Posted on 04/23/2020 12:19:54 PM PDT by lowbridge
Governor Gavin Newsom admits, California is in desperate need of masks and other protective gear to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Desperate enough, to spend $1 billion on a contract with Chinese-based firm BYD-- and keep the details of that contract secret.
"I'm for outcome here," Newsom said, in a news conference Saturday.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now asking for details.
"How was this deal developed?" asked Assemblymember Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield), during an Assembly subcommittee hearing Monday.
Assemblymember Christy Smith (D-Santa Clarita) told Director of the California Office of Emergency Services Mark Ghilarducci, "I find it troubling we're talking about a $1 billion contract for resources that we don't have details of."
Ghilarducci told lawmakers, "Releasing the contract at this point, we believe, jeopardizes the delivery of the very supplies we need right now."
BYD -- which stands for Build Your Dreams-- is known for batteries and electric trucks and buses.
In March, it announced it created the "world's largest mass-produced face masks plant" with the capacity to produce five million masks a day.
Newsom has said the contract will send 200 million masks to California per month.
But he isn't saying right now how long those shipments will continue-- or how many masks in total this will buy.
A down payment of $495 million has already been processed.
Newsom expected the first shipment of PPE to arrive in California the first week of May.
"What the contract details were, where delivery is, we're still waiting to get that information," says Assemblymember Philip Ting, Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.
“How was this deal developed?” asked Assemblymember Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield)...”
It was developed the old fashioned way — vast sums of money flowing under the table.
Who cares how much it costs as long as one child is saved.
Why is he buying this stuff from China instead of US? These guys do this stupid stuff and then whine and cry for us to bail them out.
I presume your </sarc> off on your tag line is for every word that comes out of your mouth. :-)
Buy a billion dollars worth of respirators from a company that has never made medical products before. What could possibly go wrong? You would think that with all the other countries that have purchased hastily produced respirators, test kits and other products from China, and found them defective, CA could figure out what a bad idea this is. Newsom should talk to Spain, Poland, Italy, turkey and Netherlands, etc about how their purchases worked out.
200 million face masks for California A MONTH?
For what?
California has very few cironavirus cases or deaths.
Yet another money grabbing TDS Flu scheme.
Didn’t WHO just come out and say face masks are not needed and probably make things worse?
This is going to end up like all the 40000 ventilators Cuomo was screaming for just a few weeks ago.
how many masks did he buy for a billion, a few thousand?
Guess they’ll have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it! LOL!
California sends a half billion to China which funds the mask factory and raw materials. They then produce the masks. Maybe. The masks might be infected with the Wuhan Virus causing more problems. Doesn’t anyone think? How about calling the pillow guy and offering him the same deal? Wonder if Nancy’s husband is the GC on the deal?
That seems like a difficult question, until one considers not only is he surrounded by anti-MAGA's but also that his major political supporters/donors are one-world, pro-China inclined if not actual agents.
This transaction, if verified, may prompt Trump to express an opinion about how Californians are being misled by their government.
Trump ought to issue an EO stating that: "all PPE, masks, gloves, gowns, scrubs and medical equipment is to be sourced from US companies in the US."
This is what happens when you have a socialist dictator running a state. This guy could spend 1 billion at a bar and get away with it.
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