California GOP urge Trump to kill Gavin Newsom’s $400-a-year healthcare tax

Four hundred dollars a year, per household, just to keep California's health programs afloat. That's the number California Republicans are pointing at, and they're right to point at it. When your state's answer to a budget hole is another line item on every family's bill, that's not governance. That's a habit.

Newsom built his brand on being the guy who never met a spending program he didn't like, and now the bill for that reputation is landing in mailboxes. Californians already pay some of the highest costs in the country for gas, housing, and just about everything else. Adding a mandatory healthcare tax on top of that isn't a bold policy move. It's the state admitting it can't manage what it already promised.

California Republicans asking Trump to intervene says something too. They're not pretending Sacramento is going to police itself. When the state legislature is a rubber stamp for whatever the governor wants, appealing to Washington isn't a betrayal of federalism, it's the only lever left.

Families making it work in California right now don't need a lecture about "shared sacrifice." They need someone to stop adding to the tab.