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Contributor
Ray
Haynes
Mr.
Haynes is an Assembly member representing Riverside and
Temecula.
He serves on the Appropriations and Budget Committees. [go to
Assembly Member Haynes
website at California Assembly][go to Haynes index]
 Give
Me Your Old, Your Poor...
...and your really sick...
[Ray
Haynes] 2/22/05
A tired old
saw you will hear from the Democrats in Sacramento is that
California
is not getting its “fair share” of
the federal dollars for various programs. Of course, they want
to blame President Bush for this shortcoming on the part of the
federal government, and they are now trying to force Governor
Schwarzenegger into a position of pushing the President into
giving California more money.
Now, I am of the
opinion that California will be better off if the federal government
just cuts taxes, and never sent the
state government any additional monies, but the current effort
by California’s Democrats is crass politics at its worst.
First of all, all of the formulas currently in law for the
distribution of federal funds were put in place when Democrats
were in charge of spending money in Washington. To say today
that Republicans are the problem is to ignore sixty years of
Washington history.
Second, California
has two Democrat Senators who have the ability to persuade
their colleagues in the Senate to do some things
for the state. They also presumably had the ear of President
Clinton for eight years with no known benefit to us as a state.
It is disingenuous to say it is all the fault of the current
President and Governor when California’s two Democrat Senators
have gone along with our current inequities for at least 13 years
without complaint from the Legislative Democrats.
Third, my Democrat
colleagues are also helping to contribute to the problem by
refusing to take available federal money. For
example, the federal government has been trying to send the state
Title V abstinence money, but the state has refused to take it.
$14 million in federal money this year, and over $30 million
in the last 7 years has gone unclaimed by California because “they
don’t like the program.” Well—I don’t
like carpool lanes, but I don’t advocate turning down federal
highway dollars because those dollars build the carpool lanes.
The Democrats can’t turn down money, and then complain
about not getting enough.
Furthermore, the
Democrats have intentionally increased spending in areas knowing
full well we can’t be reimbursed with
federal funds. We receive a 50% payment from the federal government
for Medi-Cal services given to our poorer citizens. But five
years ago, Democrats specifically added illegal aliens to the
list of those eligible for the Medi-Cal program here in California,
knowing the federal government wouldn’t reimburse us (because
they only pay for legal citizens), and that our state’s
taxpayers would bear 100% of those costs.
More important, however,
we now know that the reason California is getting less money
than other states is that California is
younger, richer and healthier than most other states. Today,
California only receives about 79 cents of every dollar it sends
to Washington. At first blush, this would seem unfair, and my
Democrat colleagues have taken to complaining about this “unfairness” this
year, more than others, to embarrass the President and the Governor.
It turns out, however, that if California wants more federal
dollars, using existing formulas, it would need to import more
old people, more sick people and more poor people.
The elderly tend to leave California upon retirement because
it costs way too much to live here. They can sell their house
in California for a large profit, and take that profit and invest
in a beautiful place in Texas or Florida for a lot less money.
When they move out, they take their federal social security with
them. Other social service programs like TANF (welfare) and Medicaid
(called Medi-Cal in California) require people to be poor or
sick to get the federal dollars. They also require them to be
citizens.
So—no longer are my Democrat colleagues quoting the Statue
of Liberty (“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free), No—they want to change
it to “Give me your old, your poor, your really sick so
we can suck more money from the federal government.”
California has been
a donor state since the defense industry peaked around 1985.
They are looking to additional money from
the feds as a way to shore up our deficit. Well, we have a deficit
because we spend more than we receive in revenues. More welfare
from the feds or even a “collectinator” Governor
won’t solve California’s budget problems. Common
sense is necessary for that, and common sense is in short supply
in Sacramento these days. CRO
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