Hollywood has lost money as it became more out of touch with the country.
Now Adam Schiff wants you to pay to clean it up.
What he's pushing through Congress right now should make every working American furious.
California Democrats Destroyed Hollywood Jobs – Now They Want You to Fix It
Senator Adam Schiff has drafted a federal film production tax credit he's been shopping since March.
He’s hoping to quietly slip it in a monstrous mustpass spending bill.
The bill would give studios a 15% federal tax credit on labor costs – roughly matching Canada's incentive – layered on top of what California already hands out.
Variety – the same outlet now cheerleading his bill – published a study in 2016 calling film tax credits a "giant waste of money" that produced little or no job growth.
Nothing changed about the economics.
What changed is that Hollywood now needs the money.
California Democrats spent decades taxing, regulating, and unionizing the entertainment industry into a crisis of their own making.
Labor costs in Los Angeles are among the highest in the country, permits are a nightmare, and union agreements that California Democrats built and protected have made the state one of the most expensive places on earth to shoot a production.
Productions don't leave for Canada and Georgia because those places have better beaches.
They leave because California's own policies made it too expensive to stay.
Los Angeles County has shed 42,000 entertainment jobs over the last two years.
Schiff blames global competition.
He's wrong.
Baywatch Needed a California Film Tax Credit Just to Film on Its Own Beach
The Baywatch reboot is the proof.
Fox wanted to film the show at Venice Beach – where Baywatch was born, where it always filmed, where it literally cannot exist anywhere else.
To make it happen, California had to hand Fox a $21 million state tax credit equal to 40% of production costs.
Then the production immediately hit permitting battles, parking fights, and Coastal Commission hearings that required the mayor of Los Angeles to personally intervene on social media.
Karen Bass had to tweet that the city would "clear bureaucratic barriers" just to let a TV show film on a public beach.
That's what California Democrats built.
Not a thriving creative economy – a bureaucratic maze so strangling that a show about lifeguards on a beach needs a government bailout and a mayoral press release to operate in its own backyard.
The woke content didn't help matters.
But Democrats created a nightmare for any business operating California.
California's taxes, regulations, and union agreements are driving businesses out of the state – and Adam Schiff and Democrat buddies helped write every one of them.
Former Trump official Richard Grenell said: "Hard NO to anything Schiff supports. Now they want President Trump to support our tax dollars for woke projects at Hollywood Studios? Nope."
Schiff Is Pushing a Federal Film Tax Credit After Democrats Failed to Sneak It Into the Big Beautiful Bill
This isn't a new idea.
Schiff and California Rep. Laura Friedman tried to insert a federal film incentive into Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill.
They failed.
So now Schiff is pitching a standalone bill and insisting he has bipartisan support – without naming a single Republican co-sponsor.
More than half of all U.S. states already offer their own film incentives.
Georgia's program has been running since 2005 and hands studios up to 30% back on in-state production costs.
The evidence has never supported these programs, it’s corporate welfare for Democrats.
The only thing that's changed is that Hollywood is now asking for federal dollars on top of state ones.
Schiff's bill doesn't have a price tag attached yet.
But a 15% labor credit for an industry that generates over $200 billion in wages annually isn't a small number.
Nobody writes a check to the Ohio machinist when union agreements ship his job to Mexico.
But Adam Schiff thinks the studios that spent a decade calling hardworking Americans racists deserve a taxpayer lifeline – to survive the consequences of policies he championed.
That's the argument.
Schiff and California Democrats finally found a tax break they like – when it's for their allies.
Sources:
- Gene Maddaus, "Adam Schiff Touts Federal Film Incentive to Counter Hollywood Job Losses," Variety, March 20, 2026.
- Joe Lancaster, "Adam Schiff Wants Federal Tax Credits for Movie and TV Production," Reason, June 17, 2026.
- Richard Grenell, post on X, June 17, 2026.
- Gene Maddaus, "Baywatch Reboot Lands $21 Million Tax Credit to Film in L.A.," Variety, November 20, 2025.
- "Baywatch Reboot to Remain at Venice Beach After Filming Issues," The Hollywood Reporter, April 11, 2026.
- "Disney's Year of Box Office Bombs and Disappointments: Is Wokeness to Blame?", Fox News, August 12, 2023.