In November, California voters will consider a one-time 5% tax on the assets of a few hundred of the state’s billionaires. The initiative, should it pass, is expected to generate tens of billions of dollars for health care and education programs.
Opponents of the measure have a big problem: taxing billionaires is quite popular.
A new ad being run extensively on Meta platforms navigates around this issue by claiming it is not a “billionaire tax” but an “everyone tax.” This may be an effective message but it is not true.
The ad features a “Trojan pig” being led through the streets of a suburban community by someone who resembles Bernie Sanders. A mother running with a stroller is coaxed by the Sanders lookalike, “Do you like free stuff?” She nods.
As the Sanders lookalike flees the scene, the narrator claims that it was all a ruse. “Buried in the 32-page bill, they snuck in a provision that allows them to turn the tax on you,” the narrator says ominously. “Every Californian will have to report all their assets to the state tax board.”
This is a lie.
The rest of the ad shows the tax’s backers, hidden in the belly of the wooden pig and dressed in suits, ripping away personal property from residents. They steal a small boat and a surfboard, and assault a young boy to seize his bike. The ad concludes as the Sanders lookalike returns and grabs the woman’s stroller. “I thought you were taxing billionaires?” she asks him, crying. “You should have read the fine print,” he replies...
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