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Ezra Klein Profile picture
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2 Sep, 5 tweets, 3 min read
I don't think most Californians know how much Newsom and the Democratic legislature have done in the last 18 months.

To be honest, I didn't know a lot of it, until I sat down to pick through their record. But it's impressive. nytimes.com/2021/09/02/opi…
And I want to take the moment to disagree with my friend @tylercowen's case for Larry Elder.

Tyler's view is that California Democrats need a wake-up call and the legislature could stop Elder from doing anything really nuts. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
But on issues like housing, where symbolic gestures have dominated, California's Democrats have woken up. The state is on the cusp of ending single-family zoning!

Wrecking the political coalition that's finally moving policy on this issue would be madness.
But even beyond housing there's been a flurry of policymaking that, if implemented well, will really change lives in California. Universal pre-k for 4 year olds, for instance, is a big deal.

I'd like to see Newsom and the Democrats get the chance to finish what they've started.
There's much more in the column, including on Newsom's weaknesses.

I'll be joining some of my @nytopinion colleagues for a Twitter Spaces on the California recall at 1pm PT/4pm ET. Tune in!

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More from @ezraklein

Ezra Klein Profile picture
2 Sep
I update my views when policy changes, not before.

Most of of what I emphasize in here, like SB9 and universal pre-k for 4 year olds, passed in the last few months.

In my view, this piece would've been crazy to write in February.
Just one example: The forerunner to SB9, SB1120, had died a few months before, when the Assembly passed it minutes before the clock stopped, and so the Senate couldn't vote on it.

Everyone involved in that fiasco should be ashamed. Valuable lost time. latimes.com/homeless-housi…
One reason I focus on housing so much is I'm less impressed by policy where Newsom and the Dems are just spending down a surplus.

That's good to do in just ways, but that money won't always be there. It's governing on easy mode.
Read 8 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
26 Aug
This is worth reading, as it illustrates a peculiar pathology in modern conservatism: The idea that the US government is too incompetent to execute domestic policy well, but it has extraordinary control over outcomes in countries it invades.
Cooke's argument — again, read it for yourself — is that because I believed Elizabeth Warren could have mounted a stronger domestic response to COVID, I'm a hypocrite for saying events in Afghanistan had spun beyond our control, and a reckoning with our overreach is overdue.
But you see this all the time. The same people who say the US government would make a mess out of a national healthcare system will tell you we can invade Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc, and remake their societies.
Read 9 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
27 Jul
I’ve been listening to @annielowrey think (and rage) about this topic for years, and I’m so glad to see this article come out.

Once you start looking for time taxes, you see them everywhere, and they are a profound failure of both governance and justice. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
And don't think this is just a problem of Republican governance. Democrats have created more than their fair share of time taxes, and that has, in turn, undermined both their goals and the public's relationship to government.
Every campaign cycle we are suffused in plans to cut income and corporate taxes. I want to see plans to cut time taxes.
Read 4 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
8 Jul
In California, vaccinations are going well (10th in the nation!), COVID cases are down, there’s a $76b surplus, the economy is booming.

So what’s dominating our politics?

A recall election most Californians oppose to oust a governor we mostly like. nytimes.com/2021/07/08/opi…
The danger here is the recall could win. Not because recalling Newsom is popular. 57% oppose it. But those who favor it are paying much more attention.

We could end up with Gov. Caitlyn Jenner because most Californians ignore this as a distraction. ppic.org/blog/voter-ent…
This speaks to a larger problem in CA governance: A host of ideas meant to give the people more control over the government that have, over time, decayed into avenues organized interests use to get their way.

For instance:
Read 7 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
1 Jul
It is hard to view your own country objectively. There is too much cant and myth, too many stories and rituals.

So over the past week, I’ve been asking foreign scholars of democracy how the fights over the American political system look to them. nytimes.com/2021/07/01/opi…
And this, from @IvanKrastev, is sobering.
Read 4 tweets
Ezra Klein Profile picture
22 Jun
Senator Sinema's op-ed defending the filibuster is frustrating, but I want to take one argument from it seriously, because it's shared by many of her colleagues: The idea that ending the filibuster will mean ricochet legislating. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
I know people of good-faith believe this argument, and it's a reason they don't want to get rid of the filibuster.

BUT:

1. It's not true, mostly.

2. In the limited cases it is true, it's healthy.
I'm not going to try to condense this to tweet length. But I've reported and written a lot on this, and here's the counterargument:
Read 5 tweets

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