Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik has written an article celebrating the South Carolina wildfires because he believes they mean California, no longer uniquely exposed to such fires, will not face conditions on federal funds.
The South Carolina fires, described as massive and widespread, had burned 4,200 acres as of Tuesday — about one-sixth the size of just one of the two major fires that destroyed enormous parts of Los Angeles in early January.
Hiltzik, a noted left-wing opinion writer, ignores the fact that California’s fires have been mismanaged by state and local governments, year after year, and attacks Republicans for demanding changes in policy in exchange for aid.
He writes:
[T]he Carolina fires may have a positive result that will be felt coast to coast, and especially in California: They’re likely to quell all that stupid talk about attaching strings to federal wildfire disaster relief.
That threat has been made by Trump; his disaster czar, Ric Grenell; House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a member of that chamber’s GOP leadership; and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), among many others. Also pitching in are members of the right-wing peanut gallery, such as Fox News mouthpieces Sean Hannity and Jesse Watters.
Hiltzik claims that Republicans’ proposed conditions on aid are “nonsensical” and unrelated to the fires. He attacks Ambassador Ric Grenell, for example, for wanting to defund the Coastal Commission. He ignores the fact that the Coastal Commission has blocked reasonable efforts to make more water available, and that it often impedes sensible development. Governor Gavin Newsom himself has suspended Coastal Commission