The governor of California, Gavin Newsom (D), was exultant this week, proclaiming that his state had surpassed Japan as the fourth largest economy in the world Germany alone, by China and the United States.
“California not only maintains the rhythm of the world, we are establishing the rhythm. Our economy is through we invest in people, we prioritize sustainability and we believe in the power of innovation,” he said in a statement.
Newsom also celebrated as tens of thousands or residents of California remain displaced by forest fires; As the homeless population continues climb; And like poverty, sausage in the nation, is in the raise.
California’s state can barely make final measures. Recently faced A budget deficit of $ 68 billion, and had to borrow more than $ 6 billion to maintain its Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, from collapse (thanks in part to “free” medical care for illegal foreigners).
In addition, California can barely build anything. The high -speed rail project that voters approved in 2008 will never connect to San Francisco and Los Angeles, as promised. It is also many years late and billions of dollars on the budget.
Newsom has banned the sale of gasoline vehicles by 2035, but consumers No Buy enough electric vehicles yet.
The list continues and continues.
The great cities of California administered by the Democrats are barely better. San Francisco and Los Angeles are fighting with a deficit of billions of dollars.
San Francisco is empty, thanks to excessive Coronavirus restrictions, in addition to crime, drugs and homeless. Los Angeles is falling apart, with crumbled roads and homeless camps. Public schools in these cities are generally terrible; Public spaces have become terrifying.
Then, on paper, California is richer than Japan. In practice, no reasonable person could argue that Californians enjoy a higher quality of life than the Japanese.
Japan has public security; High -tech public infrastructure; and excellent education and public services. It is true that it has a population that ages and has stagnated financially for a generation. But, crucia, is also competent in the management of natural disasters, unlike Wool Newsom.
Newsom’s celebration is a real accusation of its own administration. There is no excuse for a state with so much money and so much talent to be executed so badly. California is rich in wealth and poor leadership. It has become a state that is executed and for the super rich, who buy the vote at the expense at the expense of a middle -class population and small businesses, which are increasingly disadvantaged.
Political analysts see 2026 as a possible year for Republican advances in California, given that the most Or residents, and probably voters, believe that the State is on the wrong way. And there are some good candidates, including political commentator Steve Hilton, which is a source of ideas.
But no Republican has won a state position in almost two decades, after Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attempt in Reforma ended in a humiliating failure.
California’s economy continues to grow despite his government, not because it is. This is because the State continues to attract talented people around the world to seek their fortune in Silicon Valley and Hollywood.
The amazing natural beauty of the State, and its excellent climate, makes California difficult to leave even those residents who know they are paying more in taxes than they will never receive in the services.
But the California model is unsustainable.
In Los Angeles, the city bills More money in services for homeless ($ 961 million), who do not pay almost any tax, than in fire fighting ($ 837 million).
The lack of money meant that firefighters did not collapse before Palisades fire, that the fire destroyed thousands of what it could have done.
Some critics said that Los Angeles residents deserved to suffer, since they continue to choose the Democrats. Actually, the residents of Las Palisades voted with overall for developer Rick Caruso, who lost to Karen Bass now in 2022. What we can, perhaps, being accused of doing is our own security. We trust state and local authorities to do their job. That turned out to be a terrible mistake. (Anymore.)
Our dysfunction is a product of our history. California was founded and sustained by adventurers with appetite for risk. But its prosperity has arrived the periods of duration of public investment in institutes and infrastructure that made the growth of the private sector possible. Dams and aqueducts made agriculture possible in rich but aggregate soils of the Central Valley; World War II rose to the defense and the aerospace industries.
California’s sun and wealth attracted millions to the west, to a place that looked endlesly new. The State attracted free spirits of all kinds: the Trys hippies to save the world, libertarians looking for an escape from conformity. The “manifest destiny” that California had represented once in geographical terms, as the final objective of the American pioneering movement, became a moral mission, a belief that California could build a utopian future.
But the utopia was exensive. In 1978, voters gathered to approve Proposition 13, which limited the growth of property taxes. This historical voting initiative announced the next revolution reagn throughout the country, and has survived many efforts of left -handed Democrats to undo it. Some other limits have lasted: Proposition 209 or 1996, for example, which prohibits “affirmative action”, survived a counter-referendum in proposition 16 or 2020.
Not so the proposal 187 or 1994, which prohibited illegal foreigners from many public services; And proposition 8 of 2008, which consecrated traditional marriage. Both were revoked in the courts, which became a left wing more and more, as well as the legislature, where the Democrats have enjoyed a super -speech in recent years. The State has become an incubator of utopian schemes, in everything, from climate change to transgender politics.
In 2020, in the apogee of the Black Lives Matter movement, Newsom signed a law that created the first commission of nations to study repairs for slavery, despite the fact that California had entered the union as a free state in 1850. The legislature finally issued a Sorry For slavery and racial discrimination last year: activists thought that state leaders had resisted paying cash repairs to anyone.
Newsom knew that repair was a bad idea. Hey knowAlso, that California needs “sober up“On the limits of green energy; and that regulatory bodies such as the coastal commission create a useless bureaucracy.
But he never does much to change anything. And why should he hear, provided that the economy continues to grow? You can enjoy the utopia, and apply the basic concepts of governance, know that it will be its limit of two periods in 2026 and will be applied for president in 2028. By then, California will be the burden of another person.
But ask my neighbors in Las Palisades if being the fourth largest economy is worth more than a functional set of fire hydrants.
In any case, something has to give.
Joel B. Pollak is a senior editor in general in Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday In Sirius XM Patriot on Sundays at night from 7 pm to 10 pm et (4 pm at 7 pm pt). Hey is the author of The agenda: What Trump should do in its first 100 daysAvailable for pre-pedd at Amazon. He is also the author of Trump’s virtues: the lessons and legacy of the presidency of Donald TrumpNow available in audible. He is a winner of the student community of journalism Robert Novak 2018. Follow it on Twitter in @joelpollak.
