Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall September 28, 2025 I received an email from my Congressman Jared Huffman titled: I’m Fighting to Keep the Government Open and Protect Your Health Care: A Message from Rep. Huffman He starts out: "You may have heard about the potential for health insurance premiums to rise dramatically at the end of this year. This is an urgent priority for me and it is the main reason my Democratic colleagues and I voted against a Republican short-term government funding bill last week. If Congress fails to act, thousands of families in my district and millions nationwide are just weeks away from massive increases in their health premiums because of cuts that were used to pay for huge billionaire tax giveaways in the GOP’s recently enacted One Big Ugly Law. Millions more will lose health coverage altogether starting next year because of draconian cuts to Medicaid." Understand one thing to start, in California Medicaid is called Medi-Cal. The next thing to understand is that if you do a search and input how many illegals are on Medi-Cal, the number repeatedly comes up as 1.6 MILLION. (Note: they use the term "undocumented adults.") In my mind, I don't want to have my taxes pay for healthcare for people in our country and state here illegally. California's Department of Finance estimates spending over $8.4 billion in the current fiscal year on Medi-Cal benefits for undocumented immigrants, a figure that has exceeded initial projections. Let's get into the nitty gritty: "So far in this standoff, President Trump and congressional Republicans are signaling their intention to shut down the federal government rather than work with Democrats on averting a healthcare disaster. Not only are they refusing to compromise, Trump is refusing to even meet with Democratic leaders. Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, and rather than govern, they are using the threat of a government shutdown to bully Democrats into accepting a healthcare crisis that will devastate American families. They are attempting to establish a new hyper-partisan norm where they simply never work with, or even talk to, Democrats on anything. This is what the looming Trump Shutdown is all about – another crucible in Trump’s attempt to consolidate absolute power at the expense of the American people and our democracy." I do not blame Trump one iota. Huffman equates "undocumented adults" as American people and American families. I don't. Huffman then goes on: "How Did We Get Here? "After creating an unnecessary health care crisis on top of other skyrocketing costs from Trump’s tariffs and disastrous energy policies, House Republicans refused to engage with Democrats. Instead, they jammed through a short-term partisan spending bill and simply left town, knowing that their partisan bill would fail in the Senate, and that unless Congress re-convened this would trigger a government shutdown on October 1st. Democrats continue to seek negotiations, but so far, Trump and Republicans refuse to meet. Although we do not control the House, Senate or White House, my colleagues and I are committed to doing everything in our power to fund the government – but we are not going to sacrifice your health and safety by accepting a partisan funding bill that leaves America careening toward healthcare disaster. If Republicans insist on taking the country down that path, they will have to do it with Republican votes and they will own the consequences." The reason why the Democrats don't control the House, Senate and White House is because they were taking our country down the drain and the majority of American voters were sick of it. NOTE: President Trump has agreed to meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday, September 29th ahead of the looming government shutdown.