California has, by all appearances, been trying to deliberately drive away any major corporations, any business leaders, any producers, and anyone with a substantial net worth, deeming them "the wealthy." Wealth is bad in California now, after all, unless it belongs to a certain shriveled old former Speaker of the House of Representatives or one of the coastal elites whose wealth was obtained through means that likely wouldn't stand up to a close examination.
But it's not enough that California has been driving away the wealthy. Now they are working on driving away the middle class, too. The latest, in the state budget, is a series of new taxes on Medicaid, ObamaCare, and private employer health plans.
This is stupid on steroids. Caleb Howe, in his Substack, Howe It Is, has more.
It’s (California) also home to routine spending sprees by irresponsible Democrats at every level. The latest example is Newsom’s massive $350 billion budget plan finalized Friday — the largest chunk of change in the history of the state. And that’s a very high bar.
And what better way to pay for such things, Katie Couric’s crush thought, than to, um, .. take it from hard-working Americans by way of their healthcare? His scheme, a monthly per-enrollee tax on Medicaid, ObamaCare, and health plans at work, is going to see higher premiums across the board for working residents in the state. Genius!! No wait, that other thing. Terrible! That’s it.
As White House spox Allison Schuster puts in this exclusive statement:
“Gavin Newscum has done everything in his power to make life less affordable for Californians, and a $400 hike in healthcare premiums is just the latest blow to hard-working taxpayers. While the Trump Administration is actively working on making life more affordable through the President’s tax cuts, deregulation, and no tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security, the Democrats in California continue to steal money from taxpayers and make life worse. “
When it comes to budget and spending items, California is so far gone now that it can no longer even see fiscal responsibility in the rearview mirror.
Read More: New Tax Stupidity: Will the Last Productive Person to Leave California Please Turn Out the Lights?
Does the California legislature have no idea what they are doing here? ObamaCare in particular; this is something that California Democrats, every one of them, doubtless celebrated as a great advance in the delivery of communist-style health care. And now they are levying a user fee on it? A tax on a program we're taxed to pay for? It's... taxception, in a way.
This lunacy isn't limited to healthcare. The California legislature's latest budget stupidity also adds yet another gas tax, adding to the burden of drivers in the state that already has the highest gas taxes in the nation. My friend and colleague Bob Hoge covered that bit of lunacy earlier on Monday:
Read More: California Dems Thought Now Would Be a Good Time for Another Gas Tax Hike. Where's Gavin Newsom?
But a tax on healthcare? I thought the Democratic Party was all in on "free" healthcare?
Gavin Newsom can veto this nonsense. He can even line-item out the most egregious stupidity. But smart money says he won't. He may claim otherwise when he's burnishing his credentials for a 2028 presidential run, but the fact is, Gavin Newsom, like the California legislature, has never seen a tax increase he didn't like, no matter what it's costing this state in lost residents and lost revenue.
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