California’s punishing cost of living isn’t inevitable—it’s policy-driven. Burdensome regulations have sent housing and energy prices soaring, crushing incomes and deepening poverty. Smarter deregulation could bring back the Golden State’s long-lost affordability and historic role as a “land of opportunity.”

In 2024, California had a poverty rate of 17.7%, meaning about 7 million people were unable to afford basic necessities, well above the national rate of 10.6%. Child poverty nearly tripled from 7.5% in 2021 to 18.6% in 2024. The state also reports the nation’s largest homeless population of 187,084 individuals in 2024.

These outcomes stem from an economy burdened by regulations, particularly those governing housing supply and energy production, which inflate costs and trap Californians in cycles of poverty.

The Golden State’s housing prices substantially exceed national norms. The price of mid-tier homes (35th to 65th percentile) is twice as high as the typical U.S. mid-tier home, averaging $775,000 in early 2026. Even the cost of California homes on the bottom-tier (5th to 35th percentile) exceeds the national mid-tier median price. This disparity arises primarily from supply constraints imposed by land-use and environmental regulations.

For example, the California Environmental Quality Act mandates comprehensive environmental impact reviews for most development projects. Compliance costs for local zoning, environmental codes, and reports can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, reaching over $1 million in some cases. Complex CEQA litigation adds an average of two years to a project’s timeline. This ultimately deters investment, reduces housing supply, and drives up home prices.

California leads the nation in the share of households devoting more than half their income to shelter. Approximately 28% of renters and 14% of homeowners fall into this category, far above national averages. Rent caps and legal processes allowing tenants to live rent-free for six months to a year disincentivize affordable new home construction, exacerbating shelter affordability.

These rules and regulations crowd out spending on food, education, healthcare, and savings—locking families in poverty traps.

A 2025 Niskanen Center study finds that rental cost increases from 1980 to 2023 raised the resources needed to lift all of California out of poverty by $13.3 billion, more than offsetting the $11.4 billion in SNAP benefits provided over the same period. Additionally, a 15% decline in relative rental prices in high-cost San Francisco and Los Angeles could deliver poverty reductions comparable in magnitude to the 2021 Child Tax Credit expansion.

In other words, if California made the cost of housing and living more affordable, much of the bloated welfare and social safety net system could be reduced, along with the number of people in poverty.

The Golden State’s energy prices also rank among the highest nationally. Current residential electricity rates average 33.75 cents per kilowatt-hour—roughly 87% above the U.S. average of 18.05 cents per kilowatt-hour—and the state’s gasoline prices boast $6.14 per gallon against the national average of $4.56 per gallon.

A key driver is California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which mandates increasing shares of electricity from renewables, as well as tax and environmental policies that have raised compliance costs for utilities. Energy producers like Chevron have fled the state, leading to California’s dependency on oil imports and driving prices higher.

These elevated energy costs, derived from onerous regulations, ripple across the economy into everything Californians do and buy. Households face higher utility bills while businesses pass on increased transportation, production, and distribution costs to consumers in the form of higher prices or workers in the form of layoffs. A deregulated energy sector would, by contrast, foster competition and innovation and put downward pressure on prices.

California has one of the highest regulatory burdens in the U.S., with 420,434 state restrictions as of 2023 and over 1.5 million combined federal and state rules. These regulations contribute to higher costs for businesses—for example, a Salinas Valley lettuce grower incurred $1,600.12 per acre in regulatory expenses in 2024.

The time required to navigate a complex regulatory environment stifles entrepreneurial activity. According to a 2024 Mercatus study, the growth in federal regulations between 1997 and 2015 correlates to 14,442 lost jobs annually, 7.35% higher consumer prices, and 754,458 additional people living in poverty nationwide. These effects are amplified in heavily regulated states like California, where small businesses still rank regulations as a top concern, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.

Until California reins in the regulations that make housing and energy costs skyrocket, affordability will remain out of reach—and so will opportunity.

A 22-year-old Penn State University student was fatally shot during an alleged robbery about 1:30 a.m. Saturday in Philadelphia.

The post 22-Year-Old Penn State Student Fatally Shot During Alleged Robbery appeared first on Breitbart.

Sunday President Donald Trump ended an NBC "Meet the Press" interview with host Kristen Welker saying calling the network "one-sided" and "crooked."

The post Watch: Trump Ends NBC Interview — Calls ‘Meet the Press’ ‘Crooked’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Fort Worth police are seeking a suspect dressed in “all black” after four people were shot around 9:10 p.m. Saturday night, according to CBS News. The shooting occurred in Historic Stop Six Park and left a child, elderly woman, and police

The post Fort Worth Police Launch Manhunt After Shooter in ‘All Black’ Targets 4 People appeared first on Breitbart.

A small Florida police department decided "enough is enough" in the epidemic of street takeovers sweeping the U.S. and used internet intelligence and preparation to prevent an unsanctioned event at a local ocean pier.

The post Florida Cops Use Social Media Intelligence and Their Own Viral Operation to Prevent a Teen Takeover appeared first on Breitbart.

A 35-year-old spear fisherman was killed Saturday during a shark attack off Michaelmas Island in Australia. The loss has shaken his family and community members while adding yet another fatality to the country's ever-growing list of shark attack victims.

The post VIDEO — ‘This Is a Tragedy’: Shark Mauls Spear Fisherman to Death in Australia appeared first on Breitbart.

Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said incoming acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte was a "national security threat."

The post Warner: Bill Pulte as DNI Is a ‘National Security Threat’ appeared first on Breitbart.

“All D.C. needed was President Trump!

That was Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on X celebrating the renovation of the Columbus Circle fountain in the District of Columbia after decades of neglect and more recent abuse.

Maybe this seems like a small thing. It’s just an old fountain. What is that compared to the state of the economy, or matters of war and peace?

But I’d argue that the Trump administration’s attempted revitalization of Washington is essential to the success of the “Make America Great Again.”

It’s not just one fountain. What President Donald Trump is doing is clearly part of a larger effort to show America that our capital city doesn’t have to be a crime-ridden dump, that it can maintain something more enriching and worthwhile than blocks of hideous millennial housing for swarms of lobbyists and NGO staffers.

The other projects taking place around Washington are equally if not more impressive than the fountain at Columbus Circle in front of Union Station.

I lived a few blocks away from Meridian Hill Park in the northwest part of the city for years. It was pleasant enough, but it was also notable that the beautiful fountains modeled after classical Italian parks and architecture never worked. Now they’re back and flowing.

Over a century ago, this park and many others were projects of a progressive political movement to beautify American cities. What a far cry from modern “progressive” governance that shrugs at the idea of beautification in favor of dumping countless taxpayer dollars onto jobs programs for woke, NGO activists and crooked recent arrivals looking to sponge their new country.

President Trump has looked into fixing the even more famous reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial too.

And after a few weeks of construction, the long-festering reflecting pool looks like it might start, well, reflecting again.

That didn’t come without a bit of drama in the meantime as some Democrats and left-wing media types tried to argue that the administration was somehow making a hash of the restoration.

Here’s California Gov. Gavin Newsom taking a shot at Trump back in May taking a shot at the project mid construction.

This is a man who seemingly can’t even begin to build a bullet train route or even an overpass in his state without wasting countless years and billions of dollars. His post aged like milk.

Here’s the reflecting pool now.

I can’t remember the last time I looked into the water of that thing and didn’t see something resembling the creature of the black lagoon looking back at me. I may not have Hollywood looks, but I don’t look that bad.

Now the reflecting pool is starting to look how I imagined it in movies when I was growing up.

Bergum was right to compare these projects to the state of things in the city during the Biden years.

At that time everything seemed broken. Washington was beset by a historic crime wave. Large parts of it seemed outright abandoned. It all seemed reflective of a country just giving up.

The statues and monuments that weren’t falling further into decay were being literally torn down by mobs, assumedly never to be replaced except maybe by grotesque modern “art.”

Now the statues are going back up, not just in D.C. but around the country. Crime is dropping.

After Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard all over Washington to crack down on crime, crime has plummeted. In fact, the city is witnessing historic low crime rates, outpacing other crime declines throughout the country.

The projects around D.C. demonstrate a return to the “can do” ethos that built this country.

They represent an attitude, seemingly lost, that we don’t settle for second-best or mediocre in America. From that very moment we set forth on our own in 1776 we expected greatness and nothing less.

In the last few years, we lost our way a little bit. We got lost in a fog of malaise, were convinced by cultural pseudo-elites that self-loathing and deconstruction were better ways forward than building on what was great and ironing out our flaws.

For too long, America has felt like it’s been in decline, that our best days are in the past. Sure, we’re still rich, at least in aggregate. Yet, it’s been hard to escape the feeling of erosion that could literally be seen all around us.

In a sense, Trump is applying the “broken windows” policy to the whole nation.

He’s improving public spaces, demonstrating that the government is in the business of creating order and quashing chaos, and showing that “MAGA” is not just an empty slogan.

Decline is a choice. Here in America, we’ve decided to turn around and march back up the hill.

Maybe this moment will come and go. It was a transient vibe shift and nothing more.

But at the very least the physical reminders of American greatness are being restored. It’s up to us to decide if we wish to live up to what they symbolize or sink back into decay and hopelessness.