March 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Newt talks with Steve Hilton about the decline of major cities in California like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland due to rising crime and homelessness. Hilton’s new book “CALIFAILURE: Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst-Run State,” outlines a comprehensive policy reform program, he calls "Cali-Future," aimed at restoring California's former glory. He attributes California's decline to the unchecked power of government unions and a political monopoly, leading to extreme policies and mismanagement. Their conversation also touches on the impact of illegal immigration, the state's failing education system, and the potential for political change in California. Hilton also shares his background, including his family's escape from communist Hungary, his education at Oxford, and his career in politics and media.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
On this episode of Newts World, great cities like Los Angeles,
San Francisco at Oakland collapsed into squalor as crime and
homelessness were allowed to explode. The state that used to
pride itself as the home of innovation and opportunity became
the state with the worst trade of poverty, highest unemployment,
(00:25):
and most hostile business climate in America, as well as
the highest taxes. How did this happen and what is
needed to turn things around? In his new book Cali Failure,
Reversing the Ruin of America's Worst run State, Steve Hilton
lays out a comprehensive program of policy reform he calls
quote Califuture that will restore the Golden State to its
(00:48):
rightful place as the very best of America. Here to
discuss his new book, I'm really pleased to welcome my
guest and my friend, Steve Hilton. He is an entrepreneur,
political commentator, and best selling author. Steve, Welcome, and thank
(01:16):
you for joining me on newts World.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's a real, real pleasure and an honor to be
with you. It's fantastic. I'm really looking forward to the conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I know that you've had such a fascinating background. Before
we get into the book itself, talk a little bit
about growing up and attending Oxford and working with former
Prime Minister Cameron.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I'll take it right back to the beginning, if I may,
and explain that the more I think about it, the
more important it is to everything I've been doing. My
parents are Hungarian, and my stepfather's Hungary, and the whole
family is Hungarian, and they were refugees from communism in
Hungary in the fifties fifty six, obviously the Revolution which
(01:55):
was crushed by the Soviets, and we were immigrants and
the working class upbringing in England and had the great
opportunity of fantastic education and made it to Oxford University,
where I entered a whole new world and found myself
working for the Conservative Party. I actually joined as a
junior researcher the Conservative Research Department in nineteen ninety, the
(02:20):
last year of Margaret Thatcher's premiership. I had the incredible
honor of meeting her and working with her. There's a
funny story about that we can dive into later if
you like, and an amazing story which I have to
tell you, which you will really appreciate. Many years later,
I had the great, unbelievable honor of actually sitting next
to her at a small dinner for her eightieth birthday.
(02:41):
And there's a wonderful story from that that I must
tell you, But just to bring everyone up to date,
we moved here with my family in twenty twelve to California,
to the Bay Area, and again had the benefit of
amazing opportunities. I taught at Stamford, and I started a
tech company, and then myself in this very improbable new
(03:02):
career in the media. I'm enormously grateful to Rupert Murdoch
and everyone at Fox for giving me that opportunity. Hosted
a show where you were a wonderful guest a few
times the next Revolution on Sunday evenings. More recently, I've
stepped back from that to focus on California, my home state,
which I love. I became an American, I'm a citizen now,
proud American, but also a proud Californian, and I just
(03:25):
hate what is being done to our beautiful state. And
I've been wanting to get back into the world of
policy and government. So two years ago I started a
policy organization called Golden together, which has been developing specific
policy plans to address the multiple nightmares that we've experienced
(03:45):
under the one party rule of the Democrats, and a
lot of that has ended up informing this new book, Caliphialua,
which is both the problem and how we got here,
but also how we get out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
In the book, you say that Californi wounds are self inflicted,
the result of an unchallenged political monopoly. Can you talk
about how we went from the state of Ronald Reagan
and then Pete Wilson, and then the trajectory just carried
us further and further away from the world they'd represented.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
A really important part of that story is the government
unions and the power that they built up and the
control that they built up over the Democratic Party establishment
the politicians to the point where they are now the
dominant player in California politics and exert their power in
the most egregious ways, I mean, and have become so
(04:39):
complacent about their right to rule forever. Amazingly. Last cycle,
just to give you a little example, the unions supported
a Republican candidate in the state legislature in order to
punish a Democrat who stepped out of line and didn't
agree to one of their demands about organizing on universe campuses.
(05:00):
I believe it was they're so complacent because the Democrats
have such a big supermajority in the legislature that the
Union's actually as a warning to any other Democrat who
may stray from supporting one hundred percent union demands. They
funded a Republican and got him elected. So the Union
story is foundational to this the power block that controls
(05:23):
policy on every front. And then you add to that
how they got that supermajority in the legislature, which really
has been in place since twenty twelve. It's been a
chief through jerrymandering. In two thousand and eight, the voters
of California passed a ballot initiative that was sold to
them as independent districting, taking the power to draw the
(05:44):
districts out of the legislature, giving it to an independent commission.
But of course the Democratic machine totally hijacked that process.
I've spoken to people involved in that process, and they
went into the details of it and hijacked it. For example,
the original intent of the redistricting was to use existing
(06:06):
city and county boundaries as far as possible, they added
a criteria, which was communities of interest, which enabled them
to draw up these ridiculous boundaries. I know that everyone
does gerrymandering, I get it. But what you've ended up
with is a supermajority over two thirds in both houses
of the legislature for over a decade now. And if
(06:29):
you look at the basic numbers in California, it's a
much more Republican state than people think. So if you
take the average Republican share of the vote since the
last time a Republican one statewide, which is two thousand
and six Schwarzenegger's reelection, the average Republican vote share in
statewide elections is forty one point seven percent. The Republicans
(06:51):
don't have any We're close to that in the legislature.
Not forty percent, not thirty five, not thirty not twenty five.
It's been twenty percent, half the representation which their political
support would warrant. So a combination of the Unions with
a lock on the Democrat politicians and the supermajority in
the legislature have enabled them to drive through this ideological experiment,
(07:15):
getting more and more extreme on every single measure that matters.
It's been a total failure. You were listing some of
them earlier, because they've had no check on their power.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And they just seem to almost be on a treadmill
where they just have to go further and further left
all the time. I mean, I understand self interest, so
I understand that the unions what goodies, But what do
you think is the mechanism that leads them to become
more and more radical.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
It's the activists. I know it's a bit of a cliche,
but I talk about the Democrat industrial complex in California,
and it's not just it's the unions, but the activists.
They're very, very driven, it seems to me, by the
far left people on Twitter and of course the unions them.
So now you know the political directors of the unions
from the activist class, and so all the extremism we
(08:07):
see that's appeared on the national stage, it all started
in California. The Green New Deal, the extremism on gender
and race, even on elections, you know, ballot harvesting or
mail in voting. All these things began in California. The
ban on gas cars and stoves and all this stuff.
