The RCP podcast on Thursday checked out a new report that California has lost at least $ 180 billion to “massive, systematic, brazen fraud” of all kinds under the current governor, which reporter Chris Rufo calls, “Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud” “That’s a lot of money when you consider the annual state budget is about $ 300 billion,” Walworth added. “It’s a litany of corruption… A long list of things where people are just cheating the government.” “And there doesn’t seem to be an emphasis on making sure money goes where it should,” Carl Cannon added. “And what California keeps doing is raising taxes-high income tax, high sales tax. You get a speeding ticket or run a red light, and the bill isn’t $ 50-it’s $ 500.” “It doesn’t hurt Newsom in a Democratic presidential primary, but certainly his governorship and leadership of California will be litigated in a general election if he’s the nominee,” Tom Bevan said. “Fraud wasn’t invented on Gavin Newsom’s watch, but a lot of this started when he was governor-during COVID, when we started shoveling money out the door.” “Yeah, as the leader of that state, he’s going to have to answer for it. I don’t know if it’s $ 180 billion-we’ll get more information-but it’s a significant sum,” Bevan said. “Fraud is one of those issues that can be very potent politically. Nobody likes getting ripped off-Democrats, Republicans, independents. They don’t like paying high taxes and finding out a big chunk of it is being wasted. That angers people, and people respond to that.”
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