Just what we need in California: another incentive for more illegals to come here; another excuse for the Democrat-controlled state government to raise taxes on the rest of us.
This past week, I received a media inquiry that, at first, seemed innocuous:
A publication sponsored by a large health insurer wanted me to comment on a study entitled, “Re-orienting the Safety Net For the Remaining Uninsured,” published by an innocent-sounding organization called Health-Access.org.
Seemed harmless at first. Until I read the whole report.
As I read the survey, it was predictable—touting the massive success of ObamaCare as single-handedly resolving the problem of the uninsured in California. Then, as the report went on, it began to advocate for California to spend taxpayer money to cover the illegal aliens that even the federal government won’t cover.
A red flag went up. This was not so much a “report” as a shill for more government spending–and not for struggling citizens, but to give free health care to those who came into our country illegally.
Prior to my election to the California State Assembly in 2010, California was facing a $30 billion annual budget deficit, much of which can be attributed to the explosive growth of social programs that create an entitlement based on an individual’s need. The “report” made certain to point out that California is famous for creating entitlements for illegals, even when the federal government excludes them. It’s one of the reasons that California’s cost of living and tax burden is so high.
As I read this report, I kept hearing echoes of Karl Marx: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
The “report” noted that in a number of counties in California, where they had a policy against giving taxpayer-paid benefits to illegals, the caseload of indigents had been reduced significantly, down to only a few hundred or even zero cases.
You’d think that would be a good thing. Maybe we could end a government program, and give back the taxpayers their hard-earned money.
Sounds good, right?
But no–instead of advocating the return of those monies to the taxpayers in the form of a refund, or using them to improve health care services for our long-suffering veterans in the state that is home to more veterans than any other, this organization—Health Access California, a 501 c (4)—has a singular focus: getting everyone on a single-payer, government controlled insurance plan like Medicare.
They want the government to control as much of our health care process as possible, creating new excuses to raise taxes, paving the way for the creation of more government jobs, and enabling public sector unions to grow at the taxpayers expense. That, in turn, empowers the left for generations to come.
Their website barely disguises their hard-leftist ideology:
Health Access California is the statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition, bringing together dozens of other member organizations representing seniors, people with disabilities, children, immigrants, communities of color, health care professionals, people of faith, labor, women, low-income families, and communities throughout California.
Almost every one of their staffers lists “social justice” as their primary education or work experience. What most ordinary Californians don’t know is that nonprofits like this organization recruit, hire and train leftist activists to fight against everything you believe in—hard work, paying your own way, playing by the rules—and their efforts are aided and abetted by complicit taxpayer-supported public universities.
In 2007, I attended my brother-in-law’s graduation from a law school in Berkeley, California. The speaker was none other than our current Lt. Governor, Gavin Newsom, who was then the mayor of San Francisco. I listened as he inspired the class to fight against conservatism at every turn, and undo any and all efforts to control our borders, protect the 2nd Amendment and exercise our religious liberty to worship and believe as we see fit.
At the time, I was not involved in politics—other than having been a leader of the largest Minuteman Group in California—but I was stunned by what I’d heard. As they read off the list of dozens of hardcore leftist, socialist organizations and nonprofits who had made lucrative offers to hire these idealistic young lawyers to weaken our Constitution, undermine the rule of law, and attack our fundamental freedoms, I felt as if I’d been kicked in the stomach.
In that moment, I felt powerless to battle such well-funded and powerful forces. But after spending four years inside one of the most corrupt legislatures in the country, where I battled them on a daily basis, I learned that the one thing they fear—maybe the only thing—is effective opposition.
People often ask me why government never stops growing, and how the left is so successful at working against the majority of the taxpayers in California. It’s because almost everyone in the process has become desensitized. Overspending has become an addiction for California’s Marxist-progressives, and just like any junkie, they’ve had to resort to crime to support their habit.
However, when the government steals from you—and calls it a government program for the poor—you can’t call the police. No one gets punished except the poor working guy who can’t pay the government bite.
When political figures are asked to comment on a “report” that is published by a leftist lobbying group, and the “report” is nothing more than a justification for more government spending so that individuals illegally present in our state can have free health care at taxpayer expense, you know the fix is in. Their bias knows no bounds.
In 2015, it is this kind of blatant, biased pandering that forms the basis for new laws, new government programs, and new handouts. In particular, State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) starting began pushing the “Health Care For All Act” (SB1005) last year, which would cover illegal aliens, and has re-introduced it again this year as (SB4).
It’s astounding that such hopelessly biased “reports” and “studies” conjured up by activist groups who will clearly benefit are all it takes to persuade the government to engage in more legalized theft from hard-working Californians in order to provide yet another incentive for illegals to make California their home.
Share this article with your friends if you oppose free healthcare for illegals.