Valuetainment - ＂Destroying Billionaires' Influence＂ - California Wealth Tax IGNITES Billionaire Backlash

00:00:00.000 having to do what California is doing. Californians, a week ago or so, just recently,

00:00:07.560 took a bill to the Attorney General that they want it to be on the 2026 November ballot

00:00:14.280 for people to vote for, to give 5% tax on anyone that's worth a billion dollars or more

00:00:22.600 in the state of California, effective January 1st, 2026. So if you live in California,

00:00:28.360 as of 1-1-2026, and you're one of the 199 billionaires that lives in California, they want

00:00:36.560 to tax you 5% of your net worth, not your cash net worth. This is unrealized gains. This is you

00:00:46.240 own a company worth $400 million. They want to tax you 5% of that, whatever equity you own.

00:00:52.180 And what they're saying they want to do with this is that's going to give them $100 billion

00:00:55.440 of the $100 billion that they collect from billionaires, the 199, they want to take 90

00:01:01.720 billion and put it on their broken healthcare system that they have. And they want to take 0.85

00:01:05.660 10 billion and put it on their broken education that they have, which most likely this stuff is

00:01:10.000 going to go to illegal immigrants that are coming. It's not going to go to the people that really 0.99

00:01:13.500 need it. It's going to go to others. And then by the way, check this out. The number that some

00:01:18.400 people are come on, this is not going to happen. There's no way people are going to vote for this

00:01:21.200 and all this other stuff. They need 875,000 ish signatures by spring of 2026 is what they need

00:01:30.180 to make it on the ballot. If they get the 875,000 signatures, which by the way, how hard is it?

00:01:38.100 You got 40 million people living in California. Only 199 people are going to be affected by this.

00:01:43.620 Do you not think out of the 40 million people that live in California, they can find 875,000

00:01:48.020 to vote, to destroy this 199? Don't you think they're going to be able to pull that off? Of

00:01:53.140 course they're going to be able to pull that off. So the question then becomes, what the hell is

00:01:57.800 California thinking? Yesterday, Ro Khanna was going back and forth with myself, with Shamad, with

00:02:03.940 Jason, with David, with Tom, and all these guys that are going back and forth talking to them about

00:02:09.460 this 5% billionaire tax. As if these 199 billionaires don't have a place to go. As if Texas won't

00:02:15.940 gladly welcome them. As if Florida won't gladly welcome them. As if Tennessee won't gladly welcome

00:02:21.060 them. You know how many people will gladly welcome founders, investors, PE guys that are willing to

00:02:25.860 create jobs? Anybody and everybody. So I'll pause here. Tom, I'm going to come to you because I got

00:02:31.100 a lot of stuff to say about this, but I'll come to you first. What are your thoughts on this issue and

00:02:35.820 where are you at with it? Boy, where to start? And I would try to go quick and hit this bang,

00:02:40.320 bang, bang. First of all, to get it on the ballot, here's what they did. If Gavin Newsom says,

00:02:45.480 I'm going to use my pen and I'm going to edict it, he's got a problem. He's going to catch all the

00:02:50.160 flack. Ro Khanna comes out and says, hey, I'm in favor of that. But did he put his name on it? No,

00:02:55.240 he didn't put his name on it. So he doesn't want to be there. What they did is they went to SEIU,

00:03:00.540 which is a union, Service Employees International Union, and they went United Healthcare West Union.

00:03:06.760 Do you know how many people, how many members SEIU has in California? 496,000. 400,000

00:03:13.920 are regular workers. 96,000 are state workers. So they got the unions, Pat, to sponsor the ballot

00:03:21.980 measure. That way, Ro Khanna's, oh, no, no, this is the people. What is more people-oriented than the

00:03:29.220 workers in a union? What is more patriotic than a union of workers standing up and saying, let's use

00:03:36.060 the process of democracy. Let's put something on the ballot and let all people vote for it.

