said he would like to see a return to corporate tax rates that were in place before the 2017 Trump tax cuts, and a closing off “offshore loopholes that allow multinationals to shift profits on paper.” Newsome called “trickle-down economics” a “nearly 50-year experiment that has failed,” claiming it funneled profits “into stock buybacks and executive compensation” while “workers’ real wages stagnated.”
Earlier this year, Breitbart News’ Social Media Director and author of Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, predicted that Democrats would push their agendas with this type of fearmongering rhetoric.
“Over the next nine months leading up to the 2026 midterm elections, Americans should expect a torrent of messaging designed to heighten anxiety over real and perceived AI job losses,” Hall warned.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.