California Governor Gavin Newsom has vowed to make America into California if he's elected president in 2028.
God help us.
If Gavin Newsom’s plan when he took office in 2019 was to make Californians poorer and send them packing, then Mission Accomplished.
Despite his protestations to the contrary, Newsom pushed another 100,000 Californians out of state because they can’t afford to live there anymore.
Newsom’s California Exodus is now in its fourth straight year.
The PODs storage company reports that out of 20 cities seeing mass outmigration in the country, seven of them were in the Golden State. Most of those people were bound for the South, most notably in North and South Carolina.
Newsom and his Democrat legislative supermajority have made everything more expensive in California.
Fox11 News in L.A. reports California’s cost of living is 50% above the national average.
California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office indicate that housing prices are nearly double the national average, with typical mortgage payments around $5,500 per month.
This stands in stark contrast to the state’s median household income of $96,334 annually, or $8,027 per month before taxes.
The Bay Area, L.A., San Diego, and even Bakersfield, Stockton, and Fresno are too expensive for middle class people, despite Newsom’s claim that he’s “creating” affordable housing.
California rental housing costs have shot up since 2019 according to a report by Zillow. If you want to rent in Riverside you need to make $102,000 a year. In San Francisco you’d have to bring in a minimum of $124,000 to make rent.
Some part of those rent increases could be a response to the end of COVID rent mandates (which were found to be unconstitutional, by the way), but that doesn’t solely account for the fundamental change in the structure of the state.
Under Newsom and his legislative Democrat supermajority, California is turning into a place where only the wealthy can afford to live, the middle class is squeezed and fleeing, and the poor are subsidized.
Related: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Well, Well, Well, Look Who the FBI Is Investigating
CalMatters reports that the “median California home is priced nearly 2.5 times higher than the median national home according to 2022 Census data."
Newsom has spent billions of other people’s dollars to pay for “free” health care for people living in the country illegally. The state has misspent billions of dollars on programs for the homeless and can’t account for where all the money went. Newsom’s administration lost billions in COVID funds in an unemployment scam. He and his Democrat supermajority used federal, temporary COVID funds to create permanent housing and Medicaid programs.
All of those expenditures and “lost” billions have made Californians wary of Newsom’s policies.
A 2024 poll by Public Policy Institute of California showed that a majority were concerned about wasteful spending, homeless people living on the streets, onerous taxes, housing affordability, Joe Biden’s inflationary programs, natural disasters, and state budgeting.
California Democrats are generous hosts. The state supports between 28% and 40% of the country’s entire homeless population.
But housing is only part of the reason why people are bugging out.
Newsom, friend of the Getty Oil family, claim to have “taken on Big Oil” since he took office. His push toward allegedly “sustainable” green energy raised the prices of everything after he took office.
California’s greedy tax and fee collectors make more on a gallon of gas than the gas companies. The state collects 70 cents to $1.25 per gallon in state taxes and fees. That does not include local taxes and fees, which raise the costs considerably more. Gas companies make about 15-30 cents a gallon.
Newsom drove out refineries and then blamed oil companies for raising gas prices when it was he who limited the supply.
Newsom and his greedy tax-collecting tribe have also mandated going to electric cars by 2035 and are hoping to pivot to a per-mileage fee on drivers to keep the grift going. The Trump administration is hoping to short-circuit that move.
Newsom and the Democrats’ energy policies have driven up fuel prices by 30%, which means that every last thing brought into the state by truck—roughly 72% of all goods— went up too.
Newsom’s green energy policies have caused the price of gas, heat, and AC to go up, and drove up the price of food by 27% since he took office.
When Newsom signed into law the Democrats’ AB 5 attacking independent contractors at the behest of their union friends in 2019, it drove truckers out of the state and increased transportation costs over and above the increase in fuel costs.
Katy Grimes, editor of the California Globe, reported on her astronomical energy bills in a January column.
Our utility bills have never been higher. Our PG&E gas bill last month was the highest we have ever paid, and for a home we are at 50% of the time. PG&E’s 26% rate hike request in 2023 turned into more of a 40% rate hike. As I reported, my PG&E bill in winter is often $455 and higher. Add to that the proposed 26% rate hike – $118.30 – and the bill jumps to $573.30. This year it’s $693 – for half-time use. [emphasis added]
The Transparency Foundation of California reports California’s middle class pays $26,478.72 more in additional cost of living charges than the national average. That’s an expensive sunshine tax.
On top of the onerous costs, Gavin Newsom and Democrats have driven out families with their radical trans policies, putting the state between parents and their underaged kids.
There's much more about Newsom's record that I'll be recounting for PJ Media readers leading to this election.
Again, Gavin Newsom has vowed to make America California if he becomes president in 2028.
What do think of his chances so far? Put your thoughts in the comments.
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