California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to be our next president. He wants it really, really bad. He’s been grooming himself his entire professional life for the nation’s top elected position.
He wants it so bad, in fact, that he’s literally willing to lie his way into the Oval Office. He proved that again this week.
Standing in front of cameras, the Democratic governor declared total victory over his state’s budget deficit. “$0 structural deficit through July 2028.” He called it proof that “fiscal discipline and progressive values go hand in hand.”
He spoke with the confidence of someone who has never faced scrutiny from a challenging press corps.
Then, just five days later, his state’s own budget analysts blew up his claims.
During the budget hearing on Tuesday, state analyst Rachel Ehlers from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) informed lawmakers that California’s fiscal condition remains poor. This, despite the strongest revenues in years.
“Despite these booming revenues, the state’s underlying fiscal condition, in our assessment, is not sound. We continue to have a structural deficit, both for the coming budget year, ’26-27, as well as forecast for ’27-28, even under the governor’s proposals,” Ehlers said.
She noted that planned expenditures still outpace expected revenue. The only way to balance the budget is to steal money from California’s reserves:
“Really, the only way the budget proposal before you is balanced is by relying on reserves,” Ehlers said. “Under the governor’s proposal, both withdrawals from reserves, as well as suspended requirements to put money into reserves, totals $20 billion.”
That isn’t fiscal responsibility. It’s a shell game dressed up as budgeting.
Newsom raided California’s emergency reserves, suspended the rules requiring the state to replenish them, and then tried to market the result as a “balanced budget.” In the real world, if a CEO drained contingency funds and changed the accounting rules, it would be fraud.
In California politics, it earns a polished press conference and applause from the media.
Even Newsom’s own California Department of Finance undercut the spin. During the same hearing where Newsom boasted about solving the crisis, administration officials quietly admitted the May Revision only reduced the structural deficit “by more than half.” Not eliminated. Not fixed. Reduced.
That’s a massive difference the governor conveniently glossed over while cameras were rolling.
Meanwhile, the Legislative Analyst’s Office still estimates the remaining budget hole at $16.9 billion.
And here’s the truly staggering part: California received an unexpected revenue windfall. State revenues reportedly came in roughly $30 billion higher than the LAO projected just last June, which is a jaw-dropping surge in a single year. Most governors would kill for that kind of fiscal jackpot.
Yet even after swimming in extra cash, Newsom still couldn’t balance the books without dipping into reserves and rewriting the rules.
Why? Because California doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending addiction.
Newsom can’t be honest about his ‘progressive economic policies’ because they don’t work. They’ve never worked. They’re never going to work. Because they are socialist in nature, and socialism doesn’t work.
But despite that, you better believe he’ll bring them with him to the White House if he wins. Where he will continue to lie about how good they are despite evidence to the contrary.
