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Kevin Kiley: Spineless Rubberstamper for Trump [1]

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Date: 2025-07-08

Here in California’s Gold Country, we know all too well about lasting, irreparable damage caused by greed and impatience. Hydraulic mining washed away entire hillsides with high pressure hoses in the search for gold during the late 1800s. We see markers of that legacy all over and they serve as reminders to consider the repercussions of our actions.

Unfortunately, this is not a lesson Washington politicians like Congressman Kevin Kiley have learned.

The Trump administration’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” has laid waste to critical projects, canceled long-term contracts and bankrupted small businesses along the way, and terminated the employment of over 250,000 loyal American government workers. And Kevin Kiley has cheered them on.

Waste, fraud, and abuse in government must continually be rooted out and prevented. But this administration is eliminating whole programs that provide necessary support to people and communities and strengthen our economy and national security.

Additionally, key positions meant to maintain accountability and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse are being cut, including the firing of 17 inspector generals without cause, while corruption and profiteering by politicians in Washington is reaching an unprecedented scale.

Beyond the immediate chaos and pain, the arbitrary and rushed approach by this administration will cause long-lasting, and in many cases, irreparable damage.

In government at any level, it is more effective and prudent to mine for waste than to wash away entire programs that provide a benefit for the people.

Instead, the administration is leveling entire agencies and cutting services and support people depend on.

They acted almost immediately to shutter the U.S. Agency of International Development, which means an American retreat from the world that is a gift to our enemies and will cost us allies, endangering our national security while causing suffering across the globe.

They are working to eliminate the Department of Education by starving it of funds, weakening the quality and equity of public education.

They are cutting the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Helping people afford heat in a cold winter so they do not die is not “waste.”

They have cut wildfire prevention so deeply that our entire region is in greater danger, with some projects shut down that had taken years of planning and collaboration between multiple local, state, and federal agencies.

They have cut Veterans’ benefits, including eliminating a program that helps Veterans stay in their homes if they have been laid off.

Then, after celebrating these devastating cuts, Kiley and his congressional Republican cohorts just recently voted to pass a budget that cuts Medicaid so severely that 3.4 million Californians, including children, are at risk of losing their healthcare and rural California hospitals could be closed.

This Big Ugly Tax Scam also cuts food assistance for low-income Californians, which will force kids to go hungry, and Covered California estimates that as many as 660,000 of the 2 million people in the state’s Affordable Care Act health insurance program will lose coverage while those who stay will see the cost of their premiums go up by over 50%.

There will be victims now and for years to come, with some never recovering. And for what? To fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations.

Washington Republicans are even looking for ways to cut Medicare and to sell off public lands, a critical piece of our local economy. Next up, they are looking to pass a rescissions package to roll back budget commitments passed by Congress during the previous administration.

Let’s remember the lessons of the past and have some common sense. Laying waste to government is not the best way to root out government waste, just as laying waste to our hills was not the most sensible way to mine for gold. We will be paying for the repercussions for decades to come.

Now is the time for members of Congress, including Kevin Kiley, to stop being spineless rubberstampers for Trump and to use some common sense to stand up to these harmful cuts before we all suffer.

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