AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

As we broadcast from Los Angeles, California, we end today’s show looking at what Senator Bernie Sanders has called the most important ballot initiative in the country. He’s talking about Proposition 40, California’s proposed billionaire tax. If passed, the proposition would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of the state’s roughly 230 billionaires. Supporters say the wealth tax could raise up to $100 billion, with about 90% going toward healthcare, helping some 3 million Californians from losing coverage as a result of sweeping federal healthcare cuts.

Prop 40 has drawn fierce opposition from billionaires. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has poured over $100 million into opposing Prop 40. Others who have also spent millions include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, venture capitalist John Doerr and Tony Xu of DoorDash. The billionaires have also backed alternative ballot measures.

Prop 40 has also divided some Democrats in California. The California Democratic Party endorsed the ballot measure, while Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom opposes it. Other opponents of Prop 40 include the California Teachers Association and Planned Parenthood, although some Planned Parenthood staff have broken with leadership to announce their support of the billionaire tax.

For more, we’re joined in New York by Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, which backs Prop 40. And in Boston, we’re joined by Congressmember Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Lorena Gonzalez, let’s begin with you. Why do you support this? This would be, as Bernie Sanders says, historic, the billionaire wealth tax.

LORENA GONZALEZ: Well, look, when Trump passed H.R. 1, we know that they cut our healthcare — working people are going to pay for that — to give billionaires a tax break. So, when healthcare workers started gathering signatures and said one-time 5% tax on billionaires could actually backfill that 'til we get a new president, it makes sense. It's simple. And it’s past time that billionaires pay their fair share. So, you know, our federation, the AFL-CIO in California, all 2.3 million working people, two-thirds of our unions and a vast majority of our union members support ensuring that we do this one-time tax to backfill healthcare, so people don’t lose their healthcare, so we don’t lose hospitals, and healthcare workers don’t lose their jobs.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to ask, Representative Ro Khanna, why you are backing this proposition. And also, your reaction to your fellow Democratic colleague, Governor Newsom, opposing it?

REP. RO KHANNA: First, let me say what an honor it is to follow Navi Pillay, who won the Nobel Prize for finding that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza, something still too many Democratic politicians in America refuse to do.

And I appreciate Lorena Gonzalez’s extraordinary leadership to help get this billionaire tax on the ballot. It is the first time in the history of the nation, or the history of the world, that we would be able to tax billionaires. You would tax 250 billionaires, who have half the California economy. They’re worth $2.1 trillion. And you would tax them 5%, even though their wealth has gone up 144% over the last three years. And to do that, you would be able to make sure that 3.5 million Californians didn’t lose their healthcare, and poor kids didn’t go without healthcare. It is the most obvious decision for someone to make who cares about the working class and children.

So, why is Governor Newsom opposed to this tax? He is opposed to this tax because of the billionaires bankrolling his campaigns. I mean, we need to speak plainly. We can either be a Democratic Party that stands for the working class in the tradition of the New Deal, or we can continue to cater to the donor class. Here, Gavin Newsom is literally siding with Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, Trump supporters, because they don’t want to be taxed.

AMY GOODMAN: This is why Gavin Newsom opposes the bill. He was speaking on HBO’s Real Time. This is why he opposes Prop 40, referencing concerns that teachers and firefighters won’t benefit from the money raised by the tax.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM: I think billionaires do need to be taxed more, but just not at the state level. Capital moves. And the challenge with this particular tax is it doesn’t include firefighters and teachers. They’re left out of the tax. It’s one time. And we’ve already seen dozens and dozens of people leave the state.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Congressmember Ro Khanna, if you can respond to what he’s saying? And also, explain what Prop 41 and Prop 42 are.

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, he’s just making up facts, or he’s ill-informed, because California actually has increased billionaires since Proposition 20 — Proposition 42 has been on the ballot. We’ve gone from 240 billionaires to 261 billionaires. Eighty-five percent of the venture capital has come into California, 85% of the entire nation’s venture capital into California. So, this argument that somehow billionaires are leaving are just belied by the statistics.

And, of course, firefighters and teachers would benefit if 150,000 California healthcare workers don’t lose their jobs, if medical services and rural hospitals and mental health services aren’t shut down. They use those rural hospitals and healthcare services, too.

The reality is that this Proposition 42 that Gavin Newsom has become the cheerleader for, it would say, “Do not ever tax billionaires based on their wealth in California.” It’s not just that he’s opposed to Proposition 40; he is also supporting Proposition 42, that would ban billionaires from ever being taxed in California on their wealth.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Lorena Gonzalez, could you talk about, especially given Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill, what the impact on California, especially in terms of healthcare, would be if you’re not able to get new revenues from something like this billionaires’ tax?

LORENA GONZALEZ: Well, we’re already seeing it. Obviously, after the midterms, we know the Medi-Cal — what we call it in California, Medicaid — but cuts will become more fulfilled. But already, 89 hospitals are at risk of losing services or closing down. Hospitals in rural areas are already shutting down maternity wards and emergency rooms. We know that there are workers across California, in urban areas and rural areas, that will lose access to healthcare, in a state where, you know, over 50% of our children are born under Medicaid and 67% of children of color are born under the Medicaid system, Medi-Cal. You know, we have got to make sure that young people have a start in this world. And if all it takes is asking for billionaires to pay their fair share, something that they won’t even notice, I think it’s something we have to do.

But when it comes to whether or not they want to hoard their wealth, their concentration of money and power, or simply pay a one-time 5%, that they’ll never even feel, so that Californians won’t go without access to healthcare, they’ve made their choice. They’re spending close to — by the end of this election, they will have spent $500 million on this initiative to try to destroy it and to try to say that we can never tax billionaires.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask Congressmember Ro Khanna about the longtime Democratic Party strategist James Carville, who said on Sunday he would prefer to see Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives rather than have Democrats win a narrow majority. Carville cited the growing popularity of Democratic candidates aligned with the DSA, with the Democratic Socialists of America. He spoke on The Bulwark podcast. This is what he said.

JAMES CARVILLE: I would rather the Republicans keep the House by five than the Democrats win by five, because if that happens, they’re hostage to the DSA.

AMY GOODMAN: In June, James Carville attacked the DSA as “left-wing idiots,” adding, quote, “These people are so f—ing stupid.” If you can talk to what Carville is saying, and what many feel, many of the more corporate Democrats feel, in the House and the Senate, perhaps the leadership, and how you’re taking this on?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, Carville is irrelevant. I mean, these are the last gasps of the ancient regime. They’re out of touch with young people today. Young people can’t get a job. They don’t have healthcare. They don’t have childcare to start a family. They see all the wealth accumulating in my district. I don’t know when’s the last time Carville ran a campaign, when’s the last time he’s talked to an actual voter, not just been on the on air as a pundit. You know, you run one campaign for Bill Clinton, who would have won because if you gave him a microphone — doesn’t make you a expert on politics for the rest of your life. So, I could respond, but it’s kind of — my response is he’s irrelevant. And the energy is with young people and with the people like Abdul El-Sayed and Zohran Mamdani and Claire Valdez and Melat Kiros and a whole new movement in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. We’re going to continue to follow this story. Congressmember Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from here in California, and Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions.

I’m here in Los Angeles, where the film Steal This Story, Please!, about Democracy Now!, is screening on Thursday at Temple Israel in Hollywood. You can go to our website and check it out. Friday at the CEMEX Auditorium at Stanford University. And then we’re on to Colorado: on Monday at University of Colorado Boulder at 3:30 at the football stadium, and then on Tuesday in Fort Collins. Steal This Story, Please! I’ll be speaking along with the film’s director, Tia Lessin. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.