And so it's activist driven and because they do not
(08:30):
fear a challenge from the Republican Party. They can both
ignore opposing political views and actually ignore the real world
consequences because up till now they have not been worried
about being punished for any of this because the voting
has been so stacked in their favor. But I think
that's changing.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
So in that context, I mean, I've noticed that there's
been a significant increase in Republican registration. There's still a
long of the Democrats. But as in your sense that
the underlying dissatisfaction who there's a cnam for a while,
people who are dissatisfied just left, yes, exactly, which actually
(09:11):
reduced the pressure on the left to do things right
because the people who didn't like it were leaving. You says,
there's a greater propensity right now to stay and fight
rather than to leave.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yes, can I just amplified the point you just made,
because you're right. So the people who could leave left
massive outflows of population over the last few years, businesses
as well, and there's been a real level of complacency
about that. You hear Gavin Us and others all the
time saying, well, we're the fifth biggest economy in the world. Well, yes,
(09:44):
that's true as a Californian, and I'm proud of that.
But if you look into the details of that, so
much of that is driven by the tech monopolies who
have huge revenue but employ relatively few people. That's why
you have this at the same time, the fifth biggest
economy but the highest unemployment in the country. And so
they've been complacent that the goose will keep laying the
(10:06):
golden eggs even as people are leaving. But here are
some signs of change in twenty twenty four in the
November election, with President Trump at the top of the ticket,
not campaigning. You didn't even have a strong top of
the ticket campaign in twenty four for obvious reasons. The
Trump campaign didn't put much effort there. The top of
(10:27):
the ticket was Steve Garvey running for Senate against Adam Schiff.
I mean, the most spending in that campaign was actually
by Adam Schiff to promote Steve Garvey in the top
two primary. And so you didn't have a strong campaign
for the Republicans. You really didn't, And yet ten counties
flipped from blue to red, including significant ones like Fresno County,
(10:50):
the fifth biggest city in the Central Valley. You also
saw on specific issues overwhelming support for Republican positions, for example,
on crime, seventy percent voting for Proposition thirty six, which
was reversing the worst effects of Prop forty seven, the
one that Karmala Harris pushed through many years before. But
also on raising the minimum wage that was defeated, Rent
(11:12):
control was defeated, a bond measure was defeated. Really interesting
underlying signifies there's another story, of course, George Gascon in
Los Angeles, the Mayor and DA of Oakland in the
Bay Area, the mayor of San Francisco, so there was
a fight bag Huntington Beach is a really interesting story.
I mean it's not the biggest city, but an iconic
(11:33):
one in Orange County, Surf City, USA. A good friend
of mine, Tony Strickland. You may know Tony. Just over
four years ago. It was a council that was run six'
to one by The. Democrats tony put together a slate
of candidates they called themselves The fab four and they.
Won in twenty twenty. Two they took control four to,
three and it was a very maga platform and it
(11:55):
was not watered. Down Washy Washy Democrat. Light it was
very strong servative, platform and they implemented, it cleaning up homeless,
encampments prosecuting crime, properly what was going on in the
schools and the. Libraries they introduced a ballot initiative for VOTER.
Id they did all these things just now In, november
(12:15):
they ran seven, candidates they called themselves The Magnificent. Seven
they all. Won now it's seven. Zero so in four
years you've gone from sixty to One democrat to the
seven Zero. Republican so these are signs that things are.
MOVING i think the most encouraging one not In, california
but if you look. Nationwide of, course this astonishing revolution
(12:37):
in The latino, Vote hispanic as it's known outside Of,
california towards The Republican. Party that's the largest demographic group
In california now forty. Percent the demographic breakdown Of california
today forty Percent, latino thirty five Percent, white fifteen Percent
asian five, Percent, black five percent. Other the working Class
(12:58):
latinos In california are being hammered the most by these
far left. Policies there's a real opportunity. There this is
all before the fires In Los angeles that really shone
a spotlight on the combination of extreme policies and total
incompetence and dereliction of duty that we saw with the
fires And La county matters because it's such a big.
(13:21):
County it's twenty three percent of the vote In, California
so the fact that the fires were there and had
that impact and so many PEOPLE i. MEET i know
this is, anecdotal But i've always been A democrat Or.
Independent but we can't go on like. This this is a.
Joke we need to. Change SO i think the ingredients
are there for something really interesting to.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Happen one of the things that have gone wrong so
that there's no actual political news In. California you sort
(14:05):
of have a relatively Weak Los angeles. Times you still
have The Orange county, paper but overall people actually don't
know anything because there's no. Mechanism but it was very
struck with the impact Of Joe rogan and the notion
that you had forty two million people tune in over
preod a couple of days to listen To, trump so
(14:27):
he got more coverage out Of Joe rogan than all
three of the old networks. Combined just. AMAZING i wondered
if it was, possible if there's enough, stuff you could
almost invent an Online california daily that would be center,
right basically muck, raking bringing up all the, scandals all the,
things and gradually build a statewide network of subscribers who
(14:51):
are also inherently members of a political. Movement but it's
going to take something like, that it seems to, me
to create the organizational underpinning for the general potential revulsion
that would accelerate if people actually knew what was going.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
ON i completely agree with. YOU i, Mean sacramento is just,
extraordinary the amount of nonsense that has turned. Out it's
just astonishing this, year and no one follows. This no
one knows what's happening. There and you have a few
reporters who do a good. Job there's one in, Particular Ashley,
zavala who's from one of the networks and does really good,
reporting chases The democrats down the corridor and tries to
(15:29):
pin them. Down but generally, speaking there's very little coverage
and just the sheer volume of stuff that comes, out
no one can keep track of. It it's amazing this,
year the legislative, leaders The democrats in The assembly in
The senate said we're going to put a limit on
the number of bills that each member can. Introduce with that,
limit they've already introduced over two thousand bills this. Year
(15:52):
just the scale of it is. Astonishing no one can
keep up with. It of, course all of it ends
up feeding the bloat of the government regulatory state that
impacts every business and every family in all sorts of
ways that they don't. Understand SO i completely agree with
you that there needs to be more. Coverage THE La
times actually is really stepping up now on the. Fires
(16:13):
they've done very very good investigative work on all the
things That Karen bass and the leadership there got wrong
in the run up to the. Fires so that's changing as.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Well for those of us who are not From, california
how do you explain the fires that got that.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Bad so it's a combination of. Things Number one is
the concept of the fuel, load and it really is
an important concept And President trump was on. This he
made this point when he was president with the forest
fires in the actual forests in The sierras and In,
paradise and the point was that the forests are overgrown
as a result of deliberate policy climate, extremism environmental extremism
(16:54):
that basically stopped the process that had been going on
for centuries of controlled clearing the, forests clearing the. Underground
that was all stopped in the last few. Decades the
exact equivalent happened in the much lower mountains right there
In Los, angeles the coastal. Range. There it's not, forests
it's chaparral, shop but it's the same. Principle and you,
(17:17):
had for, example The Santa Monica Mountain, conservancy which is
a state agency that runs those mountains that's close To Pacific.
Palisades residents who knew the fire risk tried to clear
the area around their. Homes they were threatened with fines
for doing, it for doing sensible fire. Prevention there was
(17:41):
a bill that actually went through the legislature in twenty
twenty two that would have funded and mandated fire prevention
around vulnerable, communities including the ones that burned In La
it was vetoed By. Gavenusen it was vetoed, because in
the words of his veto, letter it would have encouraged.
(18:03):
Sprawl so it was against their ideology that you can't
have single family. Homes everything has to be apartments inside the.
City so that's the biggest, factor which was the tinderbox
conditions which never used to be like.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That we did a. Podcast not the fire chief From Laguna,
beach which is of course south OF la had no fire.
