Recently, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) proposed a national wealth tax. The idea is that it is a bad thing that a few billionaires (and one trillionaire) possess all of those riches that they acquired by building things and providing needed services. So, Newsom took to X (owned by Elon Musk, one of his targets) and proposed that a certain percentage (unspecified) of rich people’s wealth should be seized by the government every year.
Many commentators are looking askance at the proposal, pointing out its disastrous effect on the economy and its dubious constitutionality. The fact that Newsom made the proposal as a way to pander to the rising communist wing of the Democratic Party goes without saying. He wants to be elected president in 2028, so he has to kiss the rings of New York City Mayor Mamdani and his ilk. The recent nomination of several radical revolutionaries has Newsom scared.
One hitherto unmentioned effect of Newsom’s plan to fleece the rich is that it would likely cripple the U.S. space program. It would all but cancel the Artemis return to the moon program and inhibit quite a few public/private partnerships NASA is relying on to fulfill its mandate to explore the universe.
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Ever since the George W. Bush administration, NASA has been forming partnerships with private businesses for everything from keeping the International Space Station supplied to possibly landing astronauts on the moon. Private companies such as Firefly Aerospace are landing uncrewed probes on the lunar surface. Recently, NASA formed a partnership with Relativity Space to expand the concept of commercial space exploration to Mars and, potentially, beyond.
NASA depends on the very same rich people to help it explore space that Newsom would like to tax. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is flying spacecraft to and from the ISS and is building a Human Landing System to take people back to the moon. Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos is also building another Human Landing System and is developing a private space station called Orbital Reef to replace the ISS once that facility ends its operational life.
The more Newsom takes from people such as Musk, Bezos, and other space entrepreneurs, the less they will have to build the rockets, spacecraft, and space probes that NASA needs to explore space and expand human presence to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
Indeed, Newsom’s plan to siphon money from commercial space pioneers might just ensure that China would beat NASA and its partners back to the moon, with catastrophic effects on America’s standing in the world. If China becomes the country that explores and develops the moon, the catastrophe would become existential.
Furthermore, privately built space stations such as the ones being developed by Axiom Space and Blue Origin might never be built. The end of the operational life of the ISS would mean the end of American presence in space.
Jared Isaacman flew two space missions, Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn, out of his own pocket before he became administrator of NASA. Other such missions would likely be impossible under Newsom’s wealth tax.
Newsom is not likely to become president of the United States, even if the Democratic Party hands him the nomination. His record as governor of California is too disastrous for anyone to allow him to do the same thing he did to the Golden State to the entire U.S. The prospect of him going up against someone like Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio would cause a shortage of popcorn in short order.
The fact that Newsom just threw out the proposal for a wealth tax without thinking through its implications is disqualifying. The gut punch it would provide to NASA and America’s space program is just one of the horrendous effects of Newsom’s proposal, but it is a significant one.
It would be entertaining for Newsom’s many political opponents to point out what his wealth tax proposal would do to America’s space program. When pointed out, the proposal will not likely find favor with the public.
A poll taken last year by CBS News suggests that the public overwhelmingly supports returning to the moon, with 67% in favor and 33% opposed. They also support sending astronauts to Mars, with 65% in favor and 35% opposing.
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Everyone remembers how the voyage of Artemis II around the moon was celebrated by Americans and, indeed, non-Americans across the political and generational spectrums.
Newsom should be asked if he really opposes the will of the American people where space exploration is concerned, just to pander to the Left with a wealth tax proposal?
Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled, Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond, and, most recently, Why is America Going Back to the Moon? He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Hill, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.