LARRY KUDLOW: Left-wing political failures are ruining California

Left-wing political failures are ruining California and that's the subject of the riff. First and foremost, the nightmare in California is a natural disaster. Nobody can control the Santa Ana winds. My own brother and his wife, who live in Hollywood, had to evacuate their apartment. 

Thankfully, the Hollywood fire was contained and they have returned home. When it comes to catastrophic fires like this, there are no heroes. Always better to be safe than sorry. Unfortunately, there is a good deal of evidence that suggests that the leftist politics of blue-state California politicians have compounded the tragedy. 

Officials failed to properly refill a reservoir and, consequently, there was no water in the fire hydrants of several neighborhoods. Earlier, the mayor's office actually cut the Fire Department's budget. Governor Newsom apparently cut water flow that never got to Southern California in order to preserve an obscure fish called smelt. Take a listen to President Trump on smelts: 

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES PROMPT SCRUTINY OF FEDERAL, STATE RULES HAMPERING MITIGATION EFFORTS 

TRUMP: "Well, it's very sad because I've been trying to get Gavin Newsom to allow water to come. You'd have tremendous water if they sent it out to the Pacific because they're trying to protect a tiny little fish, which is in other areas, by the way, called the smelt and, for the sake of a smelt, they have no water. " 

Again, this is a tragic nightmare of a natural disaster out in California. Lives lost, homes destroyed, and I'm no expert on all of this, but if reservoirs are empty, or if water is running off into the Pacific rather than being piped into the fire hydrant – that's a government mistake of the first order. Many people tell me that California's infrastructure, especially the pipe and power system, has been neglected for quite some time – in part because all of the money's been flowing to so-called climate projects by the greenie politicians. 

Maybe if Governor Newsom, Mayor Bass, and others spent more on water and power infrastructure and reservoir management, some of the tragedy in Southern California could've been mitigated. 

At this point, I'm sure that people in the Los Angeles area are more worried about their safety than they are about the blame game, but it would be useful at some point to have a post-mortem and look at what went wrong and what could be done better to mitigate these natural disasters. 

There's also a financial angle to this story. Early estimates by one of the big banks suggests $50 billion in losses – of which $20 billion will be insured losses. The state of California has a bigtime problem here too. Some very large home insurers, like State Farm and Allstate are pulling out. 

State Farm stopped home insurance last spring. I'm no expert here either, but you have to wonder if they were looking at the same infrastructure problems and assessing the same risks as others have – and these insurers decide they don't want the risk of blowing up their balance sheet or their entire company. 

They've got shareholders to answer to and the California state insurance regulators will not let the insurance companies charge sufficiently high premiums to cover the natural disaster risks, and yes, those premiums keep getting higher, but it's the only way insurance companies could make a living unless they pull out altogether. 

Plus, the California state insurance regulator called the FAIR Plan is going to take a big hit from the wildfire damages, and are about to assess private insurance companies an enormous amount, which the private companies in many cases just can’t afford to pay. 

California was already in a home insurance crisis before the recent catastrophe – and this may be the costliest blaze in U.S. history. It's not completely unlike the hurricane disasters in Florida. Certain property values in these hard-hit areas are going to plunge even while insurance premiums skyrocket. I get it that the citizens of southern California are worried about their survival a lot more than they're worried about dollars and cents right now. 

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One reality is surely that the highest-taxed state in the country can do a lot better in managing its vital pipes and power systems and its reservoirs and its forests and its insurance system, than it has done. 

I'm going to say what a lot of folks are thinking: Left-wing politics, once again, have failed. If you want to help the people and the businesses in California, how about a whole lot less money for left-wing climate extremists, and a lot more money for improving basic services and fattening the wallets of ordinary working-folks. That's the riff. 

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Jan. 9, 2025, edition of "Kudlow."