I just read another article – one of many – explaining to me (as if any explanation were needed) that California Governor Gavin Newsom’s so-called “billionaire tax” – i.e. expropriating 5% of the entire worth of very rich people to try and balance his out of control budget – is a terrible idea that will result in many of these people fleeing the state and lowering its tax base.
That, of course, is true. As far as it goes.
But what is missing is the fact that this idea, this terrible idea, is just one of many, many bad moves by Gavin Newsom during his political career, which includes two terms as San Francisco’s Mayor and two terms (the second in progress) as Governor of California.
I have written several blogs over recent years detailing the godawful record of Gavin Newsom. But I have never compiled the voluminous list in one place…
…which is why I thank Kathy Grimes for her latest piece at californiaglobe.com, which does this so well.
Here Ms. Grimes’ list, from her article, titled “Gov. Gavin Newsom: How to Destroy California in Two Terms”:
If I was the leftist governor of the largest state in the U.S. and my unspoken goal and unholy plan was to destabilize and destroy my state, there are certain policies I would impose, and executive orders I’d make, while insulating myself from my own policies:
Cut water off to rural areas in the state; remove dams and hydroelectric plants.
Limit water deliveries to farmers and ranchers, forcing farmers and ranchers to shut down.
Create a housing shortage.
Raise the minimum wage so high, restaurant owners are forced to lay off employees.
Pass policies killing manufacturing.
Pass policies bolstering a service economy.
Vilify first, then destroy the petroleum industry.
Limit energy production to solar and wind renewable energy only.
Force people out of their traditional internal combustion engine cars into electric vehicles, and on to public transportation.
Order all internal combustion cars banned by 2035.
Mandate an all-electric state, including autos and trucks.
Keep hiking gas taxes.
Impose a mileage tax.
Allow the California High Speed Rail scheme to continue bilking taxpayers, with no tracks or trains yet, but has ballooned in cost to well over $100 billion. And approve another $20 billion in funding, fall 2025. It’s a public employee union jobs program and political consultant scam expected to grow to $350 billion if ever completed.
Install thousands of floating offshore wind turbines at a cost of $150 billion.
Legalize drugs.
Legalize sex with minors.
Legalize abortion up to baby’s birth.
Authorize more tribal gambling casinos.
Destroy the public education system by watering down actual disciplines of math and English, while sending your own children to private schools.
Outlaw School Choice Scholarships
Promote affirmative action, racial preferences, DEI over merit.
Create fake crises that waste billion$ like climate change and reparations.
Infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms by passing laws which nibble around the edges of the 2nd Amendment, creating defacto gun control.
Stop prosecuting crime.
Decriminalize certain crimes, resulting in emptying out state prisons.
Lose $37 billion in homeless funding/spending to shady non-profits and NGOs.
Lose $31 billion to unemployment fraud.
Allow massive hospice and home‑health fraud in Los Angeles.
Allow the California Department of Insurance to devastate the insurance market and drive the state to the edge of collapse.
Create and pass a mid-decade redistricting scheme ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to secure more Democrat seats in Congress by redrawing district maps, or “gerrymandering” numerous California Republicans out of their congressional districts.
Raise corporate taxes to discourage businesses from expanding.
Raise taxes and fees on public services and energy.
Raise income taxes on all income brackets.
Make it easier for local governments to raise taxes.
Impose a wealth tax.
Impose a death tax.
Impose a 5% billionaire’s tax on their assets.
Force doctors to comply with state medical directives; punish those who refuse to comply.
Allow hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the state.
Provide free welfare, medical benefits, free housing and food, free education, and even home loans to illegal immigrants.
Provide state-issued ID to illegal immigrants.
Allow illegal immigrants to vote in local elections.
Greatly expand the size of government by hiring hundreds of thousands of state workers.
Increase your own Governor’s staff from 200 to nearly 400 employees.
Create more labor unions jobs by expanding state government.
Encourage public schools to convince kids they are another gender; provide secret counseling to those kids; shelter kids from parents.
Limit media access in Capitol; reward compliant media.
Accept a gift of $3.7 million, 12,000 square foot mansion on 8 acres along the American River in Sacramento, then make $2.7 million tax-free for obtaining a cash-out refinance, and don’t report the gift on any financial disclosure forms.
Acquire a $9.1 million home in Marin County through a shady LLC created two days before the sale closed.
Buy into a dubious pandemic, lock down the entire state’s residents, force businesses, schools churches, beaches and parks to close.
Order the no-bid purchase of $1.4 Billion of masks from electric bus manufacturer and Chinese company BYD at outset of the dubious COVID pandemic using taxpayers funds, when there are U.S. mask manufactures available.
Take a trip to China, meet with China General Secretary Xi Jinping claiming the trip was a “climate-focused tour,” ignoring that China produces more global emissions than any other country on earth.
Gavin has bulldozed his way through the above list of what issues that are destroying California. And it’s not as though the destruction has been mitigated or balanced out with positive, constructive, good governance that helped Californians in any way. Navigating daily life has become increasingly difficult, burdensome and horrifically expensive because of Gov. Newsom. There is not one positive proposal or legislative action Gov. Gavin Newsom has supported.
Newsom’s policies have expedited the destruction of the most beautiful state; accelerated the declining population through outbound migration resulting in the loss of a congressional seat. He has irreparably harmed California’s businesses and once thriving economy starting with his 3 years of Covid lockdowns, which hurt mostly small business owners the most. Newsom more than quadrupled the drug-addicted homeless vagrants living on California streets making cities unlivable. He bolstered labor unions while crushing independent contractors and gig workers. Gavin Newsom increased poverty in California while growing state government.
It’s as if Gov. Newsom was very carefully and specifically trained on what it would take to destroy California – the one thing in which he actually excels – that, and feathering his own nest with ill-gotten gains.
Thank you Ms. Grimes.
And now you can join me in wondering how most of our mainstream media have managed to overlook this vast list of terrible, damaging policies…instead extolling Newsom as some kind of savvy, with-it political force – maybe the logical Democrat candidate for President in 2028.
Then they wonder why fewer and fewer people trust them for serious news coverage?
WHY??????
