Op-Eds

May 19, 2023

President Joe Biden is right. The massive tax cuts under the Trump administration turned out to be nothing more than a giant giveaway to the world’s largest corporations. 

Mega corporations like FedEx, Nike, General Motors, Ford, Chevron and dozens of others have paid nothing or almost nothing in federal taxes, while raking in billions of dollars.

At the same time, the Trump tax handouts have worsened our national debt and harmed our economy. In all, the cuts cost our nation roughly $2.3 trillion and deepened the federal deficit by $2 trillion.

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March 23, 2023

Exxon collected $6.3 million an hour. Chevron last year doubled its 2021 profits and boasted about “outstanding results” in an earnings call. Valero made nearly 10 times more.

While oil companies were raking it in, Californians were paying for it in record high gas prices — $2.61 per gallon higher than the national average. We were charged those sky-high prices even though the cost of crude oil was down and there were no changes to state taxes, fees or regulations. While we all know that gas has always cost a bit more here than in other states, it’s never been by that much.

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September 13, 2022

In Ohio, a 10-year-old had to cross state lines to get life-saving abortion care. In Texas, doctors who perform abortions now face possible life sentences in prison. And in Missouri and 11 other states, abortions are now banned even in cases of rape and incest.

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August 11, 2022

It’s no secret that college sports is a multibillion-dollar business that mostly ignores the needs of student athletes. That’s why I authored a 2019 law that made California the first state to give college athletes the right to earn money from their name, image and likeness.

I am not naïve when it comes to colleges prioritizing the business of their athletics department over students. But UCLA’s recent decision to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big Ten in order make more money represents a new low.

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May 3, 2021

California’s highest court recently delivered a major victory for the cause of justice when it ruled that “the common practice of conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail is unconstitutional.” Under the state Supreme Court’s ruling, judges must now consider a person’s ability to pay when setting bail and can only hold someone in jail before trial in limited circumstances.

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January 27, 2021

Our criminal justice system is supposed to be based on a fundamental premise: “innocent until proven guilty.” In reality, this basic right is not afforded to millions of low-income Californians, particularly those in communities of color.

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