On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) defended his proposed billionaire tax by saying that “The ultimate thing that’s hurting California is the fact that we’re restricting immigration from the best and brightest to come into the United States, the fact that we’ve got irrational blanket tariffs, the fact that we’ve got 10,000 PhDs in the federal government leaving.”
Khanna said, “I’m concerned about the Central Valley. I’m concerned about people — two million people in California who are going to lose healthcare. I’m concerned about the people in my district who are going to lose healthcare because of the tax breaks. And you know what’s really going to hurt California? The ultimate thing that’s hurting California is the fact that we’re restricting immigration from the best and brightest to come into the United States, the fact that we’ve got irrational blanket tariffs, the fact that we’ve got 10,000 PhDs in the federal government leaving.”
He continued, “My point is, why not have a policy that says, yes, we love entrepreneurship, innovation, we want to have the best and brightest here, we’re going to invest in research universities, and if you do well, if you’re Jensen, if you happen to be Sundar Pichai, we’re going to ask you to pay a little bit more so people can have childcare and healthcare.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett