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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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...

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@iamthe99 thanks for not saying any part of my post was incorrect.

it's simply a hate rant against me.

love you. keep up the good work - hijacking my threads to get your own messages seen.

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 :)