OPINION | Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those held by Sarah Palin.
California, “the Golden State,” is not exactly living up to its title, Fox News host Tucker Carlson opined during a segment of his show.
As BizPac Review reports, Carlson said the state has shifted its focus towards helping illegal immigrants and has become overwhelmed in the process.
From the report:
The Fox News host lamented the loss of the once “middle class paradise” in the face of overwhelming low-skilled immigration that has driven out the citizens who once made the west coast state the “land of limitless opportunity.”
“For more than a century California represented everything that was great about America,” Carlson said in his monologue Wednesday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“In 1849, thousands rode wagons across the entire continent to participate in the gold rush,” he continued, noting California’s home to the film industry, farming and technology.
“It’s no accident that California became the country’s richest state,” Carlson continued, per BizPac Review. “It was the land of limitless opportunity. Even if you never made millions there, you could live in what was, in effect, a middle class paradise. That’s not true anymore.”
“According to the census, almost a fifth of Californians now live in poverty,” the host added. “That’s the highest percentage in the country. California’s middle class is fleeing to Phoenix, and Reno, and Boise. Soon, the state will be comprised almost entirely of rich and poor.”
“How did this happen?” Carlson asked. “That question is rarely asked. The answer is pretty simple — low-skilled immigration overwhelmed California.”
“More than a quarter of the state’s entire population, as of today, is foreign-born. Again, the highest rate in the country.”
“Some of these immigrants are building successful new companies in Silicon Valley. Good for them, but most of them are not,” Carlson explained. “In fact, the overwhelming majority of these immigrants are on welfare. Fully 72 percent of non-citizen households in the state of California now receive aid. That compares to just 35 percent of native born households, more than double the rate.”
And, “Now, 100 years ago, immigrants came to California for opportunity, and now they come for the benefits. Who can blame them? Democrats long ago discovered that welfare is a handy vote-buying scheme. Free stuff equals political power. So, they give more, even as native-born Californians are forced to flee an increasingly unaffordable state.”
Tucker concluded:
“That means that literally anybody from anywhere on the globe could hop the border in Tijuana and get healthcare paid for by California taxpayers,” Carlson noted.
“Pretty generous,” he concluded. “If only California cared about its own people this much, it would still be the Golden State.”
California recently experienced its deadliest wildfire as a trio of wildfires devastated homes and communities across the state.
More than 80 people lost their lives at the hands of the wildfires and more than 1,000 people were missing at one point over the last several weeks. Now, the number of people missing has dwindled to just under a dozen people, CNN reports.
“The Camp Fire burned through more than 153,000 acres in Butte County after it broke out November 8,” CNN reports. “It was contained November 25 after becoming the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.”
According to the report, the Camp Fire alone destroyed much of the town of Paradise, including 14,000 homes and nearly 5,000 other buildings.
Many of these residents lost their homes in the fire and now join an existing group of homeless people across the state. As CNBC reports, a quarter of the entire homeless population reside in California.
Here’s more:
As of 2017, California had about 134,000 homeless people, up nearly 14 percent from the prior year, according to a U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department report. And California accounted for almost half of country’s unsheltered population during 2017.
Today, homeless individuals sleeping on benches, doorways, sidewalks and under freeways are common sights in major cities up and down the state. Some of those people get off the street and into homeless shelters, but hurdles to building more and a chronic shortage of affordable housing and rental units is only exacerbating the situation.
As Fox 5 San Diego reports, several major cities in the state recently passed initiatives to impact the growing problem of homelessness.
The San Diego City Council unanimously voted, 9-0, Tuesday to invest more than $14 million in homelessness services and programs designed to curb the city’s homeless population.
The $14.1 million allocation of state funding comes from the Homeless Emergency Aid Program, a $500 million block grant designed to help address homelessness throughout California. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the mayors of the other so-called Big 11 cities secured a total of $150 million in state funding to address homelessness issues in the state’s biggest cities.
Should California drop their focus on helping those in the country illegally, then its government could undoubtedly direct more of their attention, effort, and resources to helping residents.