Rep. Ro Khanna represents Silicon Valley in congress. He describes himself as a "progressive capitalist" and just over a month ago he criticized Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani for going too far by suggesting people should seize the means of production.
Khanna, a self-described “progressive capitalist,” said in an exclusive interview Monday that Mamdani went too far by expressing support for “seizing the means of production” as recently as 2021 and claimed he “strongly disagreed” with the notion.
“I believe, obviously, in innovation and free enterprise,” Khanna said...
“I call myself a progressive capitalist. I believe in moral capitalism. But I believe that it has not been working for too many Americans right now.”
But six weeks later it appears that Rep. Khanna has changed his tune. As I've written about several times, California is considering a new weatlh tax which would target about 180 billionaires in the state, hitting them with a 5% tax on everything they own. That tax has prompted some billionaires in the state to seriously consider leaving.
Billionaires including Peter Thiel, the tech venture capitalist, and Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, are considering cutting or reducing their ties to California by the end of the year because of a proposed ballot measure that could tax the state’s wealthiest residents, according to five people familiar with their thinking.
Mr. Thiel, 58, who owns a home in the Hollywood Hills and operates a personal investment firm from Los Angeles, has explored opening an office for that firm, Thiel Capital, in another state and spending more time outside California, three of the people said.
Other billionaires who appear to be making moves to decrease their presence in California include Mr. Page, 52, a longtime resident of Palo Alto. He has discussed leaving the state by the end of the year, according to two people briefed on the talks. In mid-December, three limited liability companies associated with Mr. Page filed documents to incorporate in Florida, according to state records.
The moves are being driven by a potential California ballot measure from the health care union, Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the people said. The proposal calls for California residents worth more than $1 billion to be taxed the equivalent of 5 percent of their assets.
Gov. Newsom has already come out against this new tax and given that he represents many of these billionaires and that he's supposedly a capitalist, you might expect Rep. Ro Khanna would also be against it. But last Friday, Khanna announced that wasn't the case. In reaction to someone linking the story above about billionaires fleeing the state, Khanna announced (sarcastically) that he would miss them.
Peter Thiel is leaving California if we pass a 1% tax on billionaires for 5 years to pay for healthcare for the working class facing steep Medicaid cuts.
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) December 27, 2025
I echo what FDR said with sarcasm of economic royalists when they threatened to leave, "I will miss them very much." https://t.co/5N8FxBqJww
That led to a great exchange with investor David Friedberg who challenged Khanna about the limits of his new tax plan.
It's 1 percent a year for 5 years so Californians can have health insurance!
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) December 27, 2025
As I've pointed out before, about half (or a bit more) of the $18 billion deficit the state is facing is the result of Newsom's decision to extend health care to illegal immigrants. So when Khanna says it's "1 percent a year for 5 years so Californians can have health insurance" he's using the term Californian's very broadly. They are Californians in the sense that they live here but they are not Americans in the sense that they are here legally. Friedberg continued to press.
love it. but let’s do more! let’s take 10% from millionaires and do better health insurance! and a train from LA to fresno! and groceries!
— david friedberg (@friedberg) December 27, 2025
taking peoples assets after they’ve already paid 53% income tax on them is totally reasonable. or their pre-tax unrealized gains which…
taking peoples assets after they’ve already paid 53% income tax on them is totally reasonable. or their pre-tax unrealized gains which forces then to sell illiquid assets or whatever... i’m just glad we’re gonna make this hard for them. they deserve it.
actually, why stop there?? if we get this to work, we can get 51% of people to vote to take ALL the assets of the 49%! make it a 100% wealth tax on anyone over the average. this could be great. then we can do giant government things because government has proven so good at doing things! in fact, we can send the money to somalia! “make somalia great again” could be your 28 presidential run campaign slogan??
america’s founding fathers definitely intended the union to form around these principles! magnificent
So putting aside the rhetorical flourish, you genuinely believe that a 1 percent tax on billionaires wealth for 5 years will kill the SV economy? Honest question. Or your concern is if that is expands to beyond that?
