California now operates in a curious contradiction. Over the last decade, the state’s population has barely increased as residents have fled high taxes and onerous liberal policies. At the same time, however, government spending has exploded, even as the visible crises of homelessness, addiction, mismanaged wildfires, and crumbling infrastructure have become more severe.
California’s own budget documents show that from 2015 to 2025, the state’s population grew by less than one percent. Over that same period, however, the total number of government jobs increased by 24.5 percent, and total spending nearly doubled, increasing about 48 percent even when accounting for inflation.
This dichotomy has now led to a growing chorus of voices asking the obvious question: Where did all the money go?
A recent City Journal investigation offers the clearest answer yet. The report found that California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tenure. That’s more than the GDP of 17 U.S. states.
The losses are spread across unemployment insurance, Medi-Cal, hospice care, and other major public programs. California specifically has been forced to acknowledge roughly $20 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims and about $55 billion in improper EDD payments (for unemployment, disability, or paid family leave) overall.
Some claims were filed in the names of prisoners, including death-row inmates. City Journal reported that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when unemployment claims reached their peak, only two state employees were assigned to manually review claims for fraud. It’s almost as if California officials simply didn’t care about fraud – or wanted to make it as easy as possible.
The same pattern shows up in Medi-Cal, only on a larger and more permanent scale. Before Newsom took office, the program cost about $93.5 billion. In the current budget, that figure has ballooned to about $196.7 billion.
At the same time, California expanded full Medi-Cal coverage regardless of immigration status. State officials projected that roughly 764,000 people would enroll. Instead, enrollment reached about 1.6 million, contributing to a $6.2 billion program shortfall. California is failing to stop theft while making even larger spending commitments with diminishing capacity to manage them.
Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has called recent revelations of hospice fraud an “epidemic.” In Van Nuys, one of the main centers of the scandal, roughly 500 hospice agencies were reportedly operating within a three-mile radius – an impossibly large number that should have been setting off alarm bells long ago.
While California’s Democrat leaders are now scrambling to appear like they are on top of the problem, they only began to pay attention once it broke into the headlines thanks to an investigation from independent journalist Nick Shirley.
Shirley’s reporting found hospice offices in a converted motel and a strip mall. Some spaces were occupied by workers who reacted angrily when asked to answer questions. Others were empty.
Additional reporting from local news outlets also described disconnected phone lines, unopened mail, luxury vehicles in parking lots, and little visible evidence of patients or caregiving, even as public funds continued to flow to these fake hospice centers.
Hospice enrollment in California has risen more than 1,000 percent in recent years, resulting in $170 million in suspect billing. The question now should be how the problem became so bad before anyone in the California government bothered to do anything about it.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent a team to review the concentration of hospice claims in California. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said Los Angeles County alone accounted for a staggering 18 percent of the entire country’s home health billing.
Newsom has said his administration revoked 280 hospice licenses over the last two years. But more than 700 of roughly 1,800 hospices in Los Angeles County triggered multiple fraud alerts, and more than 40 percent were still operating despite those warning signs.
Not all of California’s spending problems take the form of outright fraud. Some appear in projects that grow more expensive while producing little progress. In these cases, government contractors – often with suspicious connections to the officials approving the expenditures – siphon money from taxpayers without delivering anything of value.
The most obvious example is California’s high-speed rail fiasco. Voters approved the project in 2008 as a $33 billion line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco by 2020. It is now projected to cost more than $125 billion, with passenger service still years away. The state has already spent more than $15 billion – without laying even a single mile of track.
The incomplete wildlife bridge over the 101 freeway is another black eye for Newsom. At the groundbreaking in 2022, the project was presented as a roughly $92 million undertaking. It has now already cost $114 million, with state funds accounting for about $77 million – and it’s nowhere close to finished.
At the same time, Newsom is seeking $19 million for a “California Brand Campaign,” with roughly two-thirds of the money earmarked for advertising and media placements. The campaign is meant to counter what officials describe as “myths driven by misinformation and political rhetoric.”
In other words, instead of fixing the fraud and all his bad policies that are driving the state into a financial ditch, Newsom wants $19 million to create propaganda claiming the problems simply don’t exist. Meanwhile, California is facing a projected $3 billion deficit in the next fiscal year.
Not every government failure amounts to corruption. But taken together, these examples point to a broader pattern that cannot be ignored. Now, Californians should be asking themselves a few important questions: Is anyone in power actually going to be held accountable for allowing all the fraud? Will we ever know exactly how much was stolen from us? Will those who broke the law actually go to jail?
