Xavier Becerra sits down with Ashley Zavala

And very Happy Monday to you. At twelve oh six in the West, it's the Giant Philip Show. Mister Randy Wegg's across the Glass. John, I'm gonna need Henry Lee for this one. It's happened yet again. We are now up to twenty home burglaries in the San Fernando Valley since April tenth, and the last one happened in my neighborhood. Well, it's only a matter of time before the Brady Bunch house gets hit too. It's happened yet again. What's going on in the valley. The criminals are realizing how easy

Abed Reshide, thank you so much for making time for us, Ashley.

Thank you.

This is a hard job at a really hard time. Why do you want to be California governor?

Now?

Yes? Seriously, why who would want this job at this point?

Because it's a hard job and you need someone who's gone through these tough times and it knows what it's like to have to balance a big budget. Someone who knows what it's like to deal with emergencies, crises and how to get out of him, someone who knows how to fight.

Just starting off with all the cliches, and it sounds like he's falling asleep as he's answering the question, doesn't it. He is a very low energy candidate.

Someone who knows how to fight, and someone who knows how to win. I'm getting to do what my parents didn't have a chance to do, and that is live a life based on your dream. And I'm getting to do it with people who also want to see California thrive. So why not?

California, though, is facing multi year money problems. If you know, whoever the next governor is is really going to have to deal with that. According to our state's legislative analysts budget experts.

Yeah, Gavin is leaving you with a big ol' houl in the budget. And by the way, if California is in the hole that it's in, why didn't he do something about it. He was an assemblyman, he was a congressman from California. He was the Attorney General from California. He was the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Why at any point in the past did he not do something about all of these perennial problems.

In really every side of the aisle At this point, the options that have been laid out are to either cut spending, cutstack programs, or race taxes.

Which option do you see yourself choosing.

Both?

I'll have the combo platter please.

You got to do a little bit of both. I had to do that when I was secretary at HHS in the midst of the worst pandemic.

Wait, is that the right acronym? Because I thought you had a different job for Secretary of Health and Educations over I nominated Jabbier a BA Korea. Wasn't his name? Wasn't the job? Good job, Grampy Joe. And that was like the first month of the administration.

In the midst of the worst pandemic any of us had ever seen. I had to save lives, manage a budget.

Oh boy, he is really putting himself on the cross every time he talks about COVID every single time.

And do it without making cuts to the most essential programs. We were able to do that. We got the economy and the country out of COVID. It took a lot of work, but you have to do it with a mix of measures. And I think in the case of California, we'll need new revenue. And there are people who aren't paying their fair share.

Never heard that before, by the way, within the Biden administration, and we know what a disaster that was across the board. When you listen to the Biden people, you read the books about the election, about the Biden administration, he is universally regarded within that circle as being the biggest bomb of all of the department heads. Who have to pay Pelosi tried to warn them, so he did.

Who have to pay a little bit more. At the same time, we have to take a look at programs, as I had a look at programs when I was at HHS, and we had to make decisions on where to cut to make sure that we balanced our books.

So you mentioned people needing to pay their fair share, So what does that look like. You're essentially saying you'd raise taxes on the wealthy in the state for.

The most part. Yeah, I think of it this way. Not sure what bracket you're in, what tax bricket. All I know is that there are people who are paying doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers, folks who you think of in the middle. If you're making way more money than any of those professionals and you're paying at a tax rate lower than them, you're not paying your fair share.

So wait, did he just group doctors in with teachers. Yeah, that's a weird one. Okay, I have doctors in my family. They all do well. I guess it depends what your specialty is, But for the most part, they're not standing on the street corner with a tin cop. The doctors in Beverly Hills performing the world's best button plants. They're doing okay.

So I think it'll be pretty quick or pretty easy to calculate if you're gonna have to pay a little bit more, Because if you're paying less in taxes and make you're a billionaire and you're paying less than that teacher in your effective tax rate, you're likely going to have to pay more.

How exactly would that happen under governor?

Besides, if anyone wants to get specifics, it's Zabala And if anyone is devoid of any specifics, it's Bisera. He really doesn't know much about this, does he know? And this is the new guy that's gonna save the party from Tom Steyer.

How exactly would that happen under?

