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Affordable housing, or free healthcare for illegal aliens? California will have to choose this weekend.

Photo above - the iconic "Spadena" house, now worth $10 million, was used for a location shot in the film Clueless. The owners may be resisting the construction of affordable housing adjacent to their neighborhood. But Cher (Alicia Silverstone) does look safe and carefree, doesn't she?

How can anyone vote against affordable housing? Well, you can if you're a politician who received big money from wealthy voters in your district to keep that sort of stuff from being built near their ritzy homes. (See link below)

By law, California is required to have a balanced state budget. So at the end of the day they can’t afford EVERYTHING and just borrow endlessly like the federal government.

Governor Newsom – currently in 2nd or 3rd place in the race for 2028 democrat presidential nomination – is walking a tightrope. If he bungles California's budget, he can wave goodbye to the votes of moderate democrats in the other 49 states. Hence, his decision to sacrifice free migrant healthcare, and put state money towards efforts to building more affordable housing.

Unsurprisingly, mansion owners in California aren’t wild about this idea. You know, falling property values, crime increases. Because the governor doesn’t hear their lamentations, they’ve enlisted the state legislature. Campaign contributions loom larger for them, than for Newsom. Both sides can’t win, of course. Unless more cuts are made to police, fire, EMT's, schools, reservoirs, trash collection . . .

California’s budget deficit – which needs to be fixed, before a budget can be passed – is $12 billion. At his point, all the socialists who don’t have 12 hundred dollars in the bank should jump up and down and rant that $12 billion is “small potatoes”. They will regale us with their easy answers: rent controls; higher sales tax; higher gasoline tax; higher income tax; higher property tax.

Except California has already been doing most of those things, since forever. And the problem is getting worse, not better.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

California budget comes down to the wire as Newsom, lawmakers face off over housing

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Avectoijesuismoi · 36-40 Best Comment

I am not opposed to free or assisted health care for a country's citizens or people that have been legally admitted in anyway at all, but I don't see why it should be available to people who just illegally enter a country that is nothing more than a drain on a country/state/city etc being able to offer those services to their own people.
As for affordable housing it is just not sensible to build it next to high end valued property at all. If the property values drop you are going to end up with less tax being collected for instance if the value of a home drops from $10 million to $ 5 million because of it, any owner with sense will want the tax adjusted accordingly. Equally you cannot intergrate the two groups high and low doesn't work.

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jackjjackson · M

Does Canada cover illegal aliens? @SusanInFlorida

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@jackjjackson their government has started making it clear they don't. see link at bottom. evidently because so many migrants to america are self deporting as pedestrians to Canada now.

actually, a bunch of canadians regularly cross the border (michigan, for example) for lower prices (gasoline, tobacco, alcohol, electronics) and also to get "elective/non-critical health care" that would take forever under their system.

https://www.healthcoalition.ca/canada-refuses-to-grant-access-to-health-care-for-irregular-migrants/

jackjjackson · M

Isn’t that Canadian for profit border crossing illegal? @SusanInFlorida

exchrist · 31-35

Issue everything costs more each and every year.
Issue the federal government never pays its portion of the bill instead opting to buy more weapons.

Issue states with the highest population are expected to cover their own bills. While the fed gets the most tax dollars from them.
Solution if there is one.
The fed needs a balanced budget law. Stop war spending. Fund border security (the fed keeps screaming build a wall. But maybe just staff the border as it already is. Any security is better than throwing endless money at Israel and the Middle East.
Im just saying. Something needs to change. . .

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@exchrist agree that a balanced budget would help. But probably impossible to enact in a single budget cycle. We'd need a phase in period - 3 years? 5 years? where spending is decreased across the entire budget, until it's in balance.

