{"id":80601,"date":"2025-12-04T00:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/80601\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T00:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:25:07","slug":"california-needs-oversight-not-newsoms-begging-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/80601\/","title":{"rendered":"California needs oversight, not Newsom’s begging bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Gavin Newsom brings his begging bowl to Washington Thursday, pushing what he calls a \u201clong-overdue federal aid package for LA fire survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Months ago, Newsom asked the feds for $40 billion to rebuild after the devastating blazes; he complained this week that the Trump administration still hasn\u2019t \u201csent a recovery proposal\u201d to Congress.<\/p>\n

But what has Newsom been doing in the 11 months since the fires?<\/p>\n

He found time to launch a podcast, and to visit South Carolina \u2014 the first state in the Democratic Party presidential primary.<\/p>\n

And he turned his official \u201c@GovPressOffice\u201d account on X into an anti-Trump trolling machine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even socialist Zohran Mamdani has shown more civility to the president.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

Furthermore, if Newsom needs money, he knows where to find it.<\/p>\n

California has a budget of $322 billion and faces an $18 billion deficit \u2014 the fourth year in a row in the red.<\/p>\n

$13.1 billion of that is entirely due to spending on \u201cfree\u201d health care for illegal immigrants, according to Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio.<\/p>\n

Newsom also found $50 million to fight the Trump administration in court<\/a>, and just spent nearly $300 million on a special election to gerrymander California\u2019s House districts.<\/p>\n

The state just keeps spending \u2014 without results, and without accountability.<\/p>\n

From 2019 to \u201924, California spent $24 billion on homelessness \u2014 and the number of homeless shot up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What went wrong? Sacramento can\u2019t say: The State Auditor\u2019s Office slammed the California Interagency Council on Homelessness for failing to consistently track or evaluate \u201cthe ongoing costs and outcomes\u201d of homeless programs.<\/p>\n

That is, the state figured spending money was what counted; results don\u2019t seem to matter: Any wonder Team Trump is reluctant to send no-strings-attached cash?<\/p>\n

Newsom claims California doesn\u2019t have money to rebuild, yet it does have funds for a high-speed rail project that is going nowhere.<\/p>\n

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When voters approved the LA-to-San Francisco bullet train in 2008, it was supposed to cost $33 billion and open by 2020; now the cost is well over $100 billion, with only vague hopes to finish by 2032 \u2014 if at all.<\/p>\n

What Newsom isn\u2019t spending enough on is fire prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital Public Radio, a liberal outlet, found in 2021 that the governor had fallen far short of his promises to remove fuel for wildfires from state land, and \u201cmisled the public\u201d about his efforts.<\/p>\n

The Palisades Fire in January began on land in the Topanga State Park; Newsom claims local authorities were responsible for fighting fires in that area \u2014 but state officials adopted a policy<\/a> limiting what firefighters could do near endangered plants or cultural sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who is leading an investigation into the Palisades Fire with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), is entertaining the idea of a special master to oversee fire aid to California.<\/p>\n

Like the special master who oversaw the 9\/11 Victims Compensation Fund, this one would ensure any federal money gets spent properly.<\/p>\n

Newsom has shown he can\u2019t be trusted \u2014 not with California\u2019s money, and not with America\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom brings his begging bowl to Washington Thursday, pushing what he calls a \u201clong-overdue federal aid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,12161,457,28249,975,17282],"class_list":["post-80601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-editorial","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-la-fires-2025","tag-opinion","tag-rick-scott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}