Written by Thomas Geiser
Governor Gavin Newsom has recently announced his proposed budget for 2020-2021. The budget is $222.2 billion, which is up from $215 billion last year. The primary focuses of this new budget are homelessness, education, and healthcare.
This proposed budget would be the largest budget in state history, which is not surprising considering the cost of the Democratic welfare programs and safety nets. The Democrats in Sacramento simply have no concept of how to spend money efficiently or effectively. They treat the taxpayer money like an endless oil reserve to fuel their ambitious but ultimately shortsighted plans. The Democrats, led by Governor Newsom, are pillaging California for its wealth. The current budget predicted a surplus of $21 billion, while Governor Newsom’s proposed plan only has a projected surplus of $5.6 billion.
For education purposes, Governor Newsom has proposed an additional $900 million dollars to address the teacher shortage and improve the training of teachers already in the field. Additionally, $350 million of those funds will go towards supporting special needs education and LGBT students. These funds will not solve the education problem in California, of course. The teachers’ unions stand between untrained teachers who want to work in underfunded schools but aren’t part of the unions and the jobs they want to fill.
The teachers’ unions viciously attack groups like Teachers for America, who try to help less fortunate schools. The unions would rather these needy children go uneducated than have them taught by non-union teachers. As long as the unions hold sway over California Democrats, no amount of additional funding will solve California’s education problems.
On the issue of homelessness, the budget includes $6.8 billion to address the problem. This money will go towards building new housing and paying rent. Since when is it the responsibility of the government to pay for the rent of private citizens? Using taxpayer money in this fashion is akin to putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. People are homeless in California because it’s unreasonably expensive to live in this state thanks to absurdly high taxes and cost of living. These are the problems that need to be addressed instead of throwing fistfuls of money at the issue. In 2019, the homeless population in California increased by 23,000 people. Democratic solutions have not worked in the past and there is no reason to believe that they will make any significant difference this year either.
An additional $700 million would be directed towards healthcare to fund Medi-Cal for illegal immigrants over the age of 65. It would also be used to supplement the Medi-Cal for illegal immigrants who are young adults up to the age of 25. This is without a doubt the most irresponsible, ill-conceived, and foolish waste of money in Newsom’s budget. It boggles the mind that they would spend hard-earned taxpayer dollars to pay for the healthcare of people who are not part of the system and do not contribute to the system. These immigrants are not American citizens and are breaking the law by simply living in California. But instead of punishing them for violating the law, Governor Newsom is giving them free healthcare. There is no justification for this increase in the budget.
Newsom claims that “California is showing the nation and the world what big-hearted, effective governance looks like.” In reality, California is showing the nation and the world how to quickly go bankrupt with bleeding heart policies. It’s all sunshine and rainbows until the state runs out of money and the homeless and lower class populations explode because there are no more government programs to keep them sheltered and fed.
