The Hidden Agenda Behind Gavin Newsom's Absurd New Tire Mandate

The John Phillips Show

The John Phillips Show critiques California Governor Gavin Newsom's new tire mandate, which bans 70% of currently available tires in the sta

Key takeaways

• The tire mandate is framed as a 'nanny state' policy that creates artificial problems without real evidence.
• Unelected agencies like the California Energy Commission are used as proxies to implement policies that ultimately reflect Governor Newsom's agenda.

Main topics

• California Energy Commission tire mandate
• Governor Gavin Newsom's policy influence through unelected agencies

Notable quotes

It's the equivalent of you're free to stay at the Four Seasons, but you can't afford to go on vacation.

Conclusion

The episode concludes that California's policymaking process is increasingly dominated

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Giving you the day's headlines with the right context. It's the John Phillips Speaker 1 (0:07) Show. And we continue at 2.05 in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show. Mr. Randy Wags in Culver City. Speaker 3 (0:17) Johnny, we're broadcasting live on the radio on 790K ABC in Southern California and 810K SFO in the Bay Area. And we're broadcasting live on video every single day from noon to three at johnnydontlike.com. That's Johnny with a Y. johnnydontlike.com takes you right to our YouTube channel. You can hit subscribe so all our stuff goes to your homepage. Hit the bell if you want to be notified when we go live and hit the like button if you want to get YouTube to recommend us to new people. It's happening every single day. You can also participate in the incredibly lively chat room, and we've been doing polls. Our latest poll just ended. Gavin Newsom's approval rating with this audience is a 98 % disapproval rating. All of this at johnnydontlike.com, and now I've got to come up with a new poll. Speaker 1 (1:03) 800-222-5222 is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. She is the assemblywoman for the 72nd District, which includes much of coastal Orange County. She's also a candidate for the OC Board of Supervisors. You can follow her on X at DianeDixonAD72. Assemblywoman Diane Dixon, welcome. Speaker 2 (1:31) Thank you, John. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for having me. Speaker 1 (1:34) Well, thanks so much for stopping by. So the big news this week out of Sacramento. is this decision that came from the California Energy Commission to ban essentially 70 % of the tires that are now on the market. for purchase here in the state of California. After they made that decision, both the member of the commission who was making the press rounds, former senator from the East Bay, Senator Nancy Skinner, and California Governor Gavin Newsom both said, yeah, but you know what, it's going to save you money in the long run, so it's really good for you. And I tell people, this is the equivalent of You know, we're going to allow hotels in California. We're just going to get rid of Hampton Inn. We're going to get rid of Best Western. We're going to get rid of the Doubletree. You're free to stay at the Four Seasons. You're free to stay at the Ritz-Carlton. You're free to stay at the Waldorf. And we're going to save you money because now you can't afford to go on vacation. You're going to buy less hotel rooms. Speaker 2 (2:39) You want me to respond to that? Yes. Well, I think you and I share the same idea. This is another nanny state, create a problem that really doesn't exist and studies that no one can find the answers to and they make it up as they go along. One more way that the California Energy Commission wants to control. Every aspect of our lives. And this is just the latest in the tip of the iceberg. I mean, electrical appliances, home watering systems, heating systems, whether it's commercial or residential properties, this is the one in a long line of them trying to control. Tires. Who would have thought? Tires. They're coming after our tires. Speaker 1 (3:23) I'll also say this. It seems like Sacramento, the one-party rule, the Democrats who control both the Assembly, the Senate, the governor's office, they support these steps. They support these measures. But they always want to have some middleman be the one to do the dirty work. In this case, it was the California Energy Commission. So if you were to go out and say, Gavin Newsom is limiting the number of tires that are sold in California, he'll go, well, that's fake news. I never did that. I never signed any legislation that said that 70 % of the tires need to go off the market. No, but your appointees to the California Energy Commission did that knowing that you were well aware of their positions on these issues when they were appointed. Speaker 1 (4:11) It's good cop, bad cop, and they're the ones that are being the bad cops right now, and I'm sure they're catching all kinds of negative attention because of it right now. But really the one responsible for this is Gavin Newsom and the supermajority. Speaker 2 (4:24) Well, unquestionably. Okay, let me give you more support for your statement. First of all, they're unelected, as we all know. And all of these agency appointments, the regulators who regulate our lives, are unelected. I'm an elected legislator. albeit in the super minority party, but we're still responsible for everything we do for what our caucus does, our side of the aisle. We take responsibility. So no one, you're right. The governor says, well, it's the Energy