Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new diaper giveaway program is all wet. It is the latest example of Newsom addressing a costly California problem with a half-measure while claiming victory.

“This is what affordability looks like,” Newsom said on Friday in announcing a first-of-its-kind program in the nation. “It’s not a slogan. It’s a box. It’s a box of diapers.”

With $7.4 million set aside in this fiscal year’s budget, the administration is partnering with the nonprofit Baby2Baby to provide 400 free diapers per California family. The program will start by targeting 65 hospitals in California with a high percentage of low-income patients. Newsom is seeking to expand the program in the coming fiscal year with $12.5 million in proposed funding.

“It’s addressing an essential for any new parent, for any new family, and that essential is no longer affordable,” Newsom said. “Since the pandemic, we’ve seen the cost of diapers go up 45%,” Newsom said. “One out of every four families skips meals to pay for a diaper.”

This program would solve the diaper affordability problem if parents can potty-train their babies by roughly five weeks of age.

Newborns go through an estimated 8 to 12 diapers a day. By the first birthday, a typical family has purchased up to 3,000 diapers. It’s another one to three years before diapers disappear from the family budget.

Newsom timed the announcement days before Mother’s Day. But he’s also seeking attention just as a historic race to succeed him reaches the home stretch, with a crowded field of Republicans and Democrats seeking to be the two candidates who make the November runoff.

Newsom has repeatedly declined to endorse a candidate for governor, although he has endorsed fellow Marin resident Josh Fryday for lieutenant governor. The governor was asked again on Friday whether he would endorse a candidate. He would not.

“I’m focused on diapers,” he said.

There’s never been a more expensive time to bring a new Californian into the world than right now, and it’s undoubtedly why birth rates are down. According to one study, the number of newborns declined by 24% between 2009 and 2023. For our economy and our future, that’s a very troubling way to solve the diaper problem.

Giving new parents a few weeks of a budget break may prove to be a worthwhile program. But Newsom is being too hyper about these diapers. And it’s part of a victory tour of sorts the governor is unveiling as his tenure in Sacramento winds down and his focus switches to a much-expected run for the presidency.

Newsom in February declared that he had turned the corner on the state’s languishing effort to build high-speed rail in the San Joaquin Valley. “All the hard work is behind us,” he said at the time. It was quite the claim, given how not a single track has been laid.

On homelessness, Newsom is sure the numbers are finally going down. “First time in two decades,” he told lawmakers in January. By all accounts, California still has the highest number of unhoused residents in the nation.

It is kind of shocking that California can distribute 40 million free diapers in a year and only cover such a minuscule percentage of the need. It’s a reminder of the scale of California.

Solving a small percentage of any problem is no solution at all.

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