00:00Governor Gavin Newsom just finished up a two-hour presentation of his final budget revision for his two terms as
00:07governor.
00:08And the signature achievement, he claims, is that he has balanced the budget.
00:12After four years of deficits, he finally made ends meet thanks to higher revenues than originally were projected back in
00:19January.
00:20He clearly intends this to be the message he goes out with on the campaign trail in 2028.
00:25But he did fudge some of the numbers.
00:27Newsom claimed, for example, that the California economy had grown 38.4% from the time he took office in
00:332019 until today.
00:34But that's only if you don't take inflation into account, and inflation was pretty high.
00:39According to the Federal Reserve, California's economy only grew about 16% under Gavin Newsom, which is pretty close to
00:46the national average.
00:47Newsom also talked about preserving spending programs and talked about fighting Donald Trump, who he blamed for tariffs and spending
00:56cuts and the war with Iran.
00:58This was clearly a political budget, not necessarily one focused on generating economic growth, but one focused on presenting a
01:05contrast to Trump and the Republicans while projecting a rosy picture of growth and abundance for Democrats.
01:11Whether the budget actually balances by 2028 is anybody's guess.
01:16Newsom won't care anymore.
01:17He'll be out of office and on the campaign trail.
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