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) December 28, 2025
Even @chamath has eloquently recognized that those with…
Even @chamath has eloquently recognized that those with extreme wealth must do more for society given the backlash and angst people feel.
And that led up to this barnburner of a response from Fridberg. It's long but also completely worth reading in full.
why not just raise income tax rates?
— david friedberg (@friedberg) December 28, 2025
because your real intent is not to just “provide healthcare”.
you’re masking that you are proposing the creation of, for the first time in the 250 years of this American republic, an organized government seizure of private property from…
why not just raise income tax rates?
because your real intent is not to just “provide healthcare”.
you’re masking that you are proposing the creation of, for the first time in the 250 years of this American republic, an organized government seizure of private property from citizens.
you’re calling it a “wealth tax” or a “billionaires tax” or “millionaires tax” or whatever nom du jour polls well. but at the end of the day, it’s the seizure of private property from citizens by the government. citizens that earned money, paid their fair taxes on those earnings (53% if they live in California) and are now being told they need to hand over after-tax assets because the government has failed to provide promised services with the revenue it’s collected, and are now re-casting their own failure to be a socio-economic inequity that must be justly resolved... a slippery slope that has never gone anywhere good (see economic effects in USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, France and Norway wealth tax etc.)
the American founders fled tyranny in Europe and this amazing nation was populated by immigrants (myself and your parents) from around the world not just looking for a “better life” but for a place where they could have freedom from tyrannical governments that can take what they want from private citizens. a great nation borne of property rights, the rule of law, and endowed freedoms to believe, speak, or act. these principles led to the greatest run of innovations, successes, and widespread increase in prosperity, for all citizens, ever seen.
the citizens, the individuals, not the institutions, delivered this progress. those who invented, who toiled, who bled, who sacrificed, who took risk and persevered, who led, and who changed the world, are not charlatans, kleptocrats, or oligarchs. they’re what made us all better off. prosperity is a measure of america’s success, not its failure.
it is your principle that is so offensive, as evidenced by the broad disdain for your flippant flirtation with the darkest of human fantasy - socialism. you and other neo-socialists have led so many of us to reflect on America’s history and what it is becoming. that now leads so many to consider, so unnecessarily, leaving their homes for a place where everyone stands up to shout down the principle you suggest. because if your ideas are now considered moderate, it’s clear this titanic is sinking.
that a “simple tax” of taking assets that have been earned, through toil and tribulation, rightly taxed, and preserved, should now be unjustly seized, is your solution to a problem of obvious government mismanagement and outright fraud, tells us that your true motivation lies not in giving people healthcare but in cutting down success and deleting the system of prosperity and opportunity for all.
i don’t care, and neither should anyone else, what the sum total market value of a private citizens private assets might be. it is none of my business and should be none of yours. because, again, once you open that pandora’s box, we might as well study Lord of the Flies … there is literally nothing stopping 51% of citizens demanding that their government go out and seize 100% of the private property of the 49%.
want to give healthcare to people in need? do your job and fix healthcare. make it affordable. want to be lazy about it? then do your job lazily and raise income taxes.
want to take private property from private citizens who have paid their fair share of taxes and legally earned their property, then honestly declare that it is envy, not inequity, that you strive to resolve…
Someone else pointed out that just a year ago, Rep. Khanna specifically said he was against a wealth tax.
Rep. Khanna responded to that clip saying he was still against a wealth tax in some cases, just not in the case of "established billionaires."
I do oppose capital gains on unrealized income and workarounds for founders with illiquid assets and unprofitable companies. A 1 percent wealth tax on established billionaires is reasonable.
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) December 28, 2025
t's not a 1% tax it's a 5% tax, all of which is supposed to be handed to the state over 4 years. But the biggest gimmick of all is the (foolishly) assumptions that once Democrats do this one time they'll never do it again. And, to be fair, Khanna isn't even suggesting he believes that either. He's not arguing for a one-time tax, he's arguing for an ongoing tax on wealth, one that doesn't end until there are no more billionaires to tax.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Hot Air's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Hot Air VIP and use the promo code MERRY74 to receive 74% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member