Okay, by the way, pause the tape here for a second. That made no sense to me. So I just randomly looked up on Twitter. What does Xavier Bessera's wife do? Javier Besseerra's wife is doctor Carolina reyis a Harvard trained physician and Perry nadologist. She specializes in high risk pregnancies and practices at the University of California at Davis. That's why he grouped in doctors with teachers, because that's what the wife does.

How exactly would that happen under Governor Vessea?

So we would try to have a policy on revenue that is predictable and consistent. That's one thing I've learned that when I was on the Ways and Means Committee in the Congress. Ways and Means Committee is a tax writing committee, so I did text.

One thing I'm learning is this guy's been around for way too long. Oh, he's been an elected office since Hector was a pu up.

Ways, he means committee is a tax writing committee. So I did tax policy for about twenty years. What you need to do is give people predictability. You want people to pay their taxes, they got to know more or less what they're going to owe at the end of the year. You want a business to be able to invest in your state, they got to know what they're facing in terms of taxes and regulations. Give them predictability, and so I would make sure that we're developed.

You have to think about this one.

Okay.

As I sit here listening to him, I'm thinking to myself, he sounds about as old as Antonio via Gosa and I just looked it up. He's sixty eight years old and Viera Gosa is like seventy one. Yeah, they're about the same age, the two of them. Nobody wants to retire. Huh Nope, full government pension still can't retire.

Developing a tax code that gives people predictability. That means, if you know you're paying in effective tax straight lower than that teacher, a firefighter.

Or doctor, especially ones that deliver high risk pregnancies.

You you should expect you're going to be paying more at the end of the year.

But I mean, California's budget does rely heavily on the state's top earners. I mean, the top one percent account for like almost.

Half of It's just it's always so jarring to me. And Ashley does such a great job. But when the reporter knows more about the state than the person that's running to run it, what's going on here? Okay, if we elect this guy to be governor, that says more about this electorate than it does about him. He is running on the platform of Gavin Newsom did a bang up job on homelessness and deserves an a And if you elect me, I'm going to raise your taxes. Let's

No, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but good luck finding someone who does.

And that's why we are where we are.

The income tax at the state collects do you risk I mean, I'm potentially driving them out of state and putting us in an even worse revenue situation than we could be.

No, No, because think of it, most of those doctors.

Back on the doctors. Boy, he really has that on the top of his mind. Yeah, doctor, that's a fake doctor.

Lawyers, A lot of those professionals who are making three four five, one hundred thousand, eight nine million dollars. I'm not looking to go after them because they already are paying a sizeable tax to the state of California for their income. I'm talking about folks who don't have that wealth because of their income. They have it because of their investments.

And Okay, so he wants to jack up capital gains. Okay, So that means if you own a home in California and you sell your home coming after you oh no.

And investments in this country are taxed at lower rates than the effective tax rate of that firefighter and that teacher. And it's because so many billionaires have their wealth in those investments that they get off without paying a fair share of tax.

Do you realize, by the way, that if you count property, if you throw that into the mix, we're all quote unquote millionaires and billionaires. Because even if you own a dumpy home in the San Fernando Valley, hey, that probably just got robbed. Accurate, that home is worth over a million dollars it's getting up there, because that's just what happened to California real estate. Go to any part of a population center and look at any home, any single

To the state where they make their living, where they love to enjoy. And you know, most of the folks that I've encountered who are fairly wealthy don't mind paying their fair share, and they're willing so long.

As it can. You name some examples of anyone that you've talked to that said, please tax me more. Didn't Tom Steyer get asked that very question on the debate stage, and he goes, me, paying more in taxes is not the answer. He did say that.

And they're willing so long as they can understand why they're being.

Just remember, kids, there are worse options than this.

And they're willing so long as they can understand why they're being taxed, so long as it's predictable.

Well, right now, we're all getting taxed and we don't see where any of that money is going. So how's that working out. You know what's awful about this is if you go back and I'm not even talking about ancient history, if you go back to California politics in the nineteen nineties early two thousands, everything that he's just said in this interview would have been a line crossing event that would prevent him from being elected statewide. Saying

He gave him an a.