00:03:41.560 That's where this came from. So Ro Khanna and others are not actually kind of sponsor,

00:03:46.920 post-sponsors in a traditional sense. They've kind of got it on the ballot thanks to the union,

00:03:53.340 step one. Step two, they got all these union people. They're going to get the signatures

00:03:57.000 from the union sponsors. Everybody can say, hey, Pat, you're in the union. Remember you paid $19 a

00:04:02.360 paycheck. We're trying to get you benefits. Sign. So all the union people don't have any. They're

00:04:07.200 going to know who's naughty and nice and who's signed. So that's step one. Step two is they

00:04:12.400 didn't just decide they're going to make it another tax. All they had to do is say, hey,

00:04:17.800 top tax, I think is now 13.3% for your wealthy dollars, I think under 300,000, something like

00:04:25.000 that. Just put 2% on it. They didn't want to do that. I'll tell you why. Once the Democrats put a

00:04:33.060 knob on the dashboard that says new tax, what did they do? They turned the knob and it doesn't say

00:04:38.780 5% anymore. It says 6%, 7%, 8%. Or they say, oh, this will be 5% every four years. They're going to

00:04:48.880 come back to it. That's the way it works. Point two. And then point three, people are not being told

00:04:55.440 the truth. All of these billionaires have already been taxed on the money. Or as soon as they cash that

00:05:01.740 stock or it goes public or they sell their company, they will get taxed on the money.

00:05:07.200 You know it. I know it, Pat. You have experienced it personally living in California. It's a big tax.

00:05:13.900 It is a lot of tax to pay for the weather, which is provided by God. And I don't think God gets much

00:05:18.160 of the money that they tax. So you have to take and look at it both sides and say, wait a minute.

00:05:23.620 This is not a tax. This is asset seizure. That is my opinion. This is asset seizure,

00:05:30.200 which is contemplated, which is going to be recurring. And it's designed to erode the

00:05:37.240 billionaires. And California just wants to be the first, but the other blue states will follow.

00:05:44.260 Yeah. And by the way, while we're going through this, Ro Khanna, who's been the biggest one vocal

00:05:49.160 about this on X, if you look at what he says at the top of his Twitter account, he posts and he pinned

00:05:54.840 it. His district that he is in, okay, his district that he's in within a 50 mile radius

00:06:01.700 is 18 to $18 trillion of the stock market is within a 50 mile radius of his district.

00:06:10.740 Jeez.

00:06:11.680 $18 trillion. If you go a little bit lower, Rob, $18 trillion within 50 mile radius.

00:06:17.360 And he says, we have five companies with a market cap of over a trillion dollars.

00:06:24.000 If I can stand up for billionaire tax, this is not a hard position for 434 other members of 100

00:06:30.560 Senate. So what he's, what he's trying to say is imagine your local, you're representing these guys

00:06:36.840 and a third of them are in your County and you're going to want 5% from all of them. Then when he's

00:06:41.920 going back and forth, they're like, well, what if we do 1%, you know, every year over five years.

00:06:47.080 And then it's like, well, what if we just do 2%? And then, you know, David comes back and he says,

00:06:52.280 what if we put the 2% under 13.3%? He says, the reality of it is don't lie to people. You're not

00:06:58.540 trying to get a hundred billion dollars to help with California. You're trying to destroy the

00:07:03.860 billionaire's influence and power in California to make them weaker. That's what you're trying to do

00:07:08.340 because Rob, can you play that clip that just came out guys, this, this is a week ago of what's

00:07:15.640 going on with California. So you tell me after watching this clip, Rob, that I just texted you,

00:07:21.680 you tell me if California has the authority and a moral authority to ask for more taxes after this

00:07:29.000 was just exposed under Newsom's watch. Go ahead, Rob. California Congressman Kevin Kiley. He is

00:07:35.280 sounding the alarm in his home state saying under governor Gavin Newsom's leadership, it has become

00:07:40.540 the, quote, fraud capital of America. And we have team coverage. Our national correspondent, Alana

00:07:46.040 Austin, is on Capitol Hill with more on the investigations into Tim Walls. But we start with

00:07:50.560 correspondent Heather Myers, who has more on what is going on in California. A rainy day out there on

00:07:56.980 the West Coast. Heather, what can you tell us? Well, good afternoon to you, Katrina and Andrew.

00:08:02.940 This latest report was issued by the state auditor and that's a nonpartisan position. That state

00:08:10.160 auditor now puts eight state agencies on the high risk list of agencies to watch out for, for things

00:08:17.200 like fraud and mismanagement, as well as waste. Here's a look at that 92 page report. Newly added to

00:08:24.280 the high risk list is California's food stamp program. If the state doesn't get the improper payments under

00:08:30.180 control, it could cost an extra two and a half billion dollars. Also on there is the Department

00:08:35.860 of Finance, which was tasked with giving out COVID relief funds. Critics say $32 billion of that

00:08:41.700 was taken by fraudsters. Then there are infrastructure issues like California's deteriorating dams

00:08:47.520 and also the high-speed train that's already cost taxpayers $18 billion without a single section of

00:08:53.780 track complete. Other reports cite $24 billion spent on the homeless issue that critics claim the state

00:08:59.920 lost track. I believe we talked about this on Friday, but the reason why I'm showing you this

00:09:04.100 is the following. Here's what I'm showing you. So imagine your kids. So for those of you that have

00:09:09.680 kids, your kid comes to you and says that I need to borrow $20,000. You said, what? I need to borrow

00:09:16.420 $20,000 for what? I want to start a business with Joey and Nikki. Really? Yeah. Okay. Well, $20,000.

