The founder of an organic baby formula company has branded Gavin Newsom’s plan to offer free diapers to all new babies born in the state as “grifting nonsense.”
Newsom announced the Golden State Start initiative on Friday, a partnership with nonprofit Baby2Baby that will give every newborn delivered in participating hospitals 400 diapers for free.
Critics of California Gavin Newsom’s free diaper intiative argue the program is “grifting nonsense.” Getty Images for Baby2BabyBut the program has come under fire for using $7.4 million in taxpayers’ cash from the 2025-2026 budget, as well as seeking an additional $12.5 million for the next year.
Peter Basios argued it would be cheaper to hand “every low-income new mom $100 cash and told her to go to Costco” than have the state pay 50 cents per diaper.
“100,000 babies × 400 diapers = 40 million diapers,” Basios explained on X. “$20,000,000 ÷ 40,000,000 = $0.50 per diaper. Now walk into any Costco in California and you can buy the same quality diapers for .12 to .15 cents each!”
Newsom announced the Golden State Start initiative on Friday, a partnership with nonprofit Baby2Bay that will give every newborn delivered in participating hospitals 400 diapers for free. AP“That’s $48 to $60 for 400 diapers,” he added. “So the state is paying 8–10x more per diaper than a regular family buying in bulk.”
Basios called the initiative “peak government stupidity,” and slammed Newsom for “funding another bloated nonprofit-government grift.”
A sentiment echoed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, who claimed Newsom’s diaper program is “three times more expensive” than what someone could by at the store.
The program has come under fire for paying $20 million in taxpayer dollars to a nonprofit led by an executive who also sits on the board of Newsom’s wife’s organization that promotes gender equity. Getty Images for Baby2Baby“Why is it three times more expensive for Gavin Newsom to send diapers to 100,000 babies than just leaving the money in the bank accounts of the parents in the first place? Because it’s going to some total bullshit nonprofit which the cronies of his are going to make money,” he said in a post on X.
Hilton instead said the answer is cutting taxes so parents can afford to buy diapers in the first place, “not sending it out in this ridiculous bureaucratic scheme.”
Newsom is touting the “first-in-the-nation program” as part of a broader strategy to tackle affordability. Getty Images for Baby2BabyThe Post reached out to Newsom’s office for comment, but has not heard back.
Newsom is touting the “first-in-the-nation program” as part of a broader strategy to tackle affordability by “leveraging the bulk purchasing power of the state” to “distribute high-quality, mass-produced diapers directly to families.”