That would be disqualifying, saying that one of the highest tax states in the Union, we need to raise more taxes because that's just what needs to happen. That would be a disqualifying event. And the fact that he goes on an interview like this and he says all of these nutty things and he's still regarded as the front runner shows you how far the state has moved from the nineties in the early two thousands, when this guy would be an unelectable pariah.

Everyone understands we pay a premium to live in this great state of California. Go take a look at the price at the gas pump today. We're paying a premium mostly because Donald Trumpy.

Oh there's the first mention. Oh yeah, okay, here's the follow up question to that. Why is it still less expensive? In Nevada and Arizona they have the same president.

Got us into this reckless foreign war. But I will tell you we like California.

Was he trying to say reckless but then said ereckless? Play that a good.

Got us into this reckless foreign war?

But I think you got to take a pill for that. I think so Bob Dole has one that he recommends.

I will tell you we like California. We want to stay in California, but it's got to be affordable.

You mentioned but everything you just said was going to make things less affordable. Yeah, you just said you were jack taxes up capital gains specifically, and by the way, for a lot of people who are working here, they regard their California single family home as a second pension of sorts, where you sell that and you use that money to live on in retirement. In Arizona, exactly, and those are the people he wants to target. We're just getting started here. We are five minutes into this thirty

Scrub it.

Maybe that emailer is onto something, and Randy, you and I aren't going anywhere anytime soon. John and I just inked a three year plus extension to do this show from noon to three on KABC in southern California and KSFO in the Bay Area, and of course our weekend hour on KMJ and Fresno, and much more exciting stuff to come. But we are very excited to be sticking around here and continuing to do this every single day,

You mentioned you'd also cut programs.

Is there anything like immediately on the docket that you see that you'd want to cut right now?

Yeah? Oh, anything for the homeless. Wait, I have a balanced budget.

I would take a real close look at these homeless program.

Hey, look at that. All right, we're getting warmer.

We have not had accountability. I believe that every dollar that we invest in homelessness is going to be a very precious dollar, and I'd like to make sure that it leads to results. And results for most of us are when I look at those streets, I don't see people lying there in the morning, having slept there. I want to see results. I want to have accountability.

How many times has he said that word so far? Yeah? The fact that he's using the same hollow words is Gavin Newsom is a red flag.

Accountability. Accountability, accountability. I'm willing to invest in having assistance for those who are homeless, but we have to have results. And if you can't produce the results in that accountability, then you shouldn't get the money.

So, because I mean, cities and counties might watch us right now and think, oh, my gosh, are you talking about half the homelessness Housing Assistance and Prevention grant program.

It's the main.

Way the state provides dollars to these local governments. I mean, is that something that would be on the table for you to potentially cut.

The counties want you to make it. Rain Hoavy aer Oh in La County wants to make sure that all of those homeless services groups they're rolling in dough.

I would certainly make sure that they are delivering results.

But what is results? Because if results is we pay a nonprofit to pass out meth pipes and they pass out the meth pipes. Technically that is results. Oh and then they pat themselves on the back and give each other awards.

And if they can't deliver results, I'll take that dollar to someone who is delivering results. And so we have to make the best use of that dollar, because there are always programs that have to deal with something like homelessness. I only have so many of those dollars. If I have to make a decision, I'm going to put that one dollar into that one organization that's delivering accountable results.

Another expensive program right now, and we have yet to really see the effectiveness of this one is providing healthcare to a documented people through the state's medic health program.

In fact, the first year that it was implemented, Gavin Newsom had to take out several loans from the state to keep it afloat. Oh yeah, it was another promise he can't keep.

Would you keep that in place as governor?

Absolutely?

Right now?

I get an assist on that, Shang, would you.

Keep that in place as governor?

Absolutely? Okay, So the state is broke, let's make sure that everyone from Guatemala has healthcare right now?

I mean new adults can't sign up under changes that the governor and legislature had to make last year because of the financial situation with it. Is that would you look at trying to allow new adults to sign on?

I understand what the thinking was. I think that's shortsighted and it's everybody.

Soon as you step on California soil free healthcare. Gee, I wonder what that'll do to the illegal alien population.

Not cost effective and astley. That one's an easy one. You've got a family, you've got a child, your child's hurting, you don't have money, you don't have insurance. You're going to think of everything you can, from going to get the aspirin to trying the massage in the kurandera. If you're from a Mexican home.

