Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is trying to find anything to stake his future presidential campaign on, including the unbelievable claim that California‘s government is the pinnacle of government efficiency.
In trying to score political points against Tesla CEO Elon Musk, like every other Democrat, Newsom said California is “DOGE but better.” It was a reference to the Department of Government Efficiency, of which Musk has been in charge, and to Newsom’s announcement that California will use artificial intelligence to boost government efficiency. Newsom has also said, “People travel the world to see California’s leadership.”
If California is a model for anything, it is for bloated government and reckless spending. Since January 2023, California has lost 173,000 private sector jobs but added 181,100 government jobs. The state spends so much money that Newsom wants to take out loans to cover healthcare costs for illegal immigrants. However, he is unwilling to take that money out of any other area of his $322 billion spending plan (the second largest in state history).
This is typically how it goes in California. When state Democrats determined they needed to fix roads up and down the state, rather than moving funding around to cover that basic government function without further burdening residents, they jacked up the gas tax. Meanwhile, the state is still spending billions upon billions of dollars on a high-speed rail that will likely never be completed, with a budget that continues to rise yearly.
California’s government is so inefficient that it hasn’t even been tracking how the billions of dollars it spends on homelessness are actually being used. From 2018 to 2023, the state spent a combined $13.7 billion on five homelessness programs and did not track whether those programs or that spending made any progress. According to the audit, the California Interagency Council on Homelessness hasn’t been tracking the effectiveness of homelessness spending since 2021. It has only existed since 2017.
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It’s safe to say that Musk’s DOGE would have axed that council on Day One. How long will it take “DOGE but better” to reach that same conclusion?
California is the worst-governed state in the country, a fact that Newsom and his fellow Democrats have proven time and time again. No state wastes more taxpayer money on fantastical projects with little to no benefit for residents, and no state is more irresponsible with its spending priorities. Newsom’s occasional forced spending cuts because the state is losing people and businesses to Texas do not make it “efficient” in any way.