00:09:24.280 What plans do you guys have? Boom, boom, boom. They show it to you. You give them $20,000. They come

00:09:30.300 back and they turn it into a Shopify business and they make $380,000. So it's like that, that $20,000

00:09:37.660 turned into $380,000. So your 20,000 is now worth $80,000. No way. Yes. Perfect. So you, your son now

00:09:46.740 says that we, we need $200,000 because we feel with the $200,000, we can hire this and we can invest into

00:09:53.540 this and we can take that $200,000 and make that $280,000 business into $2 million. Now you're

00:09:59.600 going to sit there and say, okay, the 20 turned into 80. Let me give the 200,000. If you do,

00:10:03.980 you give the 200,000, all of a sudden they take a Shopify business from 280 to 1.8 million. Do you

00:10:09.980 think the third time around when they come back to you, what are you going to say? How much do you

00:10:12.780 need? Cause you're making all this money, right? Okay. Stay with me. Flip it. Your son comes to you,

00:10:17.420 dad, I need $200,000. We're going to, me and, you know, Nikki and our friends, we're going to start this

00:10:22.860 business. Three weeks later, that $20,000 is gone. They come back that I need $30,000. Why that idea

00:10:28.860 didn't work because it was, but we need another $20,000. If you keep giving your son $20,000 and he

00:10:36.020 keeps failing, you're the idiots. If you keep doing that, this, the same exact thing as Newsom coming to 1.00

00:10:44.460 the people of California, asking for more and more taxes and they keep giving it to them and they say,

00:10:51.040 yes, let's do it. While, how many of those Palisades homes have been fixed so far? How many

00:10:57.100 of them, how many of them got the permits and they're already done up and running? What happened

00:11:02.420 with the $24 billion homeless bill that he was going to, what happened with that train that you

00:11:05.760 promised? What, what, nothing. So does he have moral authority to ask more? If he doesn't, he doesn't.

00:11:12.640 By the way, in, in many, many years ago, Abraham Lincoln, when war happened, he came and asked the

00:11:18.960 American people before we had income taxes. He said, folks, we need to, we need you to help us 0.99

00:11:25.280 pay for this war. The American people are like, this is crazy. Lincoln came, the American people,

00:11:31.080 they had a certain category of how much taxes they were paying. They paid Lincoln and the U.S.

00:11:35.020 government taxes. He says, once we pay off the debt we had for the war, tax will go away. You know

00:11:40.680 what happened seven years later? What do you think happened to the taxes? Some of you guys are probably

00:11:45.260 saying it stayed forever. No, it went away. That's why they called Abraham Lincoln, honest Abe.

00:11:51.800 That's how it's supposed to be. Now everything is permanent taxes. So of course the job creators

00:11:58.560 of California are sitting there saying, this guy's full of it. He's a clown, what they're talking about. 0.99

00:12:02.760 They want more money in the state of California. Adam, your thoughts on this. 0.99

00:12:06.240 So we need to stop villainizing billionaires in America. Guys, where do we think jobs come from?

00:12:13.340 We all have jobs. Everyone watching this is a job. Do you think jobs are just falling from the sky?

00:12:18.820 Oh, there's a job tree. 85 to 90 percent of jobs in America are created by the private sector.

00:12:25.420 The small business owners, the people that are starting companies, the entrepreneurs,

00:12:30.120 the hustlers out there. Those are the people that start companies and they deserve to reap what they

00:12:35.660 sow. If their company does well, they should reap those rewards. 10 to 15 percent of jobs in America

00:12:42.200 are created by the government. Do you want the government being in charge of all the money?

00:12:46.880 State government? Do we not just learn from Minnesota? California? I think every single

00:12:50.880 state out there should have a doge team. Let's start with Minnesota and California. Boom, boom,

00:12:56.180 those two. So we need to stop villainizing these billionaires. By the way, you know the jerky

00:13:02.640 boys thing we always talk about, Vinny? Pablo, come to Florida. Pablo, Pablo, come to Florida.

00:13:08.200 Hey, billionaires, come to Florida. We love you. We appreciate you. We had a mayor for the last 10

00:13:14.880 years, Mayor Francis Suarez, good friend of ours. He sent out a forward tweet, I believe,

00:13:20.620 during COVID. It was, how can I help? And all of a sudden, Silicon Valley and people from New York

00:13:28.300 and California and Chicago said, you know what? Here's how you can help. Let me go to Florida where

00:13:34.460 there's no state tax, where there's no income tax. Maybe we'll do that. And they did. There you go.

00:13:40.080 Shout out to Francis Suarez right there. And then, and then, so the billionaire, let's just do a little

00:13:46.000 math here. We don't appreciate billionaires. AOC wants to tax the rich. So we all love our jobs.

00:13:53.240 We want to have jobs. We want to have income. We all love innovation. We all love tech. We're all on

00:13:58.100 social media. We're all on our phones. We're all watching this on a phone or a TV that a company

00:14:02.460 created. All our retirement accounts are at all time highs, but you hate the people that made that

00:14:09.040 all possible. It's so backwards and it's such BS. And we wonder why the young generation veers more

00:14:16.580 towards socialism and communism than capitalism, because we don't appreciate the job creators and

00:14:22.600 the innovators. Can I just one question from a guy that's not deep into this world? It's no secret.

00:14:28.520 What, how many more bad decisions does this party, does the left, do the Democrats have

00:14:35.880 to continue to keep doing and the people keep letting these people stay in power? It boggles

00:14:41.920 my mind because I'm sitting back watching it. I left California, as you guys don't know for

00:14:46.920 a myriad of reasons. How much more from the violence, from the wasting $24 billion on a homeless

00:14:55.180 situation that made the, that multiplied homelessness, zero accountability, that rail thing that he

00:15:01.220 wanted, spent billions, zero accountability. Now you have ideas like this, where you're literally

00:15:06.400 going to have the richest people who are creating the most jobs, leave your state. At what point do,

00:15:12.940 are they going to have a mental revolution? Pat, all these Democrat loving liberal brainwashed 0.96

00:15:18.220 people, and trust me, I have them in my family that are going to say, guys, enough is enough,

00:15:23.500 enough. I know it sucks to hell with this blind loyalty to a party. It's the decisions, it's the 0.98

00:15:29.660 policies. Pat, am I losing my mind? Am I, am I off my rock? You're not. Here's, uh, there are so many

00:15:37.580 quotes about don't waste your time arguing with an idiot because, you know, within 30 minutes, 1.00

00:15:43.620 you're the second idiot, right? All this stuff you kind of hear about. But the reality of it is 1.00

00:15:48.180 the Democratic Party is a religion. It's not a political party. It's a religion. And when it's

00:15:55.860 a religion, you have fanaticals that no matter what happens, they have to support it. Do you think

00:16:02.140 all these people that were pro-transgender all of a sudden overnight were like that 10 years prior to

00:16:07.080 that? No. What happened to them? It's because their cult leader, their religion leader said that's

00:16:12.020 the case. They followed suit. They're like, yeah, that's where I'm going to go with it. So it's a

00:16:16.060 very, but you're dealing, again, remember, just think like what percentage of our audience is the

00:16:20.860 12% of America that are independent, critical thinkers that are like, yeah, I don't know if I

00:16:25.380 agree with you. Yeah. Like the other day at the Aspen, we're walking around, seven people are

00:16:29.780 standing. Oh my God, what's up? You know what? I agree with 99% of you to say, Pat, I agree with 99%

00:16:35.660 what you say. We walk away, Dylan says to you, what is the 1% you don't agree with?

00:16:39.300 But there's these critical thinkers, the independent thinkers that are going to be

00:16:46.340 running America in the future. That's the reality of it. So we need to make sure they 0.90

00:16:49.980 are getting their answers given to them in the most logical, reasonable way where they walk away

00:16:56.900 and have dinner with their wife and kids and their husbands and their family. Send us, you know,

00:17:00.640 today on the podcast, I saw this. What do you think about it? Well, let me tell you what they said

00:17:04.160 about this. Why should California have the right? That's what you want to do. Our goal with PBD

00:17:08.240 podcast is to create thousands of conversations. That's all it is. Buy reasonable people who are

00:17:14.040 critical thinkers, who can't get other people to think. And then eventually that expands. So I think

00:17:18.860 we have to focus on the people that are willing to reason versus the people that are sitting there

00:17:25.060 saying, no, I'm part of a religion, a part of a cult. You can never change my mind. Let me get to

00:17:28.280 the next story. Can I ask you a question, Pat? Because this is personal for you. Like the Minnesota

00:17:31.720 thing was me. I remember the love letter you wrote to California when you left California.

00:17:35.660 And then I remember in 2020, you were deciding, where should we take value attainment?

00:17:41.300 If you recall, you were considering going back to California. You were considering New York.

00:17:46.040 Obviously, we ended up moving to Florida. So it's not just the people who are going to leave

00:17:50.240 California, the billionaire tax. There's reasonable business owners who are trying to build businesses

00:17:55.460 and saying, where should I go? Why would you move to California at this point?

00:18:01.680 If a person is aspirational with big dreams and big plans. And by the way, some guy yesterday on the

00:18:09.600 tweet responded to one of my tweets and he says, there's more to California than this. All the talent

00:18:16.320 pool, all the this. No one's ever going to leave California and Silicon Valley because all the talent

00:18:20.740 pool is here. I'm like, what an arrogant position for you to take. What the hell do you think Hollywood

00:18:25.760 was before it moved to Burbank and Hollywood? What do you think it was? New Jersey. And why do you think

00:18:31.140 they left New Jersey? Because Thomas Edison had so much control over all the movies that they were

00:18:35.800 making. It got so overregulated that the creators are like, screw you. I'm moving to California. And at that 0.68

00:18:42.780 time, California created some tax benefits for movie makers and studios. So they moved there. These clowns to

00:18:48.600 think somebody else is not going to create better incentives in a different marketplace. All this arrogance of 0.99

00:18:53.860 people will never leave California. The weather is not that much worth it, guys. A billionaire can get

00:18:59.100 on a PJ, go to Napa Valley, drink as much wine as he wants, get back on the jet, go back home. And he

00:19:04.380 can live in South Dakota if he wants to. It's not that big of a deal. So, you know, once you create

00:19:09.240 wealth, you don't, this is not the days of trying to scare the crap out of these guys. I think there's

00:19:13.920 going to be some massive disruption, but we'll see what'll happen next. Come to Miami, all you

00:19:17.300 billionaires. The weather's just fine. Only the logical ones. Only the logical ones. Right now, with

00:19:23.180 everything that's happening, I think the spiritual battle that the nation, that the world is going

00:19:28.940 through right now, I think it's more obvious than I think it's ever been. And I think letting

00:19:34.280 people know, pal, I was watching Gladiator and they kept saying, hold the line. I watched another

00:19:39.080 movie. I was watching Game of Thrones. Hold the line. When it comes to Christianity and your 1.00

00:19:43.560 spirituality, I think having faith and not caring about anything. Dylan, I actually, Pat, and you 0.67

00:19:48.700 remember this on the plane coming here. Guys, on the flight here, the turbulence was so that I have

00:19:54.900 a huge, my biggest fear, my biggest fear of all is flying. Ask Pat, I'm sitting next to Pat. We're

00:20:01.620 dropping, by the way, we're in Aspen. The mountains are like this. The altitude, it's horrible. And we're

00:20:08.100 coming in for landing and we find us all nervous. And then Pat's like, ask Dylan, like, Dylan, were you,

00:20:14.100 were you worried? Were you worried? Were you scared about anything? And Dylan, Dylan, how old is

00:20:19.460 Dylan, Pat? Whoa. Pat? 12. He's 12 years old. Okay, love to show me. 12 years old goes, Dad, no, I'm not,

00:20:27.820 I'm not afraid. I have faith because I'm not scared about anything because if anything, God forbid,

00:20:32.320 happens, I'm going to be with, with God and Jesus Christ in heaven. So again, wearing this shirt, guys,

00:20:38.140 I, I, I can't tell you how many messages I get of people seeing the back of faith over fear and

00:20:43.320 people are like, Hey, what does that mean? What does Hebrews mean? And then the conversation

00:20:46.400 sparks. And I learned from Dylan at 12 years old, in that moment, what do you have to be afraid of?

00:20:51.980 Nothing, nothing. You have nothing to be afraid of if you have a faith. And yeah, we have the faith

00:20:56.860 over fear hat. Boom. Just like that. And the value attainment. Guys, I rock this all the time. And

00:21:03.180 yeah, if you want to go to vtmerch.com and rock it. If you enjoy this video, you want to watch more

00:21:07.480 videos like this, click here. And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.

00:21:13.320 And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here. And then we'll see you on your

00:21:17.480 show. And then we'll see you next time.

Valuetainment - December 29, 2025

＂Destroying Billionaires' Influence＂ - California Wealth Tax IGNITES Billionaire Backlash

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript