Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson       Red Bluff Daily News 10/07/2025

        Can you guess the California pattern?

An interesting article showed up in the New York Post (right-leaning paper), fact checked by CNN (not “right-leaning”), that revealed national and California (makes it my area) data on illegal alien use of taxpayer-funded medical services. Aren’t we assured, vociferously by Democrats, that it doesn’t happen? Or that it’s only a “tiny part” of health care budgets? It quickly went from “It doesn’t happen” to “It happens; it’s not much money; but it’s a good thing”?

“Democrats ARE spending money on healthcare for illegal migrants — in California, it’s $6.4 billion,” (The Post, Chris Pope, 10/02). Intelligent readers can draw conclusions: “Medicaid is an enormously lucrative program for states...It gives them between $1 and $9 for every $1 they spend on health care benefits for eligible, low-income Americans, without any upper limit.

“Illegal immigrants are supposed to be prohibited from receiving Medicaid, as they are from obtaining Medicare and Obamacare subsidies — but an exception to this is that states may claim federal Medicaid funding for hospitals to provide ‘emergency care’ for unauthorized immigrants.

“From 2023 to 2024, Medicaid spending on ‘Emergency Services for Undocumented Aliens’ (ESUA) suddenly soared from $3.8 billion to $9.1 billion. This wasn’t due to the economy or changes in healthcare costs. In 49 states, in fact, emergency Medicaid spending declined.

“The surge in this expenditure was entirely due to the state of California, where spending suddenly leaped from $1.6 billion to $6.4 billion. The federal government is supposed to cover 50% of California’s Medicaid costs — but Washington paid for 70% of the state’s Medicaid ESUA expenditures in 2024.

“What happened? In 2024, California became the first state to offer comprehensive health insurance to all undocumented immigrants.” You see the pattern, right?

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News item: A massive explosion occurred in a Chevron oil refinery in El Segundo (I occasionally drove through there), visible on a web cam in the Sepulveda Pass area of the Interstate 405, “San Diego,” freeway (if I only had a dollar for every time I drove through there).

This is a “really big deal.” The refinery closure will affect, even cut off, “a fifth of all motor vehicle fuels and 40% of the jet fuel consumed in Southern California” (Yahoo.com). Reportedly, the last oil refinery in California opened in 1976; 33 refineries in a state with 22 million people, and 11.5 million cars. Today, only 13, now 12, refineries serve 39.5 million people and 39.4 million vehicles.

Gov. Newsom and Sacramento Democrats tout the need, and the benefits, of weening ourselves off of fossil fuels. A letter-writer on this page assured us fossil fuels are irreversibly depleting, (not so, says the data), hence, the urgency for us to abandon our gasoline-fueled cars in favor of Electric Vehicles. Never mind, they tell us, the grid’s brown- and black-outs, even without tens of millions of EVs recharging nightly.

The highest-in-the-nation electric rates—40 cents per kilowatt-hour/kwh on my PG&E bill—can only go higher as green-dreamers intend on covering endless open space with solar panels and wind turbines. Look up a chart: “Expensive Solar and Wind—You are constantly told that solar and wind are cheap; Reality: the more solar and wind, the costlier it gets.” (Powerlineblog.com)

Out of dozens of developed countries, the higher the percentage of solar and wind in a country’s electricity, the higher their electric rates—the highest being several EU countries (30-40 percent solar and wind) at over 40 cents per kwh (my PG&E rate). The lowest rates—5 to 10 cents per kwh—are in Asian nations and Russia, with 0 to 5 percent “green” energy.

Noteworthy pattern: “California Lawmakers Squeezed Refineries Out, Now Scramble To Pay One Well-Known Company To Keep Theirs Running” (Aol.com, 9/09); “Frantic California Trying to Stop Oil, Gas Companies From Fleeing” (Redstate.com, 9/23); and “California Faces a Self-Created Oil and Gas Crisis” (Hotair.com, 9/20).

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously said that “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of ‘other people’s money.’” The problem with “green energy” is that you eventually run out of...electricity.

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In a “haters have the tables turned” story, a Southern California coffee shop, in Rancho Santa Fe (drove through there a few times), placed small stickers on their coffee cups: “Thank you, Charlie Kirk,” and “We love you.”

Local “woke-sters” and haters launched hysterical, horrific attacks on phone lines, social media (digital sewer) and reviewing sites. All for the “sin” of paying respect to someone, and his wife, with whom the owners actually met and shared time.

In a turnabout that should inspire faith in Americans, San Diego’s community and church spread the story; supporters showed up in droves, with waiting lines up to a half an hour at their little shop. All by people who wouldn’t allow the haters to have their sick, morbid victory.