Problem and the reason is they have four hundred.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Goats goats, exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And they were told that some state agency was now
anti goat on the grounds that they might eat some
endangered plant or. Something plants.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Exactly but IF la.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Had actually had, goats the fire would not have.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Spread, no that's the fundamental reason that it spread so,
quickly because it was a tinderbox ready to go. Up
another state AGENCY carb which is responsible for so much
of the nonsense In, california The California Resources, board they
issued new guidelines in two, thousand this is more than
two decades ago that effectively stopped controlled, burns prescribed. Burns
(19:12):
if you talk to, anyone OBVIOUSLY i wasn't. There we
moved in twenty. Twelve but you talk to people in Southern, CALIFORNIA,
la they all tell you when there were, kids when
they're driving, around they, remember you, know you'd see a
fire on the hillside and you'd see cal fire, nearby
there'd be public service announcements on the radio, saying don't,
worry there's a fire by this. Freeway it's one of.
(19:33):
Ours don't call it, in it's just a. Control but
that was a common, occurrence completely disappeared as a result
of these environmental regulations once it. Started utter mismanagement and.
INCOMPETENCE i, mean we've gone through the list of, things
but it's the empty, reservoir the failure to pre deploy
fire engines and, firefighters allowing half the firefighting team to
(19:56):
go off. Duty just a series of absolutely catastrophic management.
Failures but actually it's SYMPTOMATIC i think the broader point
of A democrat machine where it throws up these machine
politicians Like Karen, bass Like Gaven, newsom Like Kamala, harris
who just get there not because of any conviction or
(20:18):
any sense of what they want to achieve or, vision
purely political operators who know how to navigate The democrat
machine say whatever's. Convenient that's what you're throwing up, now
and that, again that's a consequence of one party. Rule
you just get mediocrities making their way through who can
just play the game within the.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Machine how much of that has been sort of A
San francisco mafia because the state's way that from a population,
STANDPOINT la ought to be more, dominant but at a
practical political machine, level That San francisco has been.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Dominant, yes there's an amazing section in the book which
WHEN i started digging around and doing the, RESEARCH i
hadn't quite appreciated the connections between the The, newsom's The,
pelosis and The getties all intertwined for generations in terms
of that political machine In San francisco and The Bay,
Area getty providing the. Money newsom's, GRANDFATHER i believe was
(21:16):
a lawyer for The, getties And pelosi's husband was part of.
THAT i, mean the whole thing was totally. Incestuous those
three families, intertwined And John BURTON i believe was The
democrat boss In San, francisco came up With, pelosi and
The Bay area has dominated despite as you, say the
(21:36):
massive imbalance and.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Population With Willie, brown you GET i think clearly one
of the smartest politicians In, america and he just out
maneuvers The republican's time after time and helps CREATE i,
mean in many, Ways Kamla harris was invented By Willie
brown and.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Amazing he's still going. STRONG i just saw. IT i
think it was his birthday this. Week he's ninety. Eight
it's still going strong.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And having a great, time very. Much so you raised
the problem WHICH i ran. Across we did a lot
of work On Baltimore, city which has a terrible school,
system but it costs a, billion three hundred million dollars a,
year the third most expensive super capital in the country
of the big. Cities but the system has a, billion
three hundred million a year to protect, itself and the
(22:23):
reform groups have about three. Million so when you have
the teachers' union and the other public opinion, unions and
it used to be that it was The california prison
guards very.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Much so they're, huge, huge.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
And that they were, ruthless and that they were very well.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Organized and they get these enormous pay increases and the
pensions and the luxury healthcare is CALLED opep other post employment.
Benefits when you dig into, that it's almost worse than the.
Pensions these are from the people who told us That
obamacare was the best thing ever all that anyone. Needs
but it's not good enough for the. Unions they negotiate
for themselves, way way more generous healthcare coverage for themselves
(23:02):
and their. Families it's quite.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Extraordinary but there's no sense of. Scandal, No that's WHY
i think the news media problem is. Big it's not
being drilled into people's heads how truly corrupt the system.
Is But i'm. Curious in the last, decade per, person
spending has increased by seventy six percent and they're still
running a.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Deficit it's. Amazing how do they.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Manage to figure out how to increase spending more than
seventy six percent per?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Person they're another way of looking at, it they in
the last ten years or, so they've basically doubled the
budget after. Inflation even there's the population it's been. Declining,
well there's a number of. Things first of, all the
increasing pension obligations which have been to a certain extent baked.
In now there are actually not that much you can
do about some of, it the healthcare THAT i, mentioned
the favors for the. Unions but then what you start
(23:51):
to understand it when you look at things like the homeless.
Spending so there was a state order to report and
there's been a couple, now but the one that caught
the headlines a few months ago was twenty Four that
was the. Number twenty four billion dollars in the last
few years spent on homelessness that they could not track
or trace and had no impact whatsoever in the view
of the. Auditor and of course homelessness has. Increased we
(24:12):
have eleven percent of THE us population In california forty five,
PERCENT i, believe of the unsheltered homeless, population a total.
Joke where's the money? Going california is the only state
that implemented at the state level what was actually initiated
at the federal level with hard. Housing, first which is
it's illegal In california for any project with state money
(24:35):
to require sobriety mandated, treatment mental health. Whatever if you
get state money for, homelessness you cannot put any conditions
on it in terms of personal behavior or. Responsibility give
them an. Apartment it's called permanent supportive. Housing so they're
building these. Apartments the cost of the apartments is absolutely,
astonishing seven hundred thousand dollars in The Bay era a
(24:57):
million dollars per. Unit that money is coming from the,
taxpayer making no.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Difference how do they spend a million dollars per.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Unit you come back to the, unions so there's. Two
so the number of things negotiated with, these for, example
project labor. Agreements project labor agreements are negotiated by unions
and they have one or both of the following conditions
attached to. Them they call it skilled and trained and prevailing.
(25:28):
Wage skilled and trained means you have to have union workers.
Only prevailing wage is actually code for massively elevated above market.
Rates this is a real. STORY i met a house
builder In. Fresno we had a round table about what's going.
On he had two projects right then going on building.
Housing one was market, rate not touch by it. Is
(25:51):
the other had a project labor agreement which he had
to negotiate with the unions because the unions had filed
an environmental lawsuit to stop the. Project and so skilled
and trade have to use union members for things like carpet.
Fitting there were no union carpet fitters in the. Area
he had to bust them in from The Bay, area
(26:11):
put them up in a. HOTEL i, mean it's insanity
on the prevailing, WAGE i, said give me an, example he,
said right in the market rate HOUSING i have a
team of plumbers and you, know it's The Central. Valley
the rates are a bit. Lower they're paid between twenty
five and forty dollars an, hour depending on their age and.
Experience same, people exact same people go across town to
(26:35):
do the prevailing wage job ninety five to one hundred
and twenty dollars an hour negotiated in the. Contract that's
like a massive cost. Increase so this is what's going.
On it's a scam and the unions at the heart of.
IT i, mean here's another. Example there's a really interesting.
GUY i tell the story in the, book in the solutions.
