Ro Khanna doubled down on his support for a 5% seizure of billionaires’ assets in California. Eventually, they could end up with nothing. The government has no right to the assets. It is literally theft.
Khanna sold himself as a capitalist, and he certainly lives as one, and now he sounds like a quasi-communist.
He’s not well. Ro is also a congenital liar.
The California Democratic Party and the California labor movement just stood with @BernieSanders and me in supporting 5% wealth tax on 250 California billionaires.
California voters want a Democratic Party that will stand up for the working class over the billionaire class. pic.twitter.com/QrLZUh3bS6
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) August 15, 2026
Khanna wrote the following delusional statement in all seriousness.
“Allow illiquid [wealth on paper, not cash] founders [whose wealth is tied up in their companies] to pledge shares [of their company’s stock] with a loan from the government to pay tax. The loan period is long but not infinite (e.g. 10 years). The loan is non-resource: at the end of the period, the loan is either paid back in cash, or the government assumes the shares.”
That gives founders ten years to make it big. Many will lose it all to the government thanks to those loans.
This is madness and criminal.
Bill Ackman wrote in response. Under @RoKhanna’s plan, if the company fails, the founder has debt forgiveness income (DFI), which is taxable at ordinary rates. Where will the founder find the cash to pay the taxes on DFI after his company fails? So the penalty for a failed startup is insolvency, and the government garnishes your wages for life.
Valar Atomics’ Isaiah Taylor responded. “My family has bled sweat and cried” to build a company, “the idea that [Ro] can just steal this from me is awful and evil,” to which nonprofit journalists screeched, it’s just a one-time tax!! (it’s not) (it’s also not a tax).
Palmer Luckey wrote the following. Great, so founders would have 10 years to speedrun their way to a giant pile of cash and be forced to surrender their company to the government if they can’t do it fast enough. This is the worst idea you have proposed. By far. The behavioral incentives are so obviously horrible.
Taxing unrealized assets is taxing the non-existent. What will they think of next? It is wealth redistribution, but it’s more than that. It’s the theft of private property, not taxation. This is communism.
It would destroy American energy, which is likely something he wants to do to please his voters. The government in charge of it all? What could go wrong?