Mr. Becerra (Calif. AG) Goes to Washington

By next summer, Governor Jerry Brown predicts that California’s budget deficit will hit $1.6 billion. And California’s insurmountable Wall of Debt, an aggregate of its current and long-term debt plus unfunded obligations, is a staggering $443 billion. In light of California’s disastrous fiscal nightmare, Gov. Brown proposes to cut public school spending, and re-evaluate other costly entitlement programs the state can no longer afford. 

Becerra, the face of Trump “Resistance.”

But in California’s fight against President Trump’s promised enforcement actions to defund the state’s illegal sanctuary cities, Gov. Brown approved a Washington, D.C. outpost office for Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Alejandro Perez, a former senior official in President Obama’s legislative affairs shop, will run the Washington office. 

Sean Rankin, Democratic Attorneys General Association head, said that the new office will enable AG Becerra to protect “the rights of citizens,” and is “a thoughtful approach to the changing landscape.” 

Realistically, it’s inconceivable that the California AG’s office in D.C. will affect in the slightest President Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts. But for California taxpayers, there’s the matter of Perez’s salary, his expenses, office rent and the overall very high cost of lobbying in D.C. President Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder is already on California’s payroll as an anti-enforcement advisor to the tune of $25,000 a month.

As for Rankin’s claim that California’s new D.C. office will protect citizens’ rights, I offer this basic mathematics exercise that I shared with Lars Larson on his nationally syndicated radio show (Editor’s Note: interview starts at 1:25). California’s total population is about 39 million; illegal aliens are estimated to number about 3 million. In other words, citizens and legal permanent residents outnumber aliens by a 13:1 ratio. Despite the imbalance between legal residents and aliens, the California State Assembly concerns itself almost exclusively with illegal immigrants’ well-being. Odd priorities.