Trump Can Stop Gavin Newsom’s Healthcare Tax — And Should
California’s latest budget maneuver isn’t finished. Before it can take effect, it must be approved by the Trump administration.
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Trump Holds the Trump Card
My latest California Post column looks at one of the most important fights buried in California’s new budget — a healthcare tax that Sacramento passed but that Washington still has to approve.
That matters.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative Democrats pushed this through without a single Republican vote. They may have thought the matter was settled once the budget was signed.
It wasn’t.
Because this tax is tied to federal Medicaid funding, the Trump administration gets the final say. And that puts California’s latest budget maneuver directly in front of President Trump and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
In my full California Post column, I explain how California’s Managed Care Organization tax works, why federal regulators forced the state to redesign it, and why critics say the new version could raise costs for privately insured working families.
This is not just another Sacramento tax fight.
It is about how California keeps expanding government healthcare, how it shifts costs, and who gets stuck paying the bill when the numbers no longer work.
Newsom got SB 125 through Sacramento.
He has not yet won in Washington. Nor should he.