The raging wildfires in Southern California that have ruined countless homes and livelihoods have now given way to the immortal question: How will Congress provide aid to the ailing state?
Under normal circumstances, this would be an easy issue. California is the largest economy in the United States. But California has long been a punching bag for Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump has long clashed with Governor Gavin Newsom. During the weekend, Trump reposted an image of the Hollywood Hills, replacing the Hollywood sign with letters saying “Trump was right” as the area was ablaze.
Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk have particularly swiped at the Los Angeles Fire Department for sending equipment to Ukraine. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, the senator from California’s mortal enemy Texas, faulted Los Angeles for cutting money for its fire department while allocating money for a transgender cafe and a social justice network on his podcast.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju that state and local leaders “were derelict in their duty,” and that “I think there should be conditions on that aid.”
He also said there had been internal discussion within the House Republican conference about tying aid to raising the debt limit, something that Republicans normally dislike doing.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso told CBS’s Face the Nation that he expected there would be strings attached to any aid. “It has to do with being ready the next time because this was a gross failure this time,” he noted.
But in the rank-and-file of the Senate Republican Conference, there was more of a mixed opinion and a push to give California the aid it needs.
“I think we need to give them aid,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the new chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told The Independent, adding she hadn’t heard about conditioning aid.
Newly elected Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio told The Independent that people of California needed aid as soon as possible, but he added a caveat.
“What we don’t want to do is politicize this issue right now, and what we should be doing is let’s get the crisis over with,” he said. “But there’s very, very legitimate concerns about what California has done, what they need to do to fix it.”
There is, of course, a double standard If Democrats ever even considered conditioning aid to areas like western North Carolina, Florida, Georgia or Texas that have been hit by hurricanes, they would have hell to pay.
Thom Tillis of North Carolina, by far the most endangered Republican senator, seemed to draw that same conclusion, saying he did not like it when aid to western North Carolina was held up after Hurricane Helene and Milton.
“I’ve got to be consistent,” he told The Independent. “You see what my opinion was when people tried to hold up western North Carolina, I’m going to be there to support them.”
Tillis brokered numerous deals with Democrats during the Biden administration and he likely could serve as a bridge between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to assisting Southern California.
Democrats for their part were apoplectic at the idea that aid would be delayed.
“The wildfires in California, that have [cost] lives and [destroyed] structures?” Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of neighboring Nevada told The Independent. “We should be putting them first, and they shouldn’t be used as bargaining chips.”
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, one of the most outspoken voices for the environment, voiced similar disgust.
“This is a climate catastrophe caused by the oil and gas industry,” he told The Independent. “ California is suffering because of it, and the condition should be that we keep all of the wind and solar tax breaks on the books so we can put the preventative programs in place.”
But nothing is ever that easy in Trump’s Washington. The president-elect has used the moment to rehash his old quarrels with Newsom, arguing that he has not sent water down to Southern California in the name of protecting a fish called the smelt, and calling the governor “Newscum.”
This behavior likely will not abate but continue. And Republicans will probably have to comply or get out of the way.
