Tag Archive for: shutdown

California Will Spend 28x More On Healthcare For Illegals Than State Law Enforcement

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California expects to spend 28 times more on health benefits for illegal aliens than on state police in the 2025-2026 budget period.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s final budget allocates $348 million to law enforcement while the state’s own budget experts in an October report estimate the tab for giving full health benefits for illegal aliens amounts to $10 billion. The new report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reveals a 35% higher figure than the $7.4 billion cost Newsom estimated in his January 2025 budget proposal.

California’s joint state-federal Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, provides comprehensive coverage for doctor’s visits, medications, and dental and vision care for 1.7 million illegal aliens, who represent 11% of the program’s enrollees, according to the LAO report. Illegal immigrants’ health benefits will consume a fourth of the Medi-Cal money flowing from state coffers.

“The Governor is committed to effective crime reduction, which is why California’s crime rate has been rapidly declining in recent years,” said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Newsom, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Like other states, law enforcement budgets in California are funded primarily through local funding,” Crofts-Pelayo added, pointing to a February 2025 report on city and county spending on police.

But amid a battle in Congress over health spending for illegal immigrants and in the courts over President Donald Trump’s National Guard deployments to Los Angeles and other cities to protect Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) facilities amid a surge in threats, the statistic provides another illustration of the blue state’s priorities.

Newsom, a frequent Trump critic who has hinted at 2028 presidential aspirations, has championed the policy, making California the first state to provide all immigrants meeting income requirements access to Medicaid in 2022. Newsom touted the move as achieving “universal access to health coverage” — even as he backed off promises of a completely state-subsidized single-payer model.

He recently touted “universal health care” as among his accomplishments in an October CNN interview.

Newsom also criticized Trump’s National Guard deployments to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in an Oct. 20 amicus brief dated as an affront to “states’ sovereign rights to handle any public safety matters,” even as public safety received a short shrift under Newsom compared to health benefits for illegal aliens.

Expansions of the policy to include illegal aliens of any age on Medi-Cal drove spending on the program skyward to more than double the initial estimates, LAO’s report says.

While on paper the state must only use its own funds for illegal immigrants, in practice, California obtains federal Medicaid dollars for its pet priorities through complex accounting.

California exploited a loophole in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules to obtain extra Medicaid matching dollars, Niklas Kleinworth, a policy analyst at Paragon Health Institute, told the DCNF. Even former President Joe Biden’s CMS said California’s policy was not in keeping with “the intended design” of their rules, per Paragon, a non-partisan policy research institute founded by Brian Blase, former economic policy advisor to Trump.

“What they did was technically legal, so you can’t call it defrauding the government, but it really was an abuse of the intent of the policy,” Kleinworth told the DCNF. “They got very crafty.”

Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law in July scaled back states’ ability to obtain Medicaid dollars this way, leaving California scrambling for new revenue streams, the LAO report shows. Newsom also negotiated with legislative Democrats throughout the final two quarters of the 2024-2025 budget period on changes to stop the bleeding.

California Democrats finalized their plans in June: In January 2026 the state will implement a freeze on all illegal adult enrollment, with the revocation of dental coverage and a reduction in certain clinic payments to follow.

In July 2027, the state will introduce a $30 monthly premium — a cost 96% lower than the average $650 that Californians with employer-sponsored plans pay.

The LAO report proposes a tax on the uninsured of $900 or more to make up the shortfall while maintaining programs like the Medicaid expansion for illegal immigrants.

Plans with premiums that cheap are “unicorn policies” for most Americans, Kleinworth told the DCNF.

“The only way a $30 premium exists is through the heavily subsidized Obamacare plans,” said Kleinworth.

In order to qualify for such a plan, an American household could earn no more than 150% of the poverty level, or $23,475 per year for a single adult, far less than the state’s $76,190 median income.

Newsom dismissed criticism of California policy priorities as the product of “California derangement syndrome” in an October Bloomberg interview.

AUTHOR

Emily Kopp

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Democrat: The Party of the Shutdown, by the Shutdown and for the Shutdown

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A senior Democratic aide said they will not reopen the government short of “planes falling out of the sky,” as long as public perception is in their favor, according to CNN. 

WATCH: This video from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is playing in airports across the country

TORRE in a column titled US Democrats won’t end shutdown unless ‘planes fall out of the sky’ – CNN. reports:

Over 9,000 flights have already been canceled or delayed due to a shortage of air traffic controllers across the country

Democrats have said they will not agree to end the US government shutdown unless Republicans meet their demands, with one senior aide telling CNN it would take an airline catastrophe for the party to back down.

The federal government shut down on October 1 after Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on a spending bill in the Senate. The impasse has left hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay as the standoff enters its second week.

