FOX Business host Larry Kudlow explores the response to the California wildfires on ‘Kudlow’.
Leftist political failures are destroying California and that’s the theme of the riff. First of all, a nightmare in California is a natural disaster. No one can control the Santa Ana winds. My own brother and his wife, who live in Hollywood, had to evacuate their apartment.
Fortunately, the fire in Hollywood was contained and they returned home. When it comes to catastrophic fires like this, there are no heroes. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the left-wing politics of politicians in the blue state of California contributed to the tragedy.
Officials failed to fill the reservoir properly and, as a result, there was no water in fire hydrants in several neighborhoods. Earlier, the mayor’s office actually cut the Fire Department’s budget. Governor Newsom apparently cut off a stream of water that never reached Southern California to preserve an obscure fish called the snook. Hear President Trump on fragrances:
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES TAKE RAPID REVIEW OF FEDERAL AND STATE RULES HARDING MITIGATION EFFORTS
Former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., discuss the merits of taking Greenland on ‘Kudlow.’
TRUMP: “Well, it’s very sad because I’ve been trying to get Gavin Newsom to allow the water to come in. You’d have a huge amount of water if they sent it to the Pacific because they’re trying to protect the little fish, which in other places, by the way, they call snot and, because of snot, they don’t have water.”
Again, this is the tragic nightmare of a natural disaster in California. Lives lost, homes destroyed, and I’m no expert on all of this, but if the reservoirs are empty, or if the water flows into the Pacific instead of being fed to a fire hydrant – that’s government first order error. Many people tell me that California’s infrastructure, especially the pipeline and power system, has been neglected for some time – in part because all the money has been flowing into so-called climate projects by green politicians.
Perhaps some of the Southern California tragedy could have been alleviated if Governor Newsom, Mayor Bass and others had spent more on water and power infrastructure and reservoir management.
At this point, I’m sure people in the Los Angeles area are more concerned about their safety than the blame game, but it would be helpful at some point to do a post-mortem and see what went wrong and what could be done better to mitigate of these natural disasters.
There is also a financial aspect to this story. Early estimates from one of the big banks suggest $50 billion in losses – $20 billion of which will be insured losses. The state of California has a big problem here as well. Some very large home insurers, like State Farm and Allstate, are pulling out.
State Farm dropped the insurance on the house last spring. I’m not an expert on the subject either, but you have to wonder if they were looking at the same infrastructure issues and assessing the same risks as others – and those insurers decide they don’t want to risk raising their balance sheet or the entire enterprise.
They have shareholders to answer to, and the California state insurance regulators won’t allow insurance companies to charge high enough premiums to cover natural disaster risk, and yes, those premiums keep going up, but that’s the only way insurance companies can make a living unless they withdraw completely.
In addition, California’s state insurance regulatory agency called the FAIR Plan will take a big hit from wildfire damage, and will assess private insurance companies a huge amount, which private companies in many cases they simply cannot pay.
California was already in a home insurance crisis before the recent disaster – and this could be the costliest wildfire in US history. Not unlike the hurricane disasters in Florida. Certain property values in these hard-hit areas will drop even as insurance premiums skyrocket. I realize that the citizens of Southern California are concerned about their survival far more than they are concerned about dollars and cents right now.
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One reality is certain that the state with the highest taxes in the country can do a lot better in managing its vital pipelines and power systems and its reservoirs and its forests and its insurance system than it has done.
I’ll say what many people are thinking: left-wing politics have failed once again. If you want to help the people and businesses of California, how about a lot less money for left-wing climate extremists, and a lot more money to improve basic services and fatten the wallets of ordinary workers. It’s a riff.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s introductory commentary on the January 9, 2025 edition of “Kudlow.”
