A new study from the Berkeley Research Group confirms what all of us conservatives were saying about Gavin Newsom’s $20 per hour minimum-wage for fast-food workers. It caused prices to rise 14.5 percent – nearly the double the national average – and cost 10,700 fast-food jobs.

Why were that many jobs lost? Fewer workers were needed because customers abandoned fast-food as a cheap alternative. Those left have to do more. And businesses are using automation to cut labor costs. Eateries have accelerated the use of ordering kiosks, AI drive-thru systems, and robotic kitchen automation, reducing available entry-level jobs and cutting jobs.

Walk into a Taco Bell and now you have to spend aggravating time navigating a giant computer screen to order three simple items – all while touching germ-infested glass.

The free market should be determining the rate of wages, not politicians in Sacramento. They only mess up things.

In a survey conducted by the Employment Policies Institute of 200 fast-food companies, 89 percent of those eateries already had been forced to reduce scheduled hours for their employees. The survey also found:

• 98% California fast-food restaurants said they raised menu prices;

• 89% reduced employee hours;

• 73% limited employee shifts or overtime;

• 70% reduced staff or consolidated positions.

You’ve heard of the Midas Touch? The Newsom Touch is opposite: everything he touches turns to crap.

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Speaking of Newsom, did you know that he started his own podcast? In introducing the podcast Der Slick-Meister says, “We need to change the conversation.”

Well, what we really need is to banish Newsom from public office – and the same goes for his political twin, Kamala Harris.

His effort to tap into the MAGA movement which swept Trump into office will ring hollow given that he has fought MAGA every inch of his sorry stewardship of California.

In his interview with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Newsom conceded that allowing men to play in women’s sports is unfair, yet has he backed off of his pandering to the trans community? No. It’s merely lip service that means no policy change whatsoever. If he really believed it was all unfair, he would have banned it in California.

Licking his chops over 2028 White House ambitions, Newsom sees Trump’s popularity and ever so slightly taking baby steps from his radical leftism to appear as though he’s coming toward the middle by embracing Trump like policies like “state workers need to return to the office.”Ask yourself why he didn’t do that right after the COVID scare was over.

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I don’t think I am unique in that I have a politically diverse family, both among my children but also my siblings. Yours may be that way as well.

One brother is in the business world and flips houses and is a Trump supporter. He understands how his economic livelihood is tied to a economy that can suffer or prosper at federal and state government dictates. He understands too that when Uncle Sam amasses deficit spending – $37 trillion is our natonal debt – we all pay for it in inflation.

My other brother seems allergic to work and has “gamed” the system. He has so much hatred – he has a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) – that I am his target merely because I voted for Trump. I routinely get long diatribes via text about how Trump is ruining the country (despite a great first term) and sending the country into a depression. It never ends. He’s even wished very ill thoughts about our president. TDS does that?

One of my three sons is just like him. He was pretty normal until he attended U.C. Davis where his brain was replaced by some person foreign matter. He became a Robert Reich type socialist and blames rich capitalists for “screwing the working man.” Never mind that rich people and risk takers are the ones who create jobs for the rest of us. In his view, people have no right to amass wealth despite the risk they’ve taken to get there. It’s akin to being envious of your neighbors who have it better than you because they took a different path than you did.

Both of my liberal kin are miserable people in a sense, which brings me to what we all saw last week when Trump gave his address before Congress. One side appeared buoyant, jubilant and optimistic and the other side dour, petty, cranky, miserable and irritable. They’ve lost their humanity and soul to the point they couldn’t stand and applaud 13-year-old brain cancer survivor D.J. Daniel who has dreams of becoming a Secret Service agent.

Even Democrat strategist David Axelrod called the antics of Rep. Al Green, who interrupted Trump by defiantly mouthing off and refusing to take his seat, “despicable.” Democrat Senator John Fetterman posted on social media: “We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to – and it may not be the winning message.”

Gee, do you think so?

Americans are tired of electing folks who promise to fix Washington while nothing ever gets done. That’s why Trump’s popularity is gaining. Taxpayers want a limited federal government because they know their tax burden will be lightened and it chaps us to see wasteful spending. As soon as Trump begins digging into the waste, fraud and abuse, the Dems go ballistic. They hate losing their unfettered ability to piddle our money away.

After Biden allow a flood of an estimated 8 to 22 million illegal aliens – we will never know – invade American soil, illegal border crossings are now at their lowest point in decades. In February the U.S. Border Patrol recorded 8,450 interceptions. Under Biden there were about 8,000 apprehensions EACH DAY!

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Speaking of Trump’s speech and the teen who battled brain cancer, the very bitter and vile Rachel Maddow said it was “disgusting” how Trump made a “spectacle” of the boy. Another vile talking head, MSNBC host Nicole Wallace, had her mouth filled with sour grapes when she said she hopes Daniel never has to “defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump supporters,” a reference to the Jan. 6 Capitol protests.

We can only hope Maddow gets the ax from MSNBC like the other nasty Joy Reid. They are cut of virtually the same cloth.

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There is a new poll from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill, conducted Feb. 10-11 among 1,000 California registered voters, showing that 57 percent Democratic primary voters in California would vote for Kamala Harris as governor.

This is not a ringing endorsement as four in 10 Democrats wouldn’t vote her so what does that say? Other gubernatorial hopeful retreads are in the mix like Katie Porter.

A Capitol Weekly poll published on Feb. 6 showed 23 percent of all voters would support Harris, with 21 percent backing Republican businessman John Cox (GOP please don’t run that retread).

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Since he was elected to the state Assembly last year, Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, has been infusing his own Trump brand of DOGE as a member of the Budget Committee. He two hearings he was exposing samples of fraud and abuse in the state budget at hearings. But that was a no-no and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat, stripped him of the committee assignment on Friday, Feb. 28.

DeMaio, also chairman of Reform California, exposed some jaw-dropping facts. He found the state was wasting billions of dollars.

At one hearing he revealed $9.5 billion in free healthcare costs were budgeted for illegal immigrants, not the governor’s stated $6 billion. Of that amount $8.4 billion was not covered by Uncle Sam (why should it?) but funded by us California taxpayers. One out of four Medi-Cal dollars in the state general fund goes to illegal immigrants. DeMaio pointed out that cutting that out would result in a $1 billion state  budget surplus without having to raid the Rainy Day Fund (reserves).

DeMaio also exposed the fact that the state had appropriated $25 million for a COVID-19 workplace outreach project into 2029! COVID is over and done so why are the Democrats funding this? Where are those funds going? He found they are going to 76 community-based organizations “disproportionately impacted” (code for buying minority voters) by COVID. Some are labor unions and DeMaio charges it is a “slush fund to left-wing organizations.” Those groups include Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement whose mission is ballot harvesting. Ring to Democracy, a political organization, says it is about empowering youth through civic engagement.

Alianza Coachella Valley, a leftist group that lobbies for legislation and stresses “environmental justice” is another recipient.

A rent control group named Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment also gets the money.

Two others groups, CRLA Foundation or Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, fund illegal immigrants fighting the USA to be returned to their homeland.

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com