California Congressman Tom McClintock has enjoyed a long career in California politics, serving seven terms in the State Assembly and then moving on to the State Senate before moving up to congress. His success has been due mostly to demographics — he’s succeeded in those few California districts that run deep red.
In 2008, McClintock ran for Congress in California’s Fourth Congressional District, where his anti-tax and hard right politics gave him a 54-39 win over his more moderate opponent. Since then, he’s benefitted from redistricting that left him with ongoing advantageous demographics, including in Stanislaus County, where Donald Trump received 54.16% of the presidential vote last November. His presence in his district has mostly been through telephone town halls. Otherwise, he’s been an absentee Congressman.
McClintock’s “hands off” terms in office and rote recitations of far right talking points have served him well even through two census-driven revisions of his districts. Today, his Fifth Congressional District stretches from parts of Sacramento south to parts of Fresno. It includes much of Stanislaus County and Yosemite National Park, as well as parts of Madera, Tuolumne, Calaveras and El Dorado Counties in the Valley’s eastern foothills, long a stronghold for ultra-conservative political views.
Those same foothills and most other parts of McClintock’s district include tens of thousands of people on Medicaid. In Stanislaus County alone, 51% of its over 550,000 residents rely on Medicaid for their essential health care needs. Those residents are fearful that the current proposed budget put forward by the Republican Party will leave them without the services they need to stay well, healthy, and working. They also fear medical bills that could easily bankrupt them.
In response to their concerns, McClintock has issued a statement claiming that,
“Medicaid spending has nearly doubled in ten years and now costs more than the entire defense budget, taking $6,900 a year from an average American household to support. The budget resolution anticipates long overdue common-sense reforms such as restoring the work requirement for able-bodied adults, prosecuting fraud, and ending services to non-citizens. Left-wing groups oppose these reforms and are instead advocating for a crushing tax increase that would cost a family earning $75,000 a year an additional $1,500 in new taxes next year.”
Given that health care throughout the San Joaquin Valley already suffers from shortages of doctors, nurses, and infrastructure, it’s difficult to see how cuts to Medicaid will improve outcomes for sick and injured residents. Perhaps in a theoretical world, “ending services to non-citizens” would relieve some of the stresses on doctors, nurses, and emergency rooms. In fact, sick and injured residents, whether citizens or non-citizens, aren’t going away because of cuts to Medicaid, nor are they going to get well if denied services.
And how does Congressman McClintock derive the figure “$6,900 a year”? Does he mean the “average American household” would have an additional $6,900 per year if there were no Medicaid at all? If so, what would be the consequences for medical costs overall, given the expenses for illnesses involving cancer, heart disease, colds, flu, Covid and pneumonia, among others, not to mention injury from accidents, natural events, and crime?
Oftentimes, $6,900 isn’t enough to cover a visit to the Emergency Room. In fact, average costs for Emergency Room visits in California range from $2,400 to $3,238. Those are just averages; costs are oftentimes much more. And what about costs for hospitalization?
As of today, neither Tom McClintock nor anyone else in the current administration has explained how cuts to Medicaid are going to make things better for people who depend on it. The consequences of huge medical bills for people who can’t pay them will reverberate throughout the Valley with devastating effects on all of us — more people will be pushed into the streets, more work hours will be lost, and more illnesses will spread.
Tom McClintock owes his constituents more than a boilerplate response to their legitimate concerns about a budget proposal that seems modeled on Elon Musk’s chainsaw rampage through the sinews and nervous systems of our government. As it is, he not only has no presence in his district, some of his offices aren’t even staffed, including his Modesto office.
Maybe McClintock thinks unstaffed offices and broadcasts of talking points crafted by political consultants are saving money. If so, he should send out another press release telling how much we’re saving per household. We could tuck that under the mattress with the all the money we’re going to save from cuts to Medicaid.
McClintock just wants us to shut up and go away. I have called McClintock’s Washington, Sacramento and Oakdale offices numerous times re: Medicare and Medicaid. I understand Medicaid, in addition to Medicare, pays for part of nursing home care. I have two friends in permanent nursing home residency. I am very worried about their continued care. I called to inquire about the solvency of Medicare and Medicaid, amongst other issues. Always a recorded message about high volume of calls and leave a message. Never got a reply with either email or letter .
I would get email notifications about open office hour….note “ hour”, not “ hours” , less than 24 hrs in advance. Staffed only by staff, McClintock is never present. Most people need much more advance notice to accommodate plans to attend. On one such open office hour, there was an abrupt notice to cancel ( it was Oakdale’s) . I have never attended these. For only one hour it seemed futile and pointless.
We need to keep up the pressure on McClintock; by his lack of caring and obvious BS, I believe he can be ousted.
I have been emailing McClintock via his Congressional website for two years, usually once a month but seven times last April. I have called his DC office several times and have usually been able to leave my message with a staffer.
I rarely get a reply from him unless he has a scripted answer (as you say, a boilerplate) and it never addresses my concerns. I keep reminding him how many of his constituents rely on Medi-Cal for their healthcare. Again, as you say, rural health services are often under-staffed and under-funded. Reading Republican platitudes from McClintock offers no solutions for the disadvantaged people in his district. Let’s find someone to replace him, someone who really cares about people in the district.
What about the fat and bloat in government we need to get rid of to create a successful economy? Regulations have killed this state!