(26:57):
Part there's a very interesting development in construction technology called mass,
timber which is an ability to use and it actually
really connects with the overgrown forest point because it's simply
put to take bits of trees that were not previously
usable for timber and going to squitch them together and
make it very strong and. Usable and it's a new,
(27:19):
technology not that in the last few, years and it's
cheaper than concrete and much better for the, environment and
it helps support our timber. Industry but in these affordable housing,
projects over the, years various lobbying groups have put conditions
on them in order to get the. Money it was
explained to me there's literally a points system for your.
(27:41):
Project one of the things that will get you government
money is if you use, concrete which is more expensive
and worse for the. Environment it's terrible from a climate,
perspective but the lobby has put that. In so it's
all this scam and corruption that has built up over
the years with nose scrutiny exactly to your point about
(28:02):
lack of investigative reporting on any of.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
This but was there any rationale for why they went to.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Concrete, no the concrete, lobby some person bribed them. Properly
we don't. Know there's no policy.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Benefit in addition to all these, problems how big is
the impact of a legal immigration then.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It's massive right, now the fiscal. Impact last year they
gave legal immigrants free, healthcare Full, medicaid which doesn't happen
in other, states and they projected a cost for this
which they've totally blown. Through and now they're in a
fiscal crisis On medicaid In. California medical it's known as
they've just in the last week asked for two successive emergency.
(28:59):
LOANS i think we're up to now seven point two
billion dollars in emergency loans to cover the cost of
giving the same health coverage to illegal immigrants in other.
States that's not what. Happens there's a limited version of.
Medicaid the argument, is, well you can't let people die
in the street and so, on of, course but you
(29:20):
don't have to give full coverage as if they were
citizens who've been paying into. It so there's a sort
of straightforward fiscal. Impact the other thing that you notice
is because of the way that that's evolved over the,
years you now see this enormous black economy going on In.
California you, know people outside of the system because they're
(29:40):
not properly. Integrated that's a loss of tax. Revenue there's
economic activity that isn't being. Captured and then there's the
impact of course on. Schools we have the terrible school,
Results latino kids suffering the worst. Outcomes those tend to
be the places where you have more illegal, immigrants less
proficient In, english. Etc, finally, enough it's not talked about very,
(30:00):
much it's not really part of the. Conversation one of
the reasons that housing is such a big, issue It's
the main reason that people are leaving the state is housing,
costs because you've got massive supply and demand.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Imbalance in a state that doesn't let you build houses, exactly.
Exactly so the other great area that has been. Tragic
WHEN i was, Young california probably had the best school
system in the. Country, yeah and it's. Collapsed. Yes how
do you explain the scale of the collapse of The california?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
System this one is pretty. Simple it's the takeover by
the teacher, unions and the teacher unions themselves really controlled
by the activist. Crowd it's almost. Laughable they're conditions for
reopening schools THAT La Teachers, union their official list of
conditions that had to be met for reopening schools after
(30:51):
the pandemic Included medicare for, all a wealth, tax you,
know all these. Things there's more that it's in the.
Book all these things unrelated to anything to do with.
Education it's just political. Activism and SO i think that
the actual standards of education in the schools is not.
Interested it really is the case that you've had an
(31:14):
ideologically driven activist class taking, over.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
And yet you HAVE i think this is straight out
of your. Book two thirds Of latinos and seventy percent
Of black students fail to meet basic standard In english and.
Math it is eighty percent Of latinos in eighty five
percent Of black kids can't meet basic. Standards how can
you have either a workforce or citizens if you produce
(31:38):
a generation with this total lack of. Education.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Exactly that's connected to having the highest poverty rate and
the highest unemployment in the. Country just to be, accurate
we had the highest unemployment for most of last. Year
as of this, MONTH i, believe with second highest. Unemployment
but the thing is that, again when you listen to
the conversation around, this because it's not. IGNORED i listened
(32:04):
to all. SIDES i listen TO mpr and LOCAL, mpr
and they do talk about, this but it always goes
in one, direction which is. Resources we need more resources
for our underserved. Communities we have the highest taxes in the,
country the spending per. PUPIL i don't think it's literally
the highest in the country spending per, pupil but it's up.
(32:27):
There there's no examination of the role of this, activist
politicized mindset in the school system driven by the teacher.
Unions rather than a focus on basic, education and then
you have at the state, level the, bureaucracy the legislature
(32:48):
pushing totally the wrong. Priorities so the big fight in
education In california in the last few years was over
the ethnic studies. Curriculum so they've introduced an Ethnic studies,
curriculum which has now been mandated for graduating high. School
you can't graduate high school without taking this class Ethnic.
Studies and of course the first version of it was just.
(33:12):
Horrific it was so that Even newsome sent it. Back
it was totally anti. Semitic it's just like a parody
of the, woke anti, white Anti semitic ideological clap. Trap
now the version that's been put out there is not much.
BETTER i, mean they've toned down some of the anti,
semitism but this is what they're focused. On it's just
(33:33):
ideology over.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
PRACTICALITY i have a hunch that the most common theme
in twenty twenty six will be the question isn't? Working
and If trump actually has government at the federal level,
working they'll keep The. House and if it's not, working
and they'll lose The. House AND i suspect A california
(33:54):
campaign that just said this isn't. Working i'm seeing. DATA
i might have a uge, residence BUT i noticed that
something you picked up on That trump actually gained ground
In california against The california presidential, nominee and the ten
of the counties actually flipped from blue to. Red that's
probably the most encouraging result we've had in over a,
(34:16):
decade very much.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
So and, AGAIN i think the important point is that
this Was. Trump this wasn't a kind of watered down.
Version it was a very, clear, strong common sense conservative.
Message AND i think that to a certain, extent my
sense of The Republican party In california is it's been
a little timid and absorbed this idea that in order
(34:40):
to win In, california you have to be a little bit.
Different It's. California you have to water it down a.
Bit it can't be too. CONSERVATIVE i think that's definitely. True,
frankly on the social, ISSUES i think that is. True
but on these core functional issues to do with the,
government you, know like, crime, schools, jobs running a, business,
(35:01):
housing basic, THINGS i think there is an absolute appetite
for really clear and strong conservative, positions.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
AND i hope That, steve you AND i can work
on over the next couple of, years SO i do
Think i'm watching sort of the ice a break and
the beginning of maybe a new era In. CALIFORNIA i
really want to thank you for joining. Me i've always
liked watching you ON. Tv you're always very smart and very.
Articulate and your new, Book Cali, Failure reversing The ruin
(35:29):
Of America's Worst Run state is available now On amazon
in a bookstores. Everywhere it's remarkably relevant not just the
future Of, california but to the future Of america because
we cannot have a Sick california and have a Healthy.
America so you're doing a, major very important. THING i
recommend everyone get a copy to read. It And, STEVE
(35:50):
i want to really thank you for taking this time
to be with.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Us it was a great pleasure AND i look forward
to continue the conversation and the. Work great to see you.