How about a law saying that if congress cannot pass a balanced budget, new elections will be held in 90 days?

exchrist · 31-35

@SusanInFlorida i certainly would support that 90 day idea. Personally the main issue is military funding obligations(esp. entangled alliances), ww2 mindset ( America's going to save the world and enforce good morals). Those two and a perceived unwillingness to invest domestically. Imagine paying our national debt and improving domestic issues? Its beyond the scope of these war mongrel politicains.
Therefore it is a distraction to keep citizens from examining the real issues.
The reality? Citizens, through the internet, can see the writing on the wall and readily examine how other countries have grappled with these same or very similar issues.
Unfortunately ww2 politicains ww2 strategies money based elections.
It is coming to a point and soon.

iamthe99 · M

LOL the eternal struggle: affordable housing or “free healthcare for illegal aliens.” Because clearly, California’s budget is a game show where you only get to pick one human need per fiscal year.🤦🏻‍♂

As usual, your post is a masterclass in “I’m not a Trump fan, but…” rhetoric. You know, where you claim to hate populist demagogues while parroting all their talking points: immigrants are the problem, socialists are poor and clueless, and government is a scam run by rich elites (except the police of course, never touch their funding!).

Also loving the recurring strawman: apparently, every progressive is a broke ideologue who thinks taxes solve everything and can’t count to 12 billion. Sweet! Almost as sweet as pretending that expanding Medi-Cal for undocumented workers is the reason California’s budget has issues - not, say decades of Prop 13 fallout, tech wealth hoarding, or the fact that billionaires pay less tax than school teachers.

The best part? The faux populism. One minute it’s “those ritzy mansion owners” blocking housing, the next it’s “but think of the falling property values!” So which is it? are you storming the gates of inequality, or just mad your HOA might have to look at a duplex?

Anyway, congrats on boiling down an incredibly complex budget into a spicy, oversimplified culture war casserole.

I'm just sayin...

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iamthe99 · M

@SusanInFlorida I'm soooo sorry! Boy, you sure showed me!

OF COURSE, every word of your post is 100% flawless, how silly of me!! NIMBY billionaires, socialist freeloaders, migrant handouts, and Gavin Newsom’s presidential fanfic campaign? Spot on. And the $12 billion deficit? Who needs updated numbers when vibes are free?

Clearly, my sinister "hate rant" was just a covert op to hijack your truth bombs. How dare I inject nuance into a perfectly good rage post? But hey, if asking whether something’s true counts as a “hate rant,” then facts must be feelings now. Love you too! Keep fighting the good fight, one vaguely sourced generalization at a time.

meJess · F

@iamthe99 I thought you were not going to make political comment’s anymore 😊

iamthe99 · M

@meJess Only if people directly apply to me regarding older comments :) Otherwise, I am indeed done :)

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jackjjackson · M

Newsome will end up paying FOX’S attorneys fees 🤣🤣🤣 @jshm2 @independentone

independentone · M

@jackjjackson Fox is used to losing in court and having to pay pay pay for their lying ways.

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SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

How is tax an "easy answer" for any politician? Are you suggesting that paying tax in America is popular?

Again, rather than just sayin', why not put forward some solutions of your own?

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SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@SusanInFlorida The politicians receive their mandate from such people and somehow have to balance the budget.

jackjjackson · M

Which politicians received the 2025 mandate? @SunshineGirl

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@SunshineGirl if that were true, I'd almost be happy. But the truth is politicians have recently promised/predicted some extraordinary BS that couldn't possibly happen,

1 - building a wall with mexico, and making their government pay for it,

2 - arresting and deporting all illegal aliens with felony charges. Only 6% of those deported in 2025 actually had active warrants. the rest seemed to be gardeners, restaurant workers, crop pickers, roofers, nannies . . .

3 - solving the federal deficit by making obamacare the law of the land

4 - cutting trillions from the US budget through attacking fraud and corruption

5 - forgiving trillions in student loan balances for kids who got took art history and philosophy

6 - making NATO exclusively a European club

7 - free college tuition for everyone, regardless of SAT scores

8 - flat tax

9 - balanced federal budget

10 - stopping climate change with american EV tax subsidies.

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

No. You choose that dilemma. Both are human rights. You don't understand much about anything like that! To your side there's a choice.

Musicman · 61-69, M

California doesn't have honest voting. They will magically get the votes the Democrats need to pass whatever they want.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Musicman there's an article in my yahoo news feed today about dead senators and congresspersons who - after months or years - continue to send tweets, endorse other candidates, etc.

they're all democrats.

this is undoubtedly a scam being run by their staffs, who did all those tweets and posts for the politicians while they were alive.

one guy even had his dead boss endorse him to be elected to the vacant office.

Musicman · 61-69, M

@SusanInFlorida Lol!!! 🤣🤣🤣 I definitely believe it. 🤣🤣🤣

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