The shutdown has also disrupted air travel across the country. According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data, more than 9,000 flights have been delayed or canceled amid a shortage of air traffic controllers.

Air traffic controllers are classified as essential workers and must continue working without pay, which has led to widespread absences and temporary closures at several major airports.

Nevertheless, Democratic leaders have told CNN they will hold their position until Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act healthcare subsidies. One anonymous senior Democratic aide told the outlet that as long as public perception remains in their favor, the party “will not concede short of planes falling out of the sky” – a remark that has drawn widespread criticism.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has also condemned Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for reportedly saying that “every day of the shutdown makes it better for us,” accusing the Democrat of forcing Americans to suffer for political gain.

Schumer has accused the Republicans of “risking America’s healthcare” and refusing to negotiate in good faith.

Continue reading.

The Party of the Shutdown, by the Shutdown and for the Shutdown

Key Impacts of the 2025 Government Shutdown:

  1. Essential Services: Critical services like air traffic control, Social Security, and veterans’ healthcare will continue, but many federal agencies are operating with reduced staff. For instance, the CDC, NIH, and FDA will have fewer personnel available to monitor health issues and conduct inspections, potentially impacting public health and safety.
  2. Public Services: National parks remain open but with minimal staffing, leading to fewer services for visitors, such as trail maintenance and ranger programs. Passport and visa processing will slow down, affecting international travel plans. 
  3. Economic Consequences: The shutdown could cost the economy billions, particularly affecting local economies where federal workers reside. While federal employees typically receive back pay after a shutdown, contractors and businesses reliant on government contracts may not receive compensation, leading to broader economic repercussions. 
  4. Political Context: The shutdown stems from a partisan dispute over healthcare funding, with Democrats advocating for the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, while Republicans seek to separate these discussions from government funding. This political stalemate has led to the current funding impasse. 

Conclusion

The ongoing government shutdown in 2025 is having widespread effects on federal operations, employee livelihoods, and public services.

The longer the shutdown persists, the more pronounced these impacts will become.

Affecting not only government functions but also the daily lives of citizens and the overall economy.

The 2026 midterm elections will be held on November 3, 2026.

Remember that the Republican Party is of the people, by the people and for the people.

2025 . All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: Are Democrats the Party of Murder?

ALERT: Fascist Anarchists’ group ‘Shut Down D.C.’ targets American Patriots

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Fascism

“a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control”

Never in my lifetime have I seen the kinds of hate and violence in American cities that I see today. These even outdo the violent anti-Vietnam War protests that swept our nation in in 1960s.

Groups like BLM, Antifa and now Shut Down D.C. are openly revolting in an attempt to overthrown our governments at every level. We are seeing, in primarily Democrat controlled enclaves such as Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore and many others, violence and destruction the likes of which I have never seen before.

Now this hate and destruction is coming to the “Deep State” located in our nation’s capital.

The ShutDownDC website states:

ShutDownDC uses strategic direct action [riots and violence] to advance [social] justice and hold [Republican] officials accountable. We’re a growing movement and we’re getting ready for an uprising [revolution]. Now’s the time to get involved so we’re ready to hit the streets [riot and destroy]. [Emphasis added]

ShutDownDC is specifically targeting Republican members of Congress:

ShutDownDC is part of the Green New Deal movement. They are the Green Shirts of the Democrat power grab to control American industry via climate regulation and intimidation.

In a 2019 Washington Post column Hannah Natanson titled ‘Shut Down D.C.’: What you need to know about the protests that are creating gridlock in Washington wrote:

A broad coalition of climate activists called “Shut Down D.C.” is blocking streets throughout the nation’s capital during the Monday morning commute to draw attention to climate change.

The protest is timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, at which climate activists and leaders, including 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, are slated to speak. It follows a strike across six continents Friday and a youth conference at the United Nations on Saturday.

The traffic shutdown is meant to send a particular message to D.C.’s powerful political elite, according to Liz Butler, an organizer for Shut Down D.C. and vice president of organizing and strategic allegiances for Friends of the Earth Action.

Read more.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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RELATED TWEET: True American patriots.

I’m A Senior Trump Official, And I Hope A Long Shutdown Smokes Out The Resistance

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The Daily Caller is taking the rare step of publishing this anonymous op-ed at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose career would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.

As one of the senior officials working without a paycheck, a few words of advice for the president’s next move at shuttered government agencies: lock the doors, sell the furniture, and cut them down.

Federal employees are starting to feel the strain of the shutdown. I am one of them. But for the sake of our nation, I hope it lasts a very long time, till the government is changed and can never return to its previous form.