Today thank.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
You thank you to my Guest Steve. Hilton you can
get a link to buy his new, Book Cali, Failure
reversing The ruin Of America's Worst Run state on our
show page at newtsworld dot. Com newtsworld is produced By
gingwishtree sixty And. iHeartMedia our executive producer Is Guarnsey. Sloan
(36:21):
our researcher Is Rachel. Peterson the artwork for the show
was created By Steve. Penley special thanks to the team
At gingwishtree. Sixty if you've been Enjoying, NUTSWORLD i hope
you'll go To Apple podcast and both rate us with
five stars and give us a review so others can
learn what it's all. About right, now listeners Of newtsworld
(36:41):
consign up for my three free weekly columns at gainwistree
sixty dot com slash. NEWSLETTER i Have Newt. Gingrich this
Is newtsworld
On this episode of Newts World, great cities like Los Angeles,
San Francisco at Oakland collapsed into squalor as crime and
homelessness were allowed to explode. The state that used to
pride itself as the home of innovation and opportunity became
the state with the worst trade of poverty, highest unemployment,
(00:25):
and most hostile business climate in America, as well as
the highest taxes. How did this happen and what is
needed to turn things around? In his new book Cali Failure,
Reversing the Ruin of America's Worst run State, Steve Hilton
lays out a comprehensive program of policy reform he calls
quote Califuture that will restore the Golden State to its
(00:48):
rightful place as the very best of America. Here to
discuss his new book, I'm really pleased to welcome my
guest and my friend, Steve Hilton. He is an entrepreneur,
political commentator, and best selling author. Steve, Welcome, and thank
(01:16):
you for joining me on newts World.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's a real, real pleasure and an honor to be
with you. It's fantastic. I'm really looking forward to the conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I know that you've had such a fascinating background. Before
we get into the book itself, talk a little bit
about growing up and attending Oxford and working with former
Prime Minister Cameron.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I'll take it right back to the beginning, if I may,
and explain that the more I think about it, the
more important it is to everything I've been doing. My
parents are Hungarian, and my stepfather's Hungary, and the whole
family is Hungarian, and they were refugees from communism in
Hungary in the fifties fifty six, obviously the Revolution which
(01:55):
was crushed by the Soviets, and we were immigrants and
the working class upbringing in England and had the great
opportunity of fantastic education and made it to Oxford University,
where I entered a whole new world and found myself
working for the Conservative Party. I actually joined as a
junior researcher the Conservative Research Department in nineteen ninety, the
(02:20):
last year of Margaret Thatcher's premiership. I had the incredible
honor of meeting her and working with her. There's a
funny story about that we can dive into later if
you like, and an amazing story which I have to
tell you, which you will really appreciate. Many years later,
I had the great, unbelievable honor of actually sitting next
to her at a small dinner for her eightieth birthday.
(02:41):
And there's a wonderful story from that that I must
tell you, But just to bring everyone up to date,
we moved here with my family in twenty twelve to California,
to the Bay Area, and again had the benefit of
amazing opportunities. I taught at Stamford, and I started a
tech company, and then myself in this very improbable new
(03:02):
career in the media. I'm enormously grateful to Rupert Murdoch
and everyone at Fox for giving me that opportunity. Hosted
a show where you were a wonderful guest a few
times the next Revolution on Sunday evenings. More recently, I've
stepped back from that to focus on California, my home state,
which I love. I became an American, I'm a citizen now,
proud American, but also a proud Californian, and I just
(03:25):
hate what is being done to our beautiful state. And
I've been wanting to get back into the world of
policy and government. So two years ago I started a
policy organization called Golden together, which has been developing specific
policy plans to address the multiple nightmares that we've experienced
(03:45):
under the one party rule of the Democrats, and a
lot of that has ended up informing this new book, Caliphialua,
which is both the problem and how we got here,
but also how we get out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
In the book, you say that Californi wounds are self inflicted,
the result of an unchallenged political monopoly. Can you talk
about how we went from the state of Ronald Reagan
and then Pete Wilson, and then the trajectory just carried
us further and further away from the world they'd represented.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
A really important part of that story is the government
unions and the power that they built up and the
control that they built up over the Democratic Party establishment
the politicians to the point where they are now the
dominant player in California politics and exert their power in
the most egregious ways, I mean, and have become so
(04:39):
complacent about their right to rule forever. Amazingly. Last cycle,
just to give you a little example, the unions supported
a Republican candidate in the state legislature in order to
punish a Democrat who stepped out of line and didn't
agree to one of their demands about organizing on universe campuses.
(05:00):
I believe it was they're so complacent because the Democrats
have such a big supermajority in the legislature that the
Union's actually as a warning to any other Democrat who
may stray from supporting one hundred percent union demands. They
funded a Republican and got him elected. So the Union
story is foundational to this the power block that controls
(05:23):
policy on every front. And then you add to that
how they got that supermajority in the legislature, which really
has been in place since twenty twelve. It's been a
chief through jerrymandering. In two thousand and eight, the voters
of California passed a ballot initiative that was sold to
them as independent districting, taking the power to draw the
(05:44):
districts out of the legislature, giving it to an independent commission.
But of course the Democratic machine totally hijacked that process.
I've spoken to people involved in that process, and they
went into the details of it and hijacked it. For example,
the original intent of the redistricting was to use existing
(06:06):
city and county boundaries as far as possible, they added
a criteria, which was communities of interest, which enabled them
to draw up these ridiculous boundaries. I know that everyone
does gerrymandering, I get it. But what you've ended up
with is a supermajority over two thirds in both houses
of the legislature for over a decade now. And if
(06:29):
you look at the basic numbers in California, it's a
much more Republican state than people think. So if you
take the average Republican share of the vote since the
last time a Republican one statewide, which is two thousand
and six Schwarzenegger's reelection, the average Republican vote share in
statewide elections is forty one point seven percent. The Republicans
(06:51):
don't have any We're close to that in the legislature.
Not forty percent, not thirty five, not thirty not twenty five.
It's been twenty percent, half the representation which their political
support would warrant. So a combination of the Unions with
a lock on the Democrat politicians and the supermajority in
the legislature have enabled them to drive through this ideological experiment,
(07:15):
getting more and more extreme on every single measure that matters.
It's been a total failure. You were listing some of
them earlier, because they've had no check on their power.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And they just seem to almost be on a treadmill
where they just have to go further and further left
all the time. I mean, I understand self interest, so
I understand that the unions what goodies, But what do
you think is the mechanism that leads them to become
more and more radical.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
It's the activists. I know it's a bit of a cliche,
but I talk about the Democrat industrial complex in California,
and it's not just it's the unions, but the activists.
They're very, very driven, it seems to me, by the
far left people on Twitter and of course the unions them.
So now you know the political directors of the unions
from the activist class, and so all the extremism we
(08:07):
see that's appeared on the national stage, it all started
in California. The Green New Deal, the extremism on gender
and race, even on elections, you know, ballot harvesting or
mail in voting. All these things began in California. The
ban on gas cars and stoves and all this stuff.
And so it's activist driven and because they do not
(08:30):
fear a challenge from the Republican Party. They can both
ignore opposing political views and actually ignore the real world
consequences because up till now they have not been worried
about being punished for any of this because the voting
has been so stacked in their favor. But I think
that's changing.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
So in that context, I mean, I've noticed that there's
been a significant increase in Republican registration. There's still a
long of the Democrats. But as in your sense that
the underlying dissatisfaction who there's a cnam for a while,
people who are dissatisfied just left, yes, exactly, which actually
(09:11):
reduced the pressure on the left to do things right
because the people who didn't like it were leaving. You says,
there's a greater propensity right now to stay and fight
rather than to leave.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yes, can I just amplified the point you just made,
because you're right. So the people who could leave left
massive outflows of population over the last few years, businesses
as well, and there's been a real level of complacency
about that. You hear Gavin Us and others all the
time saying, well, we're the fifth biggest economy in the world. Well, yes,
(09:44):
that's true as a Californian, and I'm proud of that.