What does a counanderra? I don't even want to look it up. I didn't get to that lesson yet. On duo lingo, I wonder if that's a witch doctor.

Whatever you can, that's not going to cost you a arm in a leg. But if your child's still hurting at some point, you're going to the hospital, and if you don't have insurance, and if you're not a wealthy person, that bill will drive you out of your house. Whatever nest egg you had has just gone. So if you were looking to use that to buy a house in the future, or to get help pay for your kids tuition to college gone.

This is a great filibuster into not answering how are we going to afford it? Okay, I just looked it up. A currand Era c r A N. D Er is a female Latin American folk healer who uses a holistic approach combining herbal medicine, spiritualism, rituals, and indigenous traditions to treat physical, emotional, and spiritual illness. So it is a witch doctor one hundred percent.

But you're going to take your child to that hospital. Why should we wait till you have to take your child to the hospital, which means you're probably entering through the emergency room. The most expensive door to walk through in healthcare is the er door.

And it is okay. I always sold to us that while we need this, because then the emergency rooms won't be packed, and the emergency rooms are still packed. So the whole point of Obamacare is that people would have health insurance so they can go to a primary care physician to deal with a lot of their problems, and they wouldn't clog up the emergency room. I think I told you this friend of mine had one hundred and four degree fever. Went to Eisenhower Hospital in Rancho Mirage.

Why should we wait because you didn't have insurance that you let the situation get so bad that now you have no choice but to save your child, you go to the hospital through the emergency y. I'm saying no, no, you're going.

To have by the way, even just to get down into the weeds of this, what he's talking about is a bunch of bigs because kids are already covered. Kids were already covered, right, And the point isn't that they should be denied healthcare treatment. The point is this government isn't the one that's supposed to be paying for it.

You're going to have access to that pediatrician, that family doc, that obgyn now early upfront because it costs me so much less to do upfront, then wait till it gets really expensive at the back end. So tell me someone you don't have insurance condemns them to have to use the back end the.

Most How is is it someone who was the Secretary of Health and Human Services doesn't understand that about children. Look, you don't get these jobs because you're smart. We don't even have kids, and we know.

The back end the most expensive care.

Can you stop saying the back end? Don't want to get tempted here and cut something into a drop that would be inappropriate.

The back end the most expensive care. I'm not going there. And I tell you this from my own experience being Secretary at HHS, from defending the Affordable Care Act as AG all the way to the Supreme Court. But I'll tell you where I learned it most from two great Americans. My mom who said, Mikojo Premier, it is always better to prevent than to try to remediate.

I don't think she said that. I don't think so either. I think he made that up.

And Frederick Douglas, who said it about one hundred and sixty years.

It's like the whole story about how scrub it scrub it was his mom telling him to brush his teeth, But really it's from some commercial in the fifties. He made that up too.

And Frederick Douglas who said it about one hundred and sixty years ago. It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. We wait till they go to the emergency room to repair broken men and women. If we had built them strong and healthy at the beginning, we'd be spending a lot less money. I'm not going to wait till they're broken and we spend a ton of money. I'm going to build them strong and smart from the beginning, and that means giving him access to healthcare.

I think a lot of people who supported this program see it as a righteous issue, as you have laid out. I think the question is, though, is that this program became a lot more expensive than state officials braced for.

I mean, so if that I mean, in that.

You can preamble all you want. Zavala is going to get you back on track. Oh yeah, by the way, he has total recall for everything that never happened.

I mean, so if that I mean in that vein, it'll cost maybe a lot more. I mean, or is it just a matter of managing the state's budget better than it had been.

Well, who's paid if if that family's not on medical when they do use the health services at the hospital, who's paying not medical? So the state may not be paying, but you're putting it now on the county, or you're putting it on the back of that doctor or that clinic or that hospital that doesn't get paid.

And we already know how much tax is that doctor's paying.

And at some point then I said, I can only do business this way, so long before I have to close my doors. I don't want clinics, doctors, and hospitals to close their door. Go to rural California. They're already closing hospitals. We can't afford that, and I'm not gonna let it happen because as much as I think it's morally right, healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. Economically it is not smart to wait for them to use the most expensive care walking in through an emergency room.

