RT Dan Scheinman: One idiot politician is trying to destroy California to run for President.
A post quotes Ro Khanna arguing that taxing billionaires in California at 2% would fund healthcare, dismissing capital flight concerns by noting 85% of VC money came to the state in Q1 2026. Naval's retweet of Dan Scheinman accuses an unnamed politician of trying to destroy California for a presidential run.
Background
- **Naval Ravikant** is a prominent Silicon Valley investor, entrepreneur, and public intellectual (co-founder of AngelList), known for libertarian-leaning views on taxation and government.
- **Ro Khanna** is a moderate Democratic U.S. Representative from California's 17th district (Silicon Valley), who has proposed a wealth tax on billionaires to fund public healthcare.
- **Dan Scheinman** is a tech executive and early Cisco veteran. Naval is re-sharing Scheinman's criticism, which frames Khanna's wealth-tax push as politically opportunistic ("trying to destroy California to run for President").
- The exchange captures a recurring fight in California politics: should the state tax its massive tech-generated wealth more aggressively? Critics (often tech investors) argue it drives billionaires and capital out of state; advocates (like Khanna) cite data that VC investment remains overwhelmingly concentrated in California, calling the "capital flight" argument overblown.
- The "2% wealth tax" debate is part of a broader national conversation about taxing unrealized capital gains — a contentious issue that divides the tech world between pro-tax progressives and anti-tax libertarians.