$180 Billion Stolen. And Sacramento Wants MORE of Your Money.

Public Announcement
Apr 8
3 min read

Not "misspent." Not "misallocated." Stolen. By criminals, con artists, and organized crime rings — while Gavin Newsom and Sacramento politicians did almost nothing to stop it.

Death row inmates cashed unemployment checks. A rapper made a music video bragging about scamming the system. A nonprofit CEO used homelessness funds to buy designer clothes and take luxury vacations. And when a lawmaker tried to audit where your money was going, Newsom's administration killed the audit.

This isn't government waste. This is the largest theft of taxpayer money in American state history — and it happened right here in California, on one governor's watch.

Here's where your money went:

Unemployment fraud on a scale nobody thought possible. During the pandemic, California's Employment Development Department paid out roughly $20 billion in confirmed fraudulent claims — and an estimated $55 billion in improper payments overall. The state had so few safeguards in place that death row inmates were collecting unemployment checks. Criminals were literally making rap videos bragging about ripping off the system. At one point, more people had applied for unemployment benefits in California than the state's entire adult population.

Medi-Cal has become a fraud magnet. Total Medi-Cal spending has more than doubled under Newsom — from $93.5 billion to nearly $197 billion — while California's population actually shrank. Federal officials investigating the program now estimate a fraud rate of 25 percent. That translates to tens of billions of dollars every single year going to people gaming the system instead of the vulnerable Californians who actually need care.

$24 billion on homelessness with nothing to show for it. The state poured money into a tangled web of nonprofits and contractors with almost no oversight. Federal prosecutors have already brought charges in multiple multimillion-dollar fraud cases. One nonprofit CEO allegedly pocketed $10 million in homelessness funds to bankroll luxury vacations and designer clothes. Another developer executive allegedly embezzled millions for exotic cars and a mansion. And when a state lawmaker tried to audit these programs back in 2020, the Newsom administration actually blocked the audit. They didn't want you to see where the money was going.

Even the Governor's own office wasn't clean. Newsom's former chief of staff has been charged with fraud — accused of funneling campaign and COVID recovery funds into her own pockets. When she left government, Newsom praised her publicly and she walked away with a $50,000 payout.

And here's what makes all of this even worse: while billions vanish into fraud, Sacramento politicians are already looking at new taxes to squeeze even more out of you. They don't have a revenue problem — they have an accountability problem.

You know what I'd do in Congress? The same thing I've done as your County Supervisor — fight for every single dollar.

I would demand real fraud prevention systems before any new spending gets approved. I would support the federal Task Force to Eliminate Fraud that was recently created to crack down on exactly this kind of abuse. I would push for mandatory independent audits of every major state program receiving federal funds. And I would never — not once — vote to send more money to a system this broken without accountability measures attached.

The people of CA-48 work too hard for their money to watch it get stolen by criminals while Sacramento politicians shrug their shoulders and ask for more.

Every dollar matters. It's time to clean house.