The lapse in appropriations is more than a battle over a wall. It is an opportunity to strip wasteful government agencies for good.

On an average day, roughly 15 percent of the employees around me are exceptional patriots serving their country. I wish I could give competitive salaries to them and no one else. But 80 percent feel no pressure to produce results. If they don’t feel like doing what they are told, they don’t.

Why would they? We can’t fire them. They avoid attention, plan their weekend, schedule vacation, their second job, their next position — some do this in the same position for more than a decade.

They do nothing that warrants punishment and nothing of external value. That is their workday: errands for the sake of errands — administering, refining, following and collaborating on process. “Process is your friend” is what delusional civil servants tell themselves. Even senior officials must gain approval from every rank across their department, other agencies and work units for basic administrative chores.

Process is what we serve, process keeps us safe, process is our core value. It takes a lot of people to maintain the process. Process provides jobs. In fact, there are process experts and certified process managers who protect the process. Then there are the 5 percent with moxy (career managers). At any given time they can change, clarify or add to the process — even to distort or block policy counsel for the president.

Saboteurs peddling opinion as research, tasking their staff on pet projects or pitching wasteful grants to their friends. Most of my career colleagues actively work against the president’s agenda. This means I typically spend about 15 percent of my time on the president’s agenda and 85 percent of my time trying to stop sabotage, and we have no power to get rid of them. Until the shutdown.

Due to the lack of funding, many federal agencies are now operating more effectively from the top down on a fraction of their workforce, with only select essential personnel serving national security tasks. One might think this is how government should function, but bureaucracies operate from the bottom up — a collective of self-generated ideas. Ideas become initiatives, formalize into offices, they seek funds from Congress and become bureaus or sub-agencies, and maybe one day grow to be their own independent agency, like ours. The nature of a big administrative bureaucracy is to grow to serve itself. I watch it and fight it daily.

When the agency is full, employees held liable for poor performance respond with threats, lawsuits, complaints and process in at least a dozen offices, taking years of mounting paperwork with no fear of accountability, extending their careers, while no real work is done. Do we succumb to such extortion? Yes. We pay them settlements, we waive bad reviews, and we promote them.

Many government agencies have adopted the position that more complaints are good because it shows inclusion in, you guessed it, the process. When complaints come, it is cheaper to pay them off than to hold public servants accountable. The result: People accused of serious offenses are not charged, and self-proclaimed victims are paid by you, the American taxpayer.

The message to federal supervisors is clear. Maintain the status quo, or face allegations. Many federal employees truly believe that doing tasks more efficiently and cutting out waste, by closing troubled programs instead of expanding them, “is morally wrong,” as one cried to me.

I get it. These are their pets. It is tough to put them down and let go, and many resist. This phenomenon was best summed up by a colleague who said, “The goal in government is to do nothing. If you try to get things done, that’s when you will run into trouble.”

But President Trump can end this abuse. Senior officials can reprioritize during an extended shutdown, focus on valuable results and weed out the saboteurs. We do not want most employees to return, because we are working better without them. Sure, we empathize with families making tough financial decisions, like mine, and just like private citizens who have to find other work and bring competitive value every day, while paying more than a third of their salary in federal taxes.

President Trump has created more jobs in the private sector than the furloughed federal workforce. Now that we are shut down, not only are we identifying and eliminating much of the sabotage and waste, but we are finally working on the president’s agenda.

President Trump does not need Congress to address the border emergency, and yes, it is an emergency. Billions upon billions of hard-earned tax dollars are still being dumped into foreign aid programs every year that do nothing for America’s interest or national security. The president does not need congressional funding to deconstruct abusive agencies who work against his agenda. This is a chance to effect real change, and his leverage grows stronger every day the shutdown lasts.

The president should add to his demands, including a vote on all of his political nominees in the Senate. Send the career appointees back. Many are in the 5 percent of saboteurs and resistance leaders.

A word of caution: To be a victory, this shutdown must be different than those of the past and should achieve lasting disruption with two major changes, or it will hurt the president.

The first thing we need out of this is better security, particularly at the southern border. Our founders envisioned a free market night watchman state, not the bungled bloated bureaucracy our government has become. But we have to keep the uniformed officers paid, which is an emergency. Ideally, continue a resolution to pay the essential employees only, if they are truly working on national security. Furloughed employees should find other work, never return and not be paid.

Secondly, we need savings for taxpayers. If this fight is merely rhetorical bickering with Nancy Pelosi, we all lose, especially the president. But if it proves that government is better when smaller, focusing only on essential functions that serve Americans, then President Trump will achieve something great that Reagan was only bold enough to dream.

