California Governor Gavin Newsom’s role in the horrific SoCal wildfires that have engulfed the state just got more damning.
Newsweek on Friday uncovered explosive evidence that just months before devastating wildfires, which have so far killed at least ten people and destroyed countless homes, Newsom approved at least $101 million worth of cuts from seven “wildfire and forest resilience” programs.
The reductions, which were part of last year’s state budget and signed by Newsom in June, included a $5 million decrease for CalFire on fuel reduction teams. These included revenue used to fund vegetation management work by the California National Guard.
Do you think that additional money would have been useful, considering these wildfires are now the worst in American history?
Per Fox News, here are some other notable additional cuts:
• $28 million cut from multiple state conservancies that expand wildfire resilience
• $12 million cut from a “home hardening” experiment that would protect homes from wildfires
• $8 million cut from monitoring and research spending, mostly dedicated to Cal Fire and state universities
• $4 million cut from the forest legacy program, which encourages landowners to manage their properties
• $3 million cut from funding for an inter-agency forest data hub
Newsom responded to this revelation by predictably gaslighting America. He actually claimed the state increased resources to fight fires, though he notably avoided discussing the actual fire budget.
“A ridiculous lie,” Newsom wrote on X. “We have doubled the size of our firefighting army, built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet, and increased the forest management ten-fold since taking office.”
“Time to serve these folks the facts.”
The facts are in addition to gutting the state fire budget, California politicians led by Newsom refused to utilize common sense solutions such as clearing out the dead brush in the woods and filling the state’s depleted aquifers with water.
Instead, they ignored the science and catered to radical environmentalists, allegedly because of a tiny fish called a smelt. They actually felt that giving the creature (and, by extension, California residents) less water would help.
Unsurprisingly, it did not work.
