Gavin Newsom apparently looked at California's legendary cost of living, its homeless crisis, and its fleeing middle class and thought: yeah, I should take this act national. The governor who has presided over one of the most expensive states on the planet reportedly has presidential ambitions, which is a bold move for a guy whose own residents keep packing U-Hauls to Texas. As USA Journal laid out, his record heading into his final months in office reads less like a resume and more like a warning label.
Let us review the highlights. California has some of the highest home values and rents in the nation, a homelessness crisis that accounts for a disproportionate share of the entire country's unhoused population, spiking crime rates in categories like auto theft and shoplifting, and a business environment so hostile that other states are basically running recruitment drives for California's employers. The state is the fourth largest economy in the world, which sounds impressive until you realize a huge chunk of that economy is devoted to paying rent.
Now, because apparently things were not expensive enough, Newsom's latest budget includes new taxes on Medicaid, Obamacare plans, and private employer health plans. Read that again slowly. He is taxing the health care of low income residents on Medicaid. That takes a special kind of political courage, the kind where you do not actually have to live with the consequences of your own policies.
White House spokesperson Allison Schuster did not mince words about it. "Gavin Newscum has done everything in his power to make life less affordable for Californians, and a $400 hike in healthcare premiums is just the latest blow to hard-working taxpayers," Schuster told Caleb Howe for a Substack piece. She continued: "While the Trump Administration is actively working on making life more affordable through the President's tax cuts, deregulation, and no tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security, the Democrats in California continue to steal money from taxpayers and make life worse."
The broader pattern here is not exactly subtle. California under decades of Democratic leadership has layered regulation on top of regulation, tax on top of tax, until the cost of simply existing in the state has pushed out middle income families by the thousands. Labor costs are astronomical because everything else is astronomical. It is a feedback loop of expensive, and Newsom has done nothing to break it.
And yet the man wants to sit in the Oval Office. You have to admire the confidence. Most politicians at least try to point to something that went well on their watch before asking for a promotion. Newsom is essentially walking into the job interview, sliding his track record across the table, and saying "imagine this, but for all 50 states."
Working class Americans, who make up roughly 60 to 65 percent of the electorate, might have some thoughts about that pitch. Specifically, the thought might be: no thanks, we already saw the movie and the ending was terrible.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
