Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is facing a recall vote largely due to his incompetence at the position. In an attempt to keep his post as governor, he has now proposed a plan to bribe residents of his state with their own money.
The proposal, titled the “California Comeback Plan,” states that Newsom plans to send stimulus checks of at least $600 each to two-thirds of California residents.
It still requires the approval of the state legislature, USA Today reported Tuesday, but Newsom is pushing it enthusiastically.
And in a Twitter post Tuesday, he appeared to regard it as a done deal:
“$600 checks are coming to 2/3 of Californians. And if you have a kid, you can benefit from an additional $500,” he wrote.
In California — the answer is YES.
$600 checks are coming to 2/3 of Californians. And if you have a kid, you can benefit from an additional $500. https://t.co/NIDdsclPnG
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 11, 2021
Newsom’s new released explains that the plan would cost $100 billion, of which almost $12 billion will be “direct cash payments to Californians.” Newsom’s news release touted the deal as “the biggest state tax rebate in American history.”
There are so many problems with this proposal that it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with the fact that the money Newsom is using to bribe voters is largely their own money.
According to Breitbart, Newsom said in January that California was expecting a $15 billion surplus because of increased revenues.
“The recovery of the economy, and the stock market, meant that the state’s wealthiest taxpayers paid more to the fiscus,” Breitbart reported, referring to the state treasury.
“At that point, the governor announced a $600 ‘Golden State Stimulus’ for roughly four million low-income Californians.”
As the economy continued to recover, California’s surplus was even greater than state officials expected. Breitbart reported that the surplus number ended up being $75.7 billion, $38 billion of which can be used for discretionary spending.
With that background, Newsom has launched the new California Comeback Plan and attempted to paint himself as generous. In reality, the main reason that California has so much money to spend is because of the outrageous tax rates that it charge residents.
If California has so much surplus money, a natural response would be to lower taxes. Instead, Newsom wants to use the money to artificially bribe Californians not to recall him.
Another reason that California has money to burn is because President Joe Biden’s national stimulus plan rewarded states who unwisely destroyed their own economies.
“The state is sitting on another $26.6 billion from the latest federal coronavirus relief package in March, with broad authority on how to use it,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.
So, by means of taxpayer dollars and stimulus money that the federal government artificially created out of thin air, Newsom is pretending to be the nice guy so that he will not get recalled.
Another huge problem with this plan is that it is reminiscent of the terrible, big government policies that put Newsom in a position to be recalled in the first place.
Newsom subjected California to some of the harshest lockdowns of any state, which in turn destroyed many small businesses. The lockdowns appear to have done little to slow the death rate.
According to Becker’s Hospital Review, California has experienced 158 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents. This is roughly on par with Florida, which did not shut down its economy and is recording 167 deaths per 100,000 residents, despite having one of the oldest populations of any state.
By sending more free money to Californians, Newsom will only further damage small businesses in his state. As the latest jobs report indicates, paying potential workers to stay home makes them much less likely to go get a job.
According to The Wall Street Journal, just 266,000 jobs were added in April, which was well below the expected number of one million. Unemployment also rose from 6 percent to 6.1 percent despite the economy recovering from the downturn caused by the pandemic.
While The Journal listed several potential reasons that unemployment was still relatively high, the article acknowledged that some companies “are reporting they can’t find enough workers due to expanded unemployment benefits.”
“Under federal relief plans, those receiving jobless benefits get an additional $300 a week on top of regular state benefits, nearly doubling the average of $318 a week, according to the Labor Department,” The Journal reported.
“That means the average unemployment recipient earns better than the equivalent of working full time at $15 an hour. Those enhanced benefits are available until September, for a maximum of nearly 18 months — about three times as long as most states typically allow.”
It is astonishing that anyone could read that sentence and not conclude that paying potential worker more money to stay home than to work is likely to induce them not to work.
In order to address the problem of citizens not wanting to work, Newsom has now decided to give his state residents more money for doing nothing. Genius.
Through this attempt to avoid recall, Newsom has once again shown his incompetence as governor.
He clearly has no regard for California businesses, nor does he understand basic economics. This proposal is yet another example proving that Newsom should, in fact, be recalled.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
