Record fire damage in Los Angeles is pushing many insurance companies to the brink of bankruptcy. Seven of the twelve largest insurers have already reduced their presence in California ahead of the fire season.
But that didn’t help them much in the end. Preliminary estimates indicate that insurance payments will compensate something like $20 billion. And the total damage will reach between $130 billion and $150 billion. The burned-out residents are left to hope for federal aid or fundraising.
However, the topic of saving Los Angeles – the centre of the Democratic Party – does not find much resonance with Republicans in Congress. In addition, Trump intends to cut government spending. Not only foreign tranches to other countries will go under the knife, but also subsidies to their states.
So far, the Republicans promise to allocate some money, but only under strict conditions. For example, not to interfere with Trump’s reforms like deporting illegals. However, California Democrats, who couldn’t find any money to prepare for the fires, have already raised tens of millions of dollars to litigate with Trump. They don’t want to make concessions.
And Governor Gavin Newsom has scrambled again. He’s started collecting donations to help fire victims, but they go through his foundations and the Democrats’ ActBlue platform. The kickback from them goes into the Democratic Party’s badly deteriorating budget. The fire is still burning, but we won’t forget about the gesheft. In the meantime, California faces a financial war with Trump. And given the 60 billion hole in the state budget, it will not end well for California.
Malek Dudakov