But if you look into the details of that, so
much of that is driven by the tech monopolies who
have huge revenue but employ relatively few people. That's why
you have this at the same time, the fifth biggest
economy but the highest unemployment in the country. And so
they've been complacent that the goose will keep laying the
(10:06):
golden eggs even as people are leaving. But here are
some signs of change in twenty twenty four in the
November election, with President Trump at the top of the ticket,
not campaigning. You didn't even have a strong top of
the ticket campaign in twenty four for obvious reasons. The
Trump campaign didn't put much effort there. The top of
(10:27):
the ticket was Steve Garvey running for Senate against Adam Schiff.
I mean, the most spending in that campaign was actually
by Adam Schiff to promote Steve Garvey in the top
two primary. And so you didn't have a strong campaign
for the Republicans. You really didn't, And yet ten counties
flipped from blue to red, including significant ones like Fresno County,
(10:50):
the fifth biggest city in the Central Valley. You also
saw on specific issues overwhelming support for Republican positions, for example,
on crime, seventy percent voting for Proposition thirty six, which
was reversing the worst effects of Prop forty seven, the
one that Karmala Harris pushed through many years before. But
also on raising the minimum wage that was defeated, Rent
(11:12):
control was defeated, a bond measure was defeated. Really interesting
underlying signifies there's another story, of course, George Gascon in
Los Angeles, the Mayor and DA of Oakland in the
Bay Area, the mayor of San Francisco, so there was
a fight bag Huntington Beach is a really interesting story.
I mean it's not the biggest city, but an iconic
(11:33):
one in Orange County, Surf City, USA. A good friend
of mine, Tony Strickland. You may know Tony. Just over
four years ago. It was a council that was run six'
to one by The. Democrats tony put together a slate
of candidates they called themselves The fab four and they.
Won in twenty twenty. Two they took control four to,
three and it was a very maga platform and it
(11:55):
was not watered. Down Washy Washy Democrat. Light it was
very strong servative, platform and they implemented, it cleaning up homeless,
encampments prosecuting crime, properly what was going on in the
schools and the. Libraries they introduced a ballot initiative for VOTER.
Id they did all these things just now In, november
(12:15):
they ran seven, candidates they called themselves The Magnificent. Seven
they all. Won now it's seven. Zero so in four
years you've gone from sixty to One democrat to the
seven Zero. Republican so these are signs that things are.
MOVING i think the most encouraging one not In, california
but if you look. Nationwide of, course this astonishing revolution
(12:37):
in The latino, Vote hispanic as it's known outside Of,
california towards The Republican. Party that's the largest demographic group
In california now forty. Percent the demographic breakdown Of california
today forty Percent, latino thirty five Percent, white fifteen Percent
asian five, Percent, black five percent. Other the working Class
(12:58):
latinos In california are being hammered the most by these
far left. Policies there's a real opportunity. There this is
all before the fires In Los angeles that really shone
a spotlight on the combination of extreme policies and total
incompetence and dereliction of duty that we saw with the
fires And La county matters because it's such a big.
(13:21):
County it's twenty three percent of the vote In, California
so the fact that the fires were there and had
that impact and so many PEOPLE i. MEET i know
this is, anecdotal But i've always been A democrat Or.
Independent but we can't go on like. This this is a.
Joke we need to. Change SO i think the ingredients
are there for something really interesting to.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Happen one of the things that have gone wrong so
that there's no actual political news In. California you sort
(14:05):
of have a relatively Weak Los angeles. Times you still
have The Orange county, paper but overall people actually don't
know anything because there's no. Mechanism but it was very
struck with the impact Of Joe rogan and the notion
that you had forty two million people tune in over
preod a couple of days to listen To, trump so
(14:27):
he got more coverage out Of Joe rogan than all
three of the old networks. Combined just. AMAZING i wondered
if it was, possible if there's enough, stuff you could
almost invent an Online california daily that would be center,
right basically muck, raking bringing up all the, scandals all the,
things and gradually build a statewide network of subscribers who
(14:51):
are also inherently members of a political. Movement but it's
going to take something like, that it seems to, me
to create the organizational underpinning for the general potential revulsion
that would accelerate if people actually knew what was going.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
ON i completely agree with. YOU i, Mean sacramento is just,
extraordinary the amount of nonsense that has turned. Out it's
just astonishing this, year and no one follows. This no
one knows what's happening. There and you have a few
reporters who do a good. Job there's one in, Particular Ashley,
zavala who's from one of the networks and does really good,
reporting chases The democrats down the corridor and tries to
(15:29):
pin them. Down but generally, speaking there's very little coverage
and just the sheer volume of stuff that comes, out
no one can keep track of. It it's amazing this,
year the legislative, leaders The democrats in The assembly in
The senate said we're going to put a limit on
the number of bills that each member can. Introduce with that,
limit they've already introduced over two thousand bills this. Year
(15:52):
just the scale of it is. Astonishing no one can
keep up with. It of, course all of it ends
up feeding the bloat of the government regulatory state that
impacts every business and every family in all sorts of
ways that they don't. Understand SO i completely agree with
you that there needs to be more. Coverage THE La
times actually is really stepping up now on the. Fires
(16:13):
they've done very very good investigative work on all the
things That Karen bass and the leadership there got wrong
in the run up to the. Fires so that's changing as.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Well for those of us who are not From, california
how do you explain the fires that got that.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Bad so it's a combination of. Things Number one is
the concept of the fuel, load and it really is
an important concept And President trump was on. This he
made this point when he was president with the forest
fires in the actual forests in The sierras and In,
paradise and the point was that the forests are overgrown
as a result of deliberate policy climate, extremism environmental extremism
(16:54):
that basically stopped the process that had been going on
for centuries of controlled clearing the, forests clearing the. Underground
that was all stopped in the last few. Decades the
exact equivalent happened in the much lower mountains right there
In Los, angeles the coastal. Range. There it's not, forests
it's chaparral, shop but it's the same. Principle and you,
(17:17):
had for, example The Santa Monica Mountain, conservancy which is
a state agency that runs those mountains that's close To Pacific.
Palisades residents who knew the fire risk tried to clear
the area around their. Homes they were threatened with fines
for doing, it for doing sensible fire. Prevention there was
(17:41):
a bill that actually went through the legislature in twenty
twenty two that would have funded and mandated fire prevention
around vulnerable, communities including the ones that burned In La
it was vetoed By. Gavenusen it was vetoed, because in
the words of his veto, letter it would have encouraged.
(18:03):
Sprawl so it was against their ideology that you can't
have single family. Homes everything has to be apartments inside the.
City so that's the biggest, factor which was the tinderbox
conditions which never used to be like.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That we did a. Podcast not the fire chief From Laguna,
beach which is of course south OF la had no fire.
