Making billionaires illegal by taxing their wealth wouldn’t even fund the government for a year, budget expert says

California’s proposed wealth tax is coming in for a lot of criticism these days. From Gov. Gavin Newsom, who counts many billionaires as friends and donors and yet was raised by a single mother juggling three jobs, to Anduril founder Palmer Luckey‘s vociferous objections, to the Google guys Larry Page and Sergey Brin voting with their feet, much of the Golden State’s ultrawealthy is objecting to this policy. But what if the policy wouldn’t even work that well, once implemented? That’s what budget expert Kent Smetters thinks.