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Newsom Revises Budget Proposal

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Governor Gavin Newsom’s grand experiment in progressive governance is beginning to collide headfirst with the reality of California’s budget math—and the fallout is as spectacular as it is predictable. For years, Newsom has presented the “California model” as the nation’s aspirational blueprint: a utopia of equity, inclusivity, and boundless taxpayer-funded generosity. But as the state teeters on a multi-billion-dollar deficit and walks back key initiatives, one can’t help but notice: the emperor has no fiscal clothes.


In a dramatic about-face, Newsom’s revised 2025-26 budget slams the brakes on one of his most lauded—and most controversial—initiatives: universal Medi-Cal for low-income undocumented immigrants. What was once trumpeted as a moral milestone has now been quietly repackaged with premiums and enrollment freezes. Under the new plan, current undocumented recipients will now be required to pay $100 monthly premiums, and new adult applications will be barred starting January 1.

Why? Because costs are spiraling beyond expectations, and the state’s projected deficit has ballooned. This is the inevitable consequence of offering taxpayer-funded benefits with no serious strategy for cost containment, scale management, or sustainable revenue. California's current fiscal year already needed $2.8 billion in emergency appropriations and a $3.4 billion loan just to keep up with Medi-Cal costs—an economic red flag that even Newsom can’t wave away.


True to form, Newsom calls the crisis “unexpected.” But to anyone outside the progressive echo chamber, the outcome was painfully obvious. You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to understand that promising healthcare to millions of non-citizens—without new funding mechanisms or reforms—was going to strain the system. It was always going to pit political virtue against fiscal reality. Now the reckoning has arrived.

This isn’t just a policy failure—it’s a credibility collapse. In the face of surging premiums for legal citizens, rolling blackouts, an exodus of businesses and residents, and crumbling infrastructure masked by vanity projects like the high-speed train to nowhere, Newsom’s brand of governance is under siege from within. The Golden State’s first net population loss since its founding in 1850 is not a coincidence. It’s a referendum.


Despite these setbacks, whispers of a Newsom presidential run persist. But with California bleeding red ink, his chances are looking more symbolic than serious. It’s telling that his backers now point to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker as a potential alternative—as if one high-tax, high-deficit Democrat governor could be rescued by another.

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