Tom Del Beccaro: California's Gavin Newsom recall -- why the country needs to get behind it

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The recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom is headed to the ballot box this fall. While at first blush that may not seem like it matters if you live outside of California, the plain truth is that the Golden State’s far-left policies are damaging the entire nation and you have to pay for a good chunk of them. 

That makes the recall of Gavin Newsom every American’s business.

California is beset with problems. For years, California’s policies have led to crisis after crisis. There is a perennial water crisis, a wildfire crisis, an electricity crisis, a crime problem, business and job flight from the state, homelessness and poverty.

Then COVID hit.

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Governor Newsom chose the most draconian shutdown route.  He created a complex rubric of a color-coded tiered system of rules for counties on top of creating illogical regions that paired the state’s most populated counties with rural counties. The shutdown added t last in the nation in-school attendance to California's long list of problems.

The state legislative session was suspended, which ordinarily would be a welcome respite from the constant passage of budget-busting bills.  However, Newsom engaged in a one man-one rule deluge of executive orders that suspended or modified over 400 laws. 

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In response, a flurry of lawsuits was filed by businesses, churches and even the City of San Francisco. Some made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the overturning of some of Newsom’s executive orders. While other lawsuits in state court resulted, at one point, in an injunction prohibiting him from making more rules.

The sum of decades of Democrat rule in California and all those policies have been a tremendous loss of businesses and, therefore, jobs.  "At least 50 large corporations have left California since 2014, with the vast majority leaving in 2019 and 2020," taking their jobs with them, according to notes from the California Policy Center which keeps a California "Book of Exoduses." Left behind has been an exacerbated joblessness crisis, a worsening homeless crisis and calls for higher taxes to pay for more programs. 

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Predictably, California needed a bailout and Biden and the Democrats obliged with  "$42.6 billion according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.  State government will reportedly get $26.1 billion in aid, while local governments will get about $16 billion." As one news station used to say: That’s your money.

It hasn’t been the only bailout California has needed.

For years, California Democrat politicians have bowed to the far left and refused to allow for proper forest and brush management on state and federal lands. As a result, California has been subject to ravaging and deadly wildfires of unnecessary dimensions. 

According to the Los Angeles Times California "received more than $1.3 billion in federal aid to rebuild after the 2017 wine country wildfires, the 2018 Camp fire in Butte County and other disasters from those years," and even more in 2020.  That, too, is your money. 

Even before COVID, California’s anti-job policies required $10.2 billion in federal loans (an amount larger than the total budget of 11 states that year) to pay for state unemployment benefits by the end of 2012. Between 2011 and 2018, California’s "General Fund paid a total of $1.4 billion in interest payments" on those loans. If that was not enough, in January of this year, California paid "as much as $31 billion in unemployment funds to scammers." 

As for food price increases across the country, some Sacramento Democrats believe that farming harms the environment. So, they deprive Central Valley farmers of water (over 75% of the water that reaches San Joaquin/Sacramento Delta flows straight out to the ocean) and as described in Forbes, "make farming an increasingly more expensive enterprise, through wage and environmental regulations, to the point that they are driving farmers out of business – thereby reducing the capacity of California to produce food." That means higher food prices for everyone.

You can add to that trillions in long-term debt – between two and three trillion in government debt, pension liabilities and deferred infrastructure upkeep. The amount is so high the exact number is unknown.  Someday, California will likely need a bailout for that as well.

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If Gavin Newsom remains the governor of California, the assault on jobs, farmers, and employers will continue – including a ban on gas powered-vehicles. But still, there is more.

Last but not least, Newsom is pushing ahead with the early release of 76,000 felons including nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole.

That is Newsom’s California.

While the list of California’s problems goes on and on – keep this in mind – Gavin Newsom wants to be president of the United States. He wants his failed policies to be the norm across the Country.

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That is why the recall of Gavin Newsom matters to all of America. 

Fortunately, over 2.1 million Californians took a stand and signed a petition to Recall Gavin Newsom. This fall, a recall election will be held with a chance to bring sanity.  While there are numerous additional reasons to recall the governor about which I have written, every American must come to understand that, just like Californians, the nation also cannot afford Newsom anymore.

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