California: everything's bigger, even fraud

 

By Mike McDaniel

Here at AT, we continue to cover the massive fraud being uncovered in Minnesota. The legacy media has only recently and grudgingly begun to cover that rampant fraud. Their willingness to cover even worse fraud in California, where Gavin Newsom may become the 2028 Democrat presidential nominee, is even more restrained. Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for governor, is helping to expose the fraud:

Graphic: Social Media Post

Considering California has long been a one-party state with legendary waste, fraud and general corruption, it stands to reason its fraud must be worse than Minnesota’s based on population alone, 39,663,800 compared to Minnesota’s 5,833,250. The opportunity is so much greater in the Golden State. 

As I explained in California: taxing people who aren’t there, in just three years, Newsom turned a $97.5 billion budget surplus into a $73 billion deficit, a swing of $175.5 billion. How can he possibly make up that kind of deficit? Like this:                                                                                  

Graphic: Social Media Post

 As far as fighting homelessness goes, there's a potful of billions blown there, too - sorry, Walzman -but there are, at last, a set of eyeballs laser focused on the twenty-four billion dollars that disappeared into that Newsom black hole.

Central District US Attorney Bill Essayli is on the hunt, calling the oleaginous and formerly bulletproof governor out by name.

 

The feds are now looking into where all those billions went:

Graphic: Social Media Post

To paraphrase a famous political aphorism, “a hundred million here, a hundred million there and pretty soon you’re talking real money:”

The entire board of directors overseeing Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools in Sacramento has either resigned or been removed following a scathing report from the California State Auditor, reports Moneywise. 

The June 24 audit found the adult charter school improperly received more than $180 million in education funding. Investigators also uncovered what they described as “questionable financial transactions” and conflicts of interest, including unlawful gifts, luxury travel and the hiring of unqualified individuals.

The resignations and removals came in the weeks after the audit’s release. The findings raise serious concerns about oversight and accountability within the state’s charter school system, prompting calls for reform.

One would think the California legislature would be alarmed and willing to do something about that kind of fraud. They are:  

Sacramento, California – California lawmakers are weighing a controversial proposal that would decriminalize certain types of low-level welfare fraud, igniting debate over how the state should handle financial offenses involving its most vulnerable residents.

Senate Bill 560, introduced by Democratic State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas in February, would remove criminal penalties for welfare overpayments under $25,000 if the error stemmed from administrative mistakes or minor infractions. The bill also proposes eliminating criminal charges involving less than $950 for attempted welfare fraud.

Apparently investigating and prosecuting all that fraud is just more than California can handle, despite having one of the largest bureaucracies in the world. Twenty-five thousand here, $25,000 there, and pretty soon…  Fraud is everywhere:

Graphic: Social Media Post

Over the last two full calendar years, San Diego County officials say criminals stole at least $34.6 million from EBT cards. Taxpayers then paid that money again, to reimburse the needy families they targeted.

So, California issued new cards they’ve admitted have 20-year-old technology that won’t stop theft.

When the accounting of California’s High-Speed-Rail-To-Nowhere project is done, the figures will be astronomical. Originally budgeted for under $10 billion, in more than 30 years not a single mile of track has been laid and the budget has soared to $135 billion with no firm completion date. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, unencumbered with worries about racist roads and bridges like former Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has shut off the federal money spigot for that boondoggle. If it’s never completed, as seems virtually certain, Democrat-favored contractors will walk off with billions.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously said: “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” To run out, you must be willing to spend it, and to send untold billions into the pockets of Democrat cronies and other criminals. Apart from hair styling, Gavin Newsom, and his Democrat cronies, appear to very good at spending, and wasting, other people’s money.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor. 

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/12/california_everything_s_bigger_even_fraud.html