Problem and the reason is they have four hundred.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Goats goats, exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
And they were told that some state agency was now
anti goat on the grounds that they might eat some
endangered plant or. Something plants.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Exactly but IF la.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Had actually had, goats the fire would not have.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Spread, no that's the fundamental reason that it spread so,
quickly because it was a tinderbox ready to go. Up
another state AGENCY carb which is responsible for so much
of the nonsense In, california The California Resources, board they
issued new guidelines in two, thousand this is more than
two decades ago that effectively stopped controlled, burns prescribed. Burns
(19:12):
if you talk to, anyone OBVIOUSLY i wasn't. There we
moved in twenty. Twelve but you talk to people in Southern, CALIFORNIA,
la they all tell you when there were, kids when
they're driving, around they, remember you, know you'd see a
fire on the hillside and you'd see cal fire, nearby
there'd be public service announcements on the radio, saying don't,
worry there's a fire by this. Freeway it's one of.
(19:33):
Ours don't call it, in it's just a. Control but
that was a common, occurrence completely disappeared as a result
of these environmental regulations once it. Started utter mismanagement and.
INCOMPETENCE i, mean we've gone through the list of, things
but it's the empty, reservoir the failure to pre deploy
fire engines and, firefighters allowing half the firefighting team to
(19:56):
go off. Duty just a series of absolutely catastrophic management.
Failures but actually it's SYMPTOMATIC i think the broader point
of A democrat machine where it throws up these machine
politicians Like Karen, bass Like Gaven, newsom Like Kamala, harris
who just get there not because of any conviction or
(20:18):
any sense of what they want to achieve or, vision
purely political operators who know how to navigate The democrat
machine say whatever's. Convenient that's what you're throwing up, now
and that, again that's a consequence of one party. Rule
you just get mediocrities making their way through who can
just play the game within the.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Machine how much of that has been sort of A
San francisco mafia because the state's way that from a population,
STANDPOINT la ought to be more, dominant but at a
practical political machine, level That San francisco has been.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Dominant, yes there's an amazing section in the book which
WHEN i started digging around and doing the, RESEARCH i
hadn't quite appreciated the connections between the The, newsom's The,
pelosis and The getties all intertwined for generations in terms
of that political machine In San francisco and The Bay,
Area getty providing the. Money newsom's, GRANDFATHER i believe was
(21:16):
a lawyer for The, getties And pelosi's husband was part of.
THAT i, mean the whole thing was totally. Incestuous those
three families, intertwined And John BURTON i believe was The
democrat boss In San, francisco came up With, pelosi and
The Bay area has dominated despite as you, say the
(21:36):
massive imbalance and.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Population With Willie, brown you GET i think clearly one
of the smartest politicians In, america and he just out
maneuvers The republican's time after time and helps CREATE i,
mean in many, Ways Kamla harris was invented By Willie
brown and.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Amazing he's still going. STRONG i just saw. IT i
think it was his birthday this. Week he's ninety. Eight
it's still going strong.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And having a great, time very. Much so you raised
the problem WHICH i ran. Across we did a lot
of work On Baltimore, city which has a terrible school,
system but it costs a, billion three hundred million dollars a,
year the third most expensive super capital in the country
of the big. Cities but the system has a, billion
three hundred million a year to protect, itself and the
(22:23):
reform groups have about three. Million so when you have
the teachers' union and the other public opinion, unions and
it used to be that it was The california prison
guards very.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Much so they're, huge, huge.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
And that they were, ruthless and that they were very well.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Organized and they get these enormous pay increases and the
pensions and the luxury healthcare is CALLED opep other post employment.
Benefits when you dig into, that it's almost worse than the.
Pensions these are from the people who told us That
obamacare was the best thing ever all that anyone. Needs
but it's not good enough for the. Unions they negotiate
for themselves, way way more generous healthcare coverage for themselves
(23:02):
and their. Families it's quite.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Extraordinary but there's no sense of. Scandal, No that's WHY
i think the news media problem is. Big it's not
being drilled into people's heads how truly corrupt the system.
Is But i'm. Curious in the last, decade per, person
spending has increased by seventy six percent and they're still
running a.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Deficit it's. Amazing how do they.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Manage to figure out how to increase spending more than
seventy six percent per?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Person they're another way of looking at, it they in
the last ten years or, so they've basically doubled the
budget after. Inflation even there's the population it's been. Declining,
well there's a number of. Things first of, all the
increasing pension obligations which have been to a certain extent baked.
In now there are actually not that much you can
do about some of, it the healthcare THAT i, mentioned
the favors for the. Unions but then what you start
(23:51):
to understand it when you look at things like the homeless.
Spending so there was a state order to report and
there's been a couple, now but the one that caught
the headlines a few months ago was twenty Four that
was the. Number twenty four billion dollars in the last
few years spent on homelessness that they could not track
or trace and had no impact whatsoever in the view
of the. Auditor and of course homelessness has. Increased we
(24:12):
have eleven percent of THE us population In california forty five,
PERCENT i, believe of the unsheltered homeless, population a total.
Joke where's the money? Going california is the only state
that implemented at the state level what was actually initiated
at the federal level with hard. Housing, first which is
it's illegal In california for any project with state money
(24:35):
to require sobriety mandated, treatment mental health. Whatever if you
get state money for, homelessness you cannot put any conditions
on it in terms of personal behavior or. Responsibility give
them an. Apartment it's called permanent supportive. Housing so they're
building these. Apartments the cost of the apartments is absolutely,
astonishing seven hundred thousand dollars in The Bay era a
(24:57):
million dollars per. Unit that money is coming from the,
taxpayer making no.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Difference how do they spend a million dollars per.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Unit you come back to the, unions so there's. Two
so the number of things negotiated with, these for, example
project labor. Agreements project labor agreements are negotiated by unions
and they have one or both of the following conditions
attached to. Them they call it skilled and trained and prevailing.
(25:28):
Wage skilled and trained means you have to have union workers.
Only prevailing wage is actually code for massively elevated above market.
Rates this is a real. STORY i met a house
builder In. Fresno we had a round table about what's going.
On he had two projects right then going on building.
Housing one was market, rate not touch by it. Is
(25:51):
the other had a project labor agreement which he had
to negotiate with the unions because the unions had filed
an environmental lawsuit to stop the. Project and so skilled
and trade have to use union members for things like carpet.
Fitting there were no union carpet fitters in the. Area
he had to bust them in from The Bay, area
(26:11):
put them up in a. HOTEL i, mean it's insanity
on the prevailing, WAGE i, said give me an, example he,
said right in the market rate HOUSING i have a
team of plumbers and you, know it's The Central. Valley
the rates are a bit. Lower they're paid between twenty
five and forty dollars an, hour depending on their age and.
Experience same, people exact same people go across town to
(26:35):
do the prevailing wage job ninety five to one hundred
and twenty dollars an hour negotiated in the. Contract that's
like a massive cost. Increase so this is what's going.
On it's a scam and the unions at the heart of.
IT i, mean here's another. Example there's a really interesting.
GUY i tell the story in the, book in the solutions.
(26:57):
Part there's a very interesting development in construction technology called mass,
timber which is an ability to use and it actually
really connects with the overgrown forest point because it's simply
put to take bits of trees that were not previously
usable for timber and going to squitch them together and
make it very strong and. Usable and it's a new,
(27:19):
technology not that in the last few, years and it's
cheaper than concrete and much better for the, environment and
it helps support our timber. Industry but in these affordable housing,
projects over the, years various lobbying groups have put conditions
on them in order to get the. Money it was
explained to me there's literally a points system for your.
