Steve Hilton & Spencer Pratt: Fixing California, Cheaper Gas, Ballot Fraud & CA Republicans

Jason (0:00)

A candidate for the Governor of California, who is extremely unique in a number of ways. First of all, he's a Republican, and second, he's a Brit.

Welcome to the program, Steve Hilton.

Steve Hilton (0:12)

It's a joke. I mean, what are these Democrats doing? We already have the highest taxes in the country. Your first hundred grand tax free. Even Katie Porter agrees with that.

David Sacks (0:23)

Prior to that, he was in Silicon Valley as a tech entrepreneur.

Steve Hilton (0:26)

People are so sick of the nonsense. Is everything twice as good when they've doubled the budget? Of course not. California means to America what America means to the world.

Friedberg (0:36)

Please welcome Steve Hilton.

Jason (0:50)

Wake up. Wake up, buddy.

Steve Hilton (0:52)

Let's go.

Friedberg (0:55)

Hi.

Steve Hilton (0:56)

All right. Wake up, California. We have seven weeks to save our state. Are you ready? Are we going to do it?

We got seven weeks. That's all, but we can do it.

Friedberg (1:09)

Seven weeks. There's a lot of people here who aren't from California.

Jason (1:17)

Well, actually, who's from California? Raise your hand, some applause.

Steve Hilton (1:20)

Who's the resident? I think there's a lot of people from California.

David Sacks (1:23)

Yeah, California, yeah.

Friedberg (1:25)

But help explain why California is so important.

Steve Hilton (1:28)

California is not just the biggest state, the richest state and the richest most important country on Earth. As I said just then and you saw, California means to America what America means to the world. I'm an immigrant, moved in 2012, neighbors with Chamath, so how about that? I picked a good spot.

I was inspired by this state.

It represents for me and for so many people over the century plus, that this state has been growing and leading in so many ways. The absolute essence of what we love about America, innovation and energy and ambition and hustle, and that rebel spirit, that's why we've created so many industries here that have completely transformed the world starting right here in Los Angeles over a century ago. The entertainment industry, obviously tech that you're all so familiar with, but also our great ag. We have the leading agriculture industry in the world. We've been so many different fields. We have led the world. That's why it's so important. We don't let California go down any further.

Chamath (2:42)

What is the state of the state, then?

Steve Hilton (2:44)

This state, I'm afraid, despite all our incredible advantages—and, of course, we still have them—the things that the people in charge haven't managed yet to ruin, our incredible natural beauty and the weather and the energy that you see in our start-up communities, the best innovation ecosystem in the world, great universities. But look at the facts. We've had 16 years of one party in control. Today in California, we have the highest poverty rate in the country, the highest unemployment rate, the highest cost of living by far. Look at how—we have housing cost the highest in the country. That's why people are leaving. They are leaving, millions of people leaving California, this beautiful place.

Friedberg (3:22)

You got two right here.

Steve Hilton (3:23)

And exactly, you've got now Chief Executive Magazine has ranked California in its annual survey of business leaders for more than a decade, 50th out of 50 for business climate. It's just incredible when you look at the range of issues where the policies that we've been subjected to have just created the worst outcomes, not just bad in comparison to other states, the worst out of every state.

Chamath (3:52)

So look, we know how you measure the outcome, but go back a few layers and think about just the root causes. Democrats have run this state for a long time. Democrats used to be sort of like peace and love and permissiveness and openness.

So just corral that for us, because I think this is a place now that has become rules on top of rules on top of rules. How did a group of people who basically were just like peace and love and leave us alone become the rule police?

Steve Hilton (4:23)

It's exactly right.

This is what happens with one party rule, actually. And you see that in history, whether it's from the right or the left, it always ends up with a kind of insular, self-regarding elite that just forgets about their responsibility to everyone else and just gets obsessed with their own ideology, their internal motivations, that whoever their interest groups are that they represent. And by the way, in Sacramento, we have one of the most corrupt systems anywhere in the country in terms of the power of the donors to the politicians who make the decisions, the unions, the trial lawyers. That's why we have the worst litigation risk anywhere in the country. You run a business in California. You start a business in California, 90% chance you're going to end up in litigation. So it's just a complete mess when you get one-party rules. Now, 16 years, the Democrats have run everything.