Yeah, but it's not economically working to do what you're probing because we can't afford it. No, no, and we've proven that time and time again.

It is economically smarter to give people access early so they maintain their health. We our system in healthcare unfortunately, and I kept saying this when I was Secretary AHHS. Our healthcare system is based he likes.

To name drop the jobs he's had a lot, oh, over and over and over again.

Our healthcare system is based on treating illness. Our system of health should be based on promoting wellness, so we avoid the expensive care. That's why the US, California, we have the most expensive healthcare in the world bar none, and we still leave people without insurance.

Who put this guy in charge of that department? A senile old did? I thought that name would look very diverse. This is supposed to be in theory. His strongest issue is it not? Yes? And he constantly says he's running to be the healthcare governor, and he reminds us every ten seconds that he ran the Department of Health and Human Services, even though Grampy Joe's unaware of it. Well, it was a different department for Secretary of Health and

Speaking of getting it done, what grade would you give Governor Gavin Newsom for his last two terms as governor?

Oh?

I feel like he just had a lump in his throat. Well, he's thinking, Okay, what can I say? It's not the truth.

Oh, so you're talking to someone who's had a balance.

By the way, you know this question is coming. No, But it's like Kamala on the view. You should know the question is coming, but sometimes they don't do the fundamentals.

So you're talking to someone who's had to balance a budget bigger than the budget that Governor Newsom had a balance. You're talking to someone who had to deal with the crisis bigger than perhaps any crisis that the governor of California had to deal with.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Al Bundy, and you had four touchdowns in a single game too.

We had to save lives or across the country with COVID. You're talking to someone who took on a rogue menacing federal government the way Governor Newsom has had to do that. I did that when I was a g You are going to great him?

Are you going to great him?

I am going to Okay, But I've tried to put it in context.

So it is he's trying to run out the clock, Ashley, but you get it. You can't run out the clock and a pre recorded interview, Nope.

So it is important to recognize when you grade someone understand the shoes they're feeling. It's not easy to be a governor of the biggest state, the fourth largest economy. So what I would tell you is this, we became the fourth largest economy under Gavin Nusso. Check we have expanded healthcare to more Californians. Check.

Wait, that's why we're in a budget deficit. Yeah, get rid of that. Check.

Uh. There are many things that he has done well. The other things public safety. I think he could have been more ambitious, homelessness, could have been more ambitious, more have people be more accountable. If I were grading, I'd say, Gavin Newsom is going to go on to college because he's going to graduate from my high school?

What what the hell does that mean? Uh?

What great?

For?

That's the threshold?

And he's left the consummate professional Ashley Zavala can't even contain herself with that nonsense. No, No, he doesn't graduate high school. He doesn't even get a GEDs.

Is going to go on to college because he's going to graduate from my high school?

Uh?

Well, grade, that what's the threshold? He's left us in a place. Well, I mean you could go to college with a C. It's a lot more difficult.

Oh boy, he's just prolonging the agony.

But I think he has done many of the things that we have asked him to do. Uh and in some areas well. When I become governor, I'll make sure.

Well what's the grade?

I don't know if I can give him a grade.

You just said you were going to give him a grade, like two minutes ago.

I thought you were going to grade him.

Well, I was gonna try. But what I'm telling you, I wasn't in his shoes, do I You know, I know a lot of folks who gave me a grade on COVID say, oh, that guy was terrible, but they're still alive.

Well, not all all of them.

They get to go out and not have to wear a mask.

I mean, Babs, how you feel about that next slide?

I mean, you can grade anybody the way you want. It's whether you left the place better than you saw it and you started. I would absolutely say he has.

He's tried, as can anybody say that California is in a better place now than it was in twenty eighteen. What kind of drugs is he on? Well, at HHS, you get access to all of them. He must have stopped piled them.

I would absolutely say he has. He's tried and knowing how tough it is to manage an enterprise the size of the State of California, as the Department of Health and Human Services, the largest public health agency in the world, with a budget, as I said, bigger than the State of California. I know what it's like and it's easy to grade. It's tough to accomplish.

So not a through off. You won't give me an a through no.

I mean that's not for me to say.

Unreal, this guy could be the next governor of California.