• What Happened: Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary blasted California Democrats as "terrible managers" over a proposed one-time 5% wealth tax on residents worth more than $1 billion.
  • Why It Matters: Even Governor Newsom admitted the tax is bad economics, warning of real impacts on startups and long-term investment commitments in the state.
  • Bottom Line: O'Leary says billionaires are already heading to Miami, House Republicans are moving to block the measure federally, and California keeps driving away the people who fund its economy.

Kevin O'Leary just said what every sane person watching California's implosion has been thinking, and he said it on live television without flinching.

Appearing on Fox Business's Varney and Co., the Shark Tank investor and chairman of O'Leary Ventures unloaded on California Democrats over their proposed one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion. The measure would apply to anyone who lived in the state as of January 1 and could come due as early as next year.

O'Leary had a simple message for California voters: you have terrible managers, so get rid of them.

"Why don't the people of California say, 'We have terrible managers?'" O'Leary asked. "They never talk about why expenses are going up, why they should cut government. Their services aren't any better than what I'm getting here in Miami, and we control these things. We have better managers, so get the whacking stick out and do the right thing. Hire somebody else."

He was not done. "When you basically start taxing people for success, it's un-American," O'Leary said, adding that the Constitution's framework for state competition means wealthy residents simply pack up and move. To places like Miami, where O'Leary himself now lives.

Here is the most remarkable part of this story. Even Gavin Newsom thinks the tax is a bad idea. The governor warned that the impacts are "very real" and said the uncertainty it creates around startups and long-term investment commitments is "not what we need right now." He predicted the measure "will be defeated."

When Gavin Newsom is the voice of fiscal reason in the room, California has a serious problem.

House Republicans are already moving to block the proposal federally, introducing legislation to prevent states from retroactively taxing residents who relocate to lower-tax states.

California keeps killing the goose. One day there will be nothing left to tax.