I read their books, essays, and proposals — and listened to their mid-2010s YouTube talks — to create what is essentially the first ideological profile of the people behind California’s wealth tax. The men in question are very explicitly using wealth taxes in what they describe as a power struggle against oligarchic control over the media and “prevailing ideology.” They were particularly spooked by (what they describe as) Elon leveraging X to get Trump elected. This is not about plugging a “budget hole” for Medicaid, the stated justification of the proposal. They may very well want the $100 billion for healthcare, but they want other things, too.