(27:41):
Project one of the things that will get you government
money is if you use, concrete which is more expensive
and worse for the. Environment it's terrible from a climate,
perspective but the lobby has put that. In so it's
all this scam and corruption that has built up over
the years with nose scrutiny exactly to your point about
(28:02):
lack of investigative reporting on any of.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
This but was there any rationale for why they went to.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Concrete, no the concrete, lobby some person bribed them. Properly
we don't. Know there's no policy.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Benefit in addition to all these, problems how big is
the impact of a legal immigration then.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It's massive right, now the fiscal. Impact last year they
gave legal immigrants free, healthcare Full, medicaid which doesn't happen
in other, states and they projected a cost for this
which they've totally blown. Through and now they're in a
fiscal crisis On medicaid In. California medical it's known as
they've just in the last week asked for two successive emergency.
(28:59):
LOANS i think we're up to now seven point two
billion dollars in emergency loans to cover the cost of
giving the same health coverage to illegal immigrants in other.
States that's not what. Happens there's a limited version of.
Medicaid the argument, is, well you can't let people die
in the street and so, on of, course but you
(29:20):
don't have to give full coverage as if they were
citizens who've been paying into. It so there's a sort
of straightforward fiscal. Impact the other thing that you notice
is because of the way that that's evolved over the,
years you now see this enormous black economy going on In.
California you, know people outside of the system because they're
(29:40):
not properly. Integrated that's a loss of tax. Revenue there's
economic activity that isn't being. Captured and then there's the
impact of course on. Schools we have the terrible school,
Results latino kids suffering the worst. Outcomes those tend to
be the places where you have more illegal, immigrants less
proficient In, english. Etc, finally, enough it's not talked about very,
(30:00):
much it's not really part of the. Conversation one of
the reasons that housing is such a big, issue It's
the main reason that people are leaving the state is housing,
costs because you've got massive supply and demand.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Imbalance in a state that doesn't let you build houses, exactly.
Exactly so the other great area that has been. Tragic
WHEN i was, Young california probably had the best school
system in the. Country, yeah and it's. Collapsed. Yes how
do you explain the scale of the collapse of The california?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
System this one is pretty. Simple it's the takeover by
the teacher, unions and the teacher unions themselves really controlled
by the activist. Crowd it's almost. Laughable they're conditions for
reopening schools THAT La Teachers, union their official list of
conditions that had to be met for reopening schools after
(30:51):
the pandemic Included medicare for, all a wealth, tax you,
know all these. Things there's more that it's in the.
Book all these things unrelated to anything to do with.
Education it's just political. Activism and SO i think that
the actual standards of education in the schools is not.
Interested it really is the case that you've had an
(31:14):
ideologically driven activist class taking, over.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
And yet you HAVE i think this is straight out
of your. Book two thirds Of latinos and seventy percent
Of black students fail to meet basic standard In english and.
Math it is eighty percent Of latinos in eighty five
percent Of black kids can't meet basic. Standards how can
you have either a workforce or citizens if you produce
(31:38):
a generation with this total lack of. Education.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Exactly that's connected to having the highest poverty rate and
the highest unemployment in the. Country just to be, accurate
we had the highest unemployment for most of last. Year
as of this, MONTH i, believe with second highest. Unemployment
but the thing is that, again when you listen to
the conversation around, this because it's not. IGNORED i listened
(32:04):
to all. SIDES i listen TO mpr and LOCAL, mpr
and they do talk about, this but it always goes
in one, direction which is. Resources we need more resources
for our underserved. Communities we have the highest taxes in the,
country the spending per. PUPIL i don't think it's literally
the highest in the country spending per, pupil but it's up.
(32:27):
There there's no examination of the role of this, activist
politicized mindset in the school system driven by the teacher.
Unions rather than a focus on basic, education and then
you have at the state, level the, bureaucracy the legislature
(32:48):
pushing totally the wrong. Priorities so the big fight in
education In california in the last few years was over
the ethnic studies. Curriculum so they've introduced an Ethnic studies,
curriculum which has now been mandated for graduating high. School
you can't graduate high school without taking this class Ethnic.
Studies and of course the first version of it was just.
(33:12):
Horrific it was so that Even newsome sent it. Back
it was totally anti. Semitic it's just like a parody
of the, woke anti, white Anti semitic ideological clap. Trap
now the version that's been put out there is not much.
BETTER i, mean they've toned down some of the anti,
semitism but this is what they're focused. On it's just
(33:33):
ideology over.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
PRACTICALITY i have a hunch that the most common theme
in twenty twenty six will be the question isn't? Working
and If trump actually has government at the federal level,
working they'll keep The. House and if it's not, working
and they'll lose The. House AND i suspect A california
(33:54):
campaign that just said this isn't. Working i'm seeing. DATA
i might have a uge, residence BUT i noticed that
something you picked up on That trump actually gained ground
In california against The california presidential, nominee and the ten
of the counties actually flipped from blue to. Red that's
probably the most encouraging result we've had in over a,
(34:16):
decade very much.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
So and, AGAIN i think the important point is that
this Was. Trump this wasn't a kind of watered down.
Version it was a very, clear, strong common sense conservative.
Message AND i think that to a certain, extent my
sense of The Republican party In california is it's been
a little timid and absorbed this idea that in order
(34:40):
to win In, california you have to be a little bit.
Different It's. California you have to water it down a.
Bit it can't be too. CONSERVATIVE i think that's definitely. True,
frankly on the social, ISSUES i think that is. True
but on these core functional issues to do with the,
government you, know like, crime, schools, jobs running a, business,
(35:01):
housing basic, THINGS i think there is an absolute appetite
for really clear and strong conservative, positions.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
AND i hope That, steve you AND i can work
on over the next couple of, years SO i do
Think i'm watching sort of the ice a break and
the beginning of maybe a new era In. CALIFORNIA i
really want to thank you for joining. Me i've always
liked watching you ON. Tv you're always very smart and very.
Articulate and your new, Book Cali, Failure reversing The ruin
(35:29):
Of America's Worst Run state is available now On amazon
in a bookstores. Everywhere it's remarkably relevant not just the
future Of, california but to the future Of america because
we cannot have a Sick california and have a Healthy.
America so you're doing a, major very important. THING i
recommend everyone get a copy to read. It And, STEVE
(35:50):
i want to really thank you for taking this time
to be with.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Us it was a great pleasure AND i look forward
to continue the conversation and the. Work great to see you.
Today thank.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
You thank you to my Guest Steve. Hilton you can
get a link to buy his new, Book Cali, Failure
reversing The ruin Of America's Worst Run state on our
show page at newtsworld dot. Com newtsworld is produced By
gingwishtree sixty And. iHeartMedia our executive producer Is Guarnsey. Sloan
(36:21):
our researcher Is Rachel. Peterson the artwork for the show
was created By Steve. Penley special thanks to the team
At gingwishtree. Sixty if you've been Enjoying, NUTSWORLD i hope
you'll go To Apple podcast and both rate us with
five stars and give us a review so others can
learn what it's all. About right, now listeners Of newtsworld
(36:41):
consign up for my three free weekly columns at gainwistree
sixty dot com slash. NEWSLETTER i Have Newt. Gingrich this
Is newtsworld
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