The president’s instincts are right. Most Americans will not miss non-essential government functions. A referendum to end government plunder must happen. Wasteful government agencies are fighting for relevance but they will lose. Now is the time to deliver historic change by cutting them down forever.

The author is a senior official in the Trump administration.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column with images is republished with permission. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.

Let the Budget Battles Begin

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The announcement of a new fiscal budget for the U.S. government always sets the stage for struggles between the spenders and those trying to put some limits on the spending. The spenders usually win because politicians—particularly progressive ones—love to tap the national treasury in order to reward their supporters.

As the Speaker of the House John Boehner said on the occasion of the March 17 announcement, “For 53 of the last 60 years, the federal government has spent more than it has taken in. It is unacceptable.” Not so unacceptable that one Congress after another has not seen fit to ignore common sense and fiscal prudence.

Capitol with DollarsThe sheer enormity of the budget tends to overwhelm and I suspect that most voters pay little attention to it and the issues it represents except to want assurances that their benefit check arrives. Rarely mentioned or largely unknown is the size of the nation’s unfunded liabilities, long term obligations in Medicare and Social Security. In 2014 they reached nearly $49 trillion with a “T”.

Our annual Gross Domestic Product, (GDP) what the U.S. takes in for goods and services is about $14 trillion. Our current national debt is $18 trillion and growing. Regarding the unfunded liabilities, Romina Boccia of The Heritage Foundation noted last year that they were “nearly three times the size of the total national debt or more than $150,000 for every person in the U.S.” He predicted that “even the most vulnerable Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries would see their benefits drastically cut after 2030.”

Here’s another way of looking at our debt. When interest rates return to normal WE are going to be paying several hundred billion in interest on our current $18 trillion debt. In short, we have to desperately start cutting spending NOW to reduce that debt. Or else!

The 2016 budget announced by House Budget Chairman Tom Price represents Republican values. As the Wall Street Journal noted, it “would cut spending by $5.5 trillion relative to the status quo over the next decade, reducing federal spending to 18.2% of the economy by 2024. The share today is 20.3% and is headed toward 22.3% in a decade on present trend.” It’s useful to keep in mind that every dollar the government collects and spends is one less dollar that the private sector can spend on starting and expanding businesses large and small.

All that money represents opportunities for waste that are mind-boggling. A recent article in CNS News reported that “Medicare and Medicaid made a combined $77.4 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2014, a 20.4 percent increase from fiscal 2013, according to data published by the Government Accountability Office and the federal paymentaccuracy.gov website.” Twelve government programs that wasted money made the Government Accountability Office list including the school lunch and public housing/rental assistance programs.

The good news about the new fiscal budget is that it openly calls for repealing ObamaCare. It also outlines deregulating Medicaid to give governors more flexibility. It is a terrific fiscal burden. The budget took note of the fact that there are too many duplicative government programs such as 92 antipoverty programs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that consolidating such programs would increase real GDP per capita by 1.5% in 2015. Eliminating a whole bunch of them would save even more.

Jane M. Orient, M.D., the Executive Director of American Physicians and Surgeons, and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, warned that “there seem to be some good first steps, such as block-granting Medicaid to the states. But even Republicans aren’t admitting that their budget also involves fighting over money that we don’t have, that the Federal Reserve will create out of faith and credit.”

“Also absent,” said Dr. Orient, “is recognition of the crushing burden of regulation, especially EPA rules to destroy a huge portion of our electrical generating capacity, with heavy subsidization of costly, unreliable, environmentally destructive wind and solar projects that can’t possibly replace coal, nuclear, or natural gas. Or recognition of the destructive impact of the Department of Education. How about devolving environmental protection and education back to the states, too, along with Medicaid?”

Heartland Tax & Budget News (1)“This new House budget,” said Peter Ferrara, a Heartland Senior Fellow for Entitlement and Budget Policy, “shows the passing of the Age of Obama and the broad gulf of difference between today’s conservative Republicans and the modern, ultra-Left, extremist, neo-socialist Democrats. Reagan-life, the plan would balance the budget without tax increases, while modernizing our increasingly dangerously lagging military.”

The Wall Street Journal editorial pointed out that, “As important, failing to pass a budget would also deprive Republicans of the procedural tool known as reconciliation. This allows the GOP to pass a final budget with a simple majority in the House and Senate, and thus it will be crucial to putting larger reforms of ObamaCare or taxes on Mr. Obama’s desk. A vote against the budget is in that sense a vote for the ObamaCare status quo.”

In sum, the proposed budget represents a serious effort to enact reforms that are long overdue. These and other measures are needed to encourage economic growth, the heart’s blood of the nation.

© Alan Caruba, 2015

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is by J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo.