California Gov. Gavin Newsom has finally started to notice some of California’s problems, now that he’s threatened by a recall election. But he still doesn’t seem to understand the state of the Golden State.
Newsom had a mini-meltdown when confronted with a question about the fading California dream. Newsom angrily rattled off some numbers about how great California’s economy is and, obviously preoccupied with comparisons to Texas and Florida, said that “everybody outside this state is b****ing about this state because of our success, and I’m proud of it.”
But is “success” the reason so many people are leaving California that it just lost a seat in Congress?
Newsom, who has recently rediscovered that crime and homelessness are problems in California, still can’t bring himself to recognize just how deep California’s problems run. Newsom boasts that middle-class families in Texas pay more in taxes than middle-class families in California. But even though the taxes are high, it isn’t taxes that are strangling middle-class Californians. It’s the cost of living.
Everything from food to healthcare is more expensive in California. Raising a child costs $7,000 more per year in California than it does in Texas. Homes in California cost 60% more than in the Lone Star State.
California has the highest poverty rate in the country after you factor in the cost of living. California also has roughly a quarter of the country’s homeless population. It has seen 6.1 million people leave between 2010 and 2020, with only 4.9 million arriving from other parts of the country to take their place.
Newsom is either unaware of these problems (which is unlikely), or he simply can’t acknowledge them. After all, California has been a progressive playpen for years. There are no Republicans to blame these problems on — the last one with any power was former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who left office in 2011 and had a unified Democratic Legislature for his entire tenure.
This isn’t just Texas or Florida Republicans using California as a political punching bag. Californians, both former and current, are the ones identifying these problems. They have seen these issues firsthand, and Newsom still has no answer for them.