Commission. Well, I'm sure you've seen a recent headline in the last 24 hours that my colleague, Tony Strickland, has, and I joined with him, my Orange County colleague. in calling for the immediate resignation of the full California Energy Commission. This is a brilliant idea. They should all resign. These five elected individuals individually receive salaries up to $215,000 a year. So they don't care how much their tires cost. They should be subject to the vote of the people like all of us are and be accountable to someone. They're not accountable to anyone. Speaker 1 (5:27) And I know it's a bit off topic, but... I'll tell you, it also goes to show you what a joke term limits have become because Nancy Skinner. was elected to the Berkeley City Council. She was elected to the State Assembly, the State Senate. Now she's on the Energy Commission. The point of term limits was to have some churn, was to give someone else a turn, bring fresh ideas, bring new ideas to the game. But what has ultimately ended up happening is you just move these people around from office to office, and Nancy Skinner and her same stale bad ideas have just moved from the Senate to the Commission. Speaker 2 (6:04) Well, that's exactly right. You know, I remember her appointment right after the start of the year and she had termed out. You know, that's a whole lot. I'd love to do another interview on that subject of term limits because having seen how this happens, the power in Sacramento, yes, is in a single party. All the other support groups, stakeholder groups from the labor unions to all the environmentalists and the trial lawyers, they're all control things. But the real legislation is crafted by staff. who are not term limited who are there and a lot of hard-working staff i love my staff i love on our side of the aisle hard-working staff but on the other side of the aisle who create these bad bills that we're going to go back to sacramento on monday and are chained to our desk for the next seven days literally from 9 00 a.m to 10 p.m to approve these vote on these bad bills. In any event, the staff, they own, I've learned as I've tried to introduce new legislation, and I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but there are certain bills, a certain change in state law that will not pass muster with the legislative staffs on the other side of the aisle because they've been there 15 or 20 years. They created the original laws. They don't want to change them. So the real power is in these long-term staff members who really control the flow of legislation in the state capitol. Speaker 1 (7:20) Well, to that point, there's another story that's been generating national news out of Sacramento, which includes the chief of staff of Assemblyman Tina McKenna, who went out and confronted Nick Shirley outside the Capitol and demanded that he show his penis on camera and just kept asking the question over and over and over again. It just seemed to go on forever. And then I guess the camera crew followed him back to his car and he was parked in a handicapped parking space. Speaker 2 (7:51) You know, it's embarrassing. It's sad. And to go after Nick Shirley and on the public streets of Sacramento within the eyeshot of the state capitol, that's just totally inappropriate, made national news. It's embarrassing for him. And this whole bill that was up before us today's Friday, yesterday, and we all voted, my side of the aisle voted unanimously no. But it is another obfuscation of what's really going to happen. They're going to limit the freedom of speech of independent news people. So that's unfortunate. I think that's a problem. So we'll see where that bill goes. So that is a problem. Speaker 1 (8:30) Well, it's just kind of shocking to me that the guy still has his job after behaving like that. And then you find out, you look at the salary, which has been made public. He makes more than the member that he works for. Speaker 2 (8:43) I Speaker 1 (8:44) don't know how that is even possible. Speaker 2 (8:46) Well, you know what has recently happened since I've been up there? I've been up there four years. They're unionizing now, all staff members. They voted, I voted no. So they're in the formative stages of, the legislature has proved that they may form a union. Now they're in the formative stages of. determining if there is enough support to create a union but i mean you know as an elected and we work seven days a week 24 hours a day and you want your staff person to go attend an event well i'm sorry i don't work anymore on weekends you know this that's going to be a whole new story but you know i want to go back to the tires and just say the consequence the market reaction to the tire higher price tires where do you think people are going to go when they want to buy Tires the old fashioned way. They're going to go to Arizona. They're going to go to Texas. They're going to go to Nevada and just get those cars, those tires put on their cars and bring them back into California. Who does that affect? The tire retail stores. So this is a fiasco. The members, the unelected regulators and all these agencies, but the CEC, they're not business people. Not a single one, I've looked at their biographies, not a single one is a business person. They've never been in private industry. They've never met a payroll. They've never had to implement a mandate from Sacramento. They do not have a realistic view of what goes on in the business world, what creates jobs and success in our communities. So let's just see where people go to