Those questions should apply not just to the street-level fraudsters and operators, but also to the officials who designed, expanded, and tolerated these broken systems. Newsom sits at the top of this one-party state where accountability has largely vanished.
Writing this off as “California being California” misses the depth of the failure. This is fraud and incompetence on a scale never before seen in American history, and it has the potential to negatively impact the entire country. It’s long past time someone in power paid for it.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
Talk, talk, and more talk.
The waste, fraud and abuse goes on, and on, and on, ad nauseam, in California, Minnesota, and God knows how many other states, and yet, not a single politician held accountable (let alone arrested, indicted and imprisoned)
We already know about the California and Minnesota fraud. Heck, Newscum is one big fraudster himself. I really get tired of reading the same headlines. Can we please see arrests and jail time for these corrupt dirtbags?
“Is anyone in power actually going to be held accountable for allowing all the fraud? Will we ever know exactly how much was stolen from us? Will those who broke the law actually go to jail?” The answers to these questions are No, No and No. Justice in California is in the hands of liberals who were appointed or elected by liberals who truly believe that if you put too many constraints on handing out benefits (aka freebies), the people who need help will be hindered from getting help from tax payers. Californians see themselves as caring people, vanguards of how political systems should work to provide equity and justice for all. Sure, maybe a few criminals will be winners and escape seeing prosecution, but that is inconsequential to the overall good. That seems to be the vibe from the voters. Despite the pocket lining that is now obvious, little will change in the near term. I hope the federal government can stop supporting this stuff with my cash, however.
There’s absolutely NOTHING DUMBER than a CA Democrat voter, and NOTHING MORE CORRUPT than a CA Democrat politician.
The corruption king, NewSCUM should be the first new and PERMANENT INMATE AT ALCATRAZ. With EVERY OTHER CA Democrat politician moving in with him the same day. .
Socialism on display.
California’s debt situation is $1.6 trillion in state and local liabilities including unfunded liabilities like pensions, and a $58 billion budget deficit for the 2024-25 fiscal year. This debt is the largest in the nation! Well screwed gavinboy!
It is really difficult to determine which [blue] state is the most corrupt! CA? IL? MN? NY? It’s quite a competition. The Founders wanted decentralized and enumerated powers so that things like this couldn’t happen. If welfare, etc. came ONLY from your local government, you could catch fraud because if someone on welfare was driving a new sports car or living in a mansion, you would KNOW they are committing fraud! If the $$$ come from DC, how do they ever KNOW anything about the fraudsters?
It all went on gavin’s Hiar Gel and Nancy Pelosi’s Ice Cream.I am glad to be out of California.
Nick Shirley deserves Pulitzer for journalism, where are all his co journalists, there is something to get your teeth into, right across the country, where is the outrage, heads rolling, justice. I guess only if a conservative is involved, leftist is protected and safe.
I don’t know if liberals even subscribe to AMAC, but we of the conservative bent should share this article with them. Somewhere along the way they have to know that voting in the same money-grubbing Democrats, year after year, also impacts them. The stats in this article should be a wake-up call.
The problem with the Democrats is, they create a program, put it on auto pilot and forget about it. No accountability, no reporting, no follow-up to see if the program is meeting its intended goals. With all the personnel bloat in the current Democratic administration, you would think there is someone who could do oversight,
Check the names of those involved in the fraud, then check the Democrat officials donor lists.
California is Bankrupt , actually are whole country is Bankrupt , it”s only being propped up by deficit spending and welfare .
Does the term “money laundering” come to mind when this type fraud is uncovered, not by elite law enforcement, but by a young independent reporter. Not the MSM, and belatedly by the opposing party. But what baffles me is where are the perp walks and the orange jumpsuits? So tired of no consequences. Thank you AMAC, for details no one else seems aware of.
They sure found and jailed the J-6 protestors swiftly.
All the talk of “draining the swamp”, holding people accountable, blah, blah, blah! As the government has PROVEN TO US for at least the past 50 years, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN!!! They will still allow fraud to occur EVERYWHERE! I have zero faith in all lawyers, investigators, and LEOs, to do what is needed and clean the crooks out of business, and government. All reporters, and their companies should STOP reporting all this drama. We’ll all be wondering, years from now, Hey, wasn’t senator so and so, investigated for XXX? The result will be, nothing happened. If they do prosecute a crook, the bloody, feckless, judges will let them loose! So, in conclusion, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN!!!
I remember my first visit to California in 1960, I was 13. I prayed my family would move there. A beautiful state, beautiful weather, so many things to see and do. Thank God for unanswered prayers.
And this is one of the top candidates in line behind Kamala being considered as a presidential candidate and yet because of the rampant TDS, I am not saying Trump is perfect president either, I just can’t believe how accepting is the Democratic party to misuse of taxpayer funds and claiming total ignorance of it of seeing it occur. It has gotten so prevent that if one complains about it, you get blacklisted and sometimes physically attacked by those profiting from this fraud.
With the USN, I was in California in the mid-70s. Upon leaving, I used to say “If I had to go back to California, you’d have to drag me BACKWARDS, unless it was to San Diego”.
Nowadays, I feel like you’d have to drag me backwards to the whole frazzlin’ state….
If you often wonder why so many Americans are embracing and voting for the failed policies of the Progressive Left Democrats, it’s because SO many on in on the fraud and “on the take” profiting from stealing from America’s tax payers. Democrats are despicable people.
California was always gotten out of fiscal responsibilities by Congress paying the bills. Unions have had retirement bailouts as well. Now the bills are coming due over night we will wake up and our country will be bankrupt financially and morally. God help us because we can’t save ourselves anymore.
That’s just the fraud we know about. Add that to the “legitimate” expenditures such as boob jobs for illegals and it is easy to see why California is in debt.
I was stationed in Cali back in the 90s in San Diego, Jerry Brown was the worst, Gavin Newsome told him hold my beer.
Democrats in your government is worse than mice in a grain storage. Missing money is their modus operandi .
The state has allowed it’s population of needy illegals to grow. Who knows how many elected officials with last names ending in “ez” didn’t come from illegal parents. The demolition crats have also invented one social program after another,…..paid for by the citizens. The states exhausted all the bonds and loads they can, and now they’re out of money,…. so the next avenue will be for them to come after more of the people’s money,..one way or another.
Agree! Definitely long past time to file charges against everyone involved!!!
So sad for the good Christian people living in California… love where they live, but it’s
a high price to pay….Wouldn’t you think that CMS and some of the other agencies would see a RED flag when they see these major increased of money going out the door? They should have an internal and external audit. Who know who all is lining there pockets with this obvious fraud
All this, plus stock hints from Aunt Nancy! Good times for Kalifornia politicians- until they’re caught!
The democrats are overthrowing CA and the rest of the country day by day. They are busy with a coup every day by undermining president Trump every day to little by little take his powers away to destroy this country. They have the media on their side. They have the justice system on their side with the weaponized judges throwing away the laws and invoking the dems laws and Sharis laws. It’s unbelievable when you read the numbers of money that has been spent and on what? To keep their voters? To set a precedent to transfer it to the federal government. Remember DOGE? How hard they fought that but the fraud was exposed. Only the dems called it cutting off funds to needy people. Really. Trans are a minority all over the world no matter how hard the educators in this country are working to brainwash our children into trans. Not to help them, to destroy them. Newsom has implemented so many laws to bankrupt CA to implement when he becomes president. Heaven forbid. The dems have destroyed that state for decades. And the rest of the dems state are following suit. From there it’s only a small step to the rest of the country. Because they will not give up. They are bound and determined to destroy this country into a globalist Muslim country. Where sharia law will prevail. Where there is no constitution. No freedom from thought or ideas. Group think will prevail, there will be chaos. Demoralizing America. Everything goes except an idea different from them. There will be no military like we have today but a national guard like in Iran. That is why they want to get rid of ICE. Because ICE follows the law. There will be no law and order. Like we have seen in CA. When LA is burning and the homeless, illegals and protesters are heralded as heroes over ICE agents. We will live in a country where militia rules. And legal law and order agents are being declared killers. The protesters are the killers. They have such great hate for their fellow Americans. They will not accept a different opinion. They make it disgusting and their way of thinking is pure and fantastic. I cannot get my mind around them taking the illegals over the citizens or the trans, a very small minority anyway, over the heterosexuals. There are no other genders but male and female. But that they use these confused gender people as a means to overthrow this country is so sad. Their brainwashing goes on more and more. Because the millionaires are running the world right now. Agenda 2021 is becoming reality more and more because they only have 4 years left to reach that goal. “By 2030 you will own nothing but you will be happy”, Klaus Schwab said in 2016 and he was head of the WEF run by the richest people in the world.
Gavin Screwscum’s mansion accounts for some of it.
The Democrats have a lot of things going for them concerning accountability. Their politically corrupt judges will control what happens in the courts. The Democrat juries will engage in jury nullification. Their legacy media will cover up their fraud and will even lie to the public. They will get illegal aliens to vote for them to stay in power. To answer your question, unfortunately it is a no. The people who created this mess in California will not be held accountable.
Democrats have their hands in or have instituted every case of fraud in this country. That’s how they survive. And they can’t win anything without cheating. Is that the party you want to affiliate with or you want to vote for to run this country? Look at Blue States and blue cities is that what you want for the whole country? Some of you are going to say yes because you are indoctrinated idiots. I don’t have anything else to rant about cuz it doesn’t do any good
NewScum belongs in jail!
This is a pot which needs to be constantly stirred. Citizens across the nation need to get impatient for results, not the constant hand-wringing and chatter produced by the political clubmembers. That train is the best example of failed efforts and policies yet.
When Newsom assumed the governorship in CA, the state was in relatively good financial shape, but his ridiculous spending and lack of oversight have now driven a once properous and beautiful state into big time debt with no way out of it as people are fleeing CA due to his spending, regulations, taxes, empty promises and lack of intelligent leadership. The weather cannot make up for all that! I am so glad I left in 2008.
Just how many of the fraudulent expenditures have gone directly or indirectly into the pockets of the politicians, including Gowno Greaseball, and the bureaucrats of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Commiefornia?
Inquiring minds would love to know.
Been fraud day 1
It’s time to start arresting these scammers and having trials for this fraud. Why wait, do it now.
Fraud is fraud. Prosecution seems to be something other than prosecution since it seldom occurs in real life. The old adage; “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” comes to mind. The crooks know very well how that works.
What we have is too many social welfare programs in the hands of too much government. Fraud is useful to politicians. The cure? Dial back government to strict Constitutional limits and stop looking to the fraud masters for answers to every bump on life’s roads. Take the power to tax away from the fraudsters!
What is most embarrassing to Democrats/progressives/socialists [call it by whatever name – it’s all the same] is the fact that the scam revelations aren’t initially exposed by a government agency, but by private citizen bloggers. This deprives them from being able to scream and shout about how the current administration picking on them. We’re not talking about political games being played here. We’re talking about outright fraud.
As far as anyone of consequence being held accountable and paying any price for the fraud, don’t hold your breath waiting. You might die for lack of oxygen.
I hope president trump’s doge team can come up with a way to figure out where all of this fraud is happening. One way might be to cross reference.I r s information on companies and employees and where you see a hospice company and no employees that should be a fraud case Automatically.
The biggest concern we have in the Red States is that the Democrats get Federal Power and bail out these corrupt Red States.
If one can, get the heck out of “Kalifornia” ASAP before one is taxed out of existence, move to a state with a more favorable tax structure. Stay out of Illinois with the demoncratic Prickster in charge. Do research, and figure out where to go. Me? I’m established in central Hellinois and saved up to pay the demonratic taxes. Too old to move me and my mentally handicapped son out.
Kalifornia: The state with 1) the highest state income tax, the highest gasoline tax, the highest homeless population, and the most corrupt governor. Oh and did I mention the world’s 4th largest economy expects a $3 billion budget deficit this FY. Give Newsome credit for something, that’s much better than the $60 billion budget deficit the sorry state was running a few years ago. He must have a good book keeper.
California will get into more financial trouble. At some point the whole country that is the Taxpayers will have to bail them out. I hope we do not give them ten cents. California politicians are more corrupt than anyone in the country. Disgusting!!
No more money should be spent on the hopeless state of California…
Gavscum and all the Hypnocrats should immediately be investigated and incarcerated. All politicians / contractors involved need to be held accountable for everything they thought they would get away.TOTALLY REDICKULOUS !
On the Sean Hannity radio program this afternoon, he was interviewing Dr. Oz. Oz said that 400 fake hospices in CA were closed after his group lead by VP Vance investigated the medical fraud there. There are a lot more closures of medical facilities to come according to him. I think they are arresting and closing facilities but they probably cannot divulge much of the information until they have convictions. I also heard that several hundred people have been arrested in Minnesota, so I am hoping that we will soon hear of some convictions there . We need to get rid of these Democrat-led criminals!!
Pitiful! How else can it be described other than crooked? While some higher up officials are checking into all this fraud and abuse, they may want to look into WHY Newsom didn’t want to live in the Governor’s mansion in the state’s capital, and WHERE did he acquire the millions of dollars it took for him to purchase the mansion he’s living in, in a yet different city. More fraud, waste, abuse, thievery?
The government agencies need to claw back all money stolen through fraud, give it back as reparations to the taxpayers so they can contribute to common sense politicians running for offices. We now are taxed so much to support fraud the only people with donation money are the thieving bureaucrats and lying politicians. Give us some of OUR money back so we can donate to those who love America and fight for its citizens..