On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said that Ezra Klein’s book is “an indictment of liberal governance and leadership, and he attacks California, rightfully, in many categories and respects, the high-speed rail, as it relates to housing production, and we own that. But we also own the response” of trying to fix it.
Host Bill Maher said, “[When] you were here last time, we talked about regulations, you said, oh, ‘it’s a completely new day.’ That’s a quote from you, ‘completely new day.’ You said you were working on it.”
Newsom responded, “[L]ast week, you had Ezra Klein on, which was incredibly important. He had a book called ‘Abundance’, which really lays out a very condemning picture of liberal governance in this country, and the fact that we are process-focused and not outcome-focused. … And so, it’s our job to eliminate as many of those thickets as possible.”
Maher then cut in to ask, “How’s that going, though?”
Newsom answered, “[W]hen we have an emergency mindset, it goes extraordinarily well. I’ll give you two examples: You had Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) on recently, talking about the I-95, we had the I-10 here, which we were able to get back on track and cars back on that I-10 within eight days. … And that, otherwise, would not have occurred, it would have been months and months and months of process in a traditional environment. The same thing with the recovery as it relates to debris removal, the first phase of debris removal in Los Angeles was done in less than a — in a month. We’re a month and a half ahead right now. 1,500 parcels have been cleaned up. I want to get it all done in the next six months. Again, because we have an emergency mindset. The question is, how do you apply that in between emergencies? How do you do that as it relates to a standard of governance that people should expect and taxpayers should expect? So, I couldn’t agree more with Ezra, it’s an indictment of liberal governance and leadership, and he attacks California, rightfully, in many categories and respects, the high-speed rail, as it relates to housing production, and we own that. But we also own the response. 42…reform bills I’ve passed, there [are] 20 bills we’re working on right now. We’re trying to address the issue that is the issue that dominates, and that’s localism.”
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