How to Tax the Billionaires: Cutting Through the Policy Hysteria

Over the past few decades, California has imposed its political will on the rest of America and much of the free world, driving social movements such as environmentalism, LGBTQ rights and criminal justice reform. So perhaps it was inevitable that the next phase in the long-running battle over income inequality—how much tax the wealthy are required to pay and what responsibility they bear to preserve a fraying social safety net—would start in the Golden State.

Last summer the largest health-care workers union in the state did the math on the Trump administration’s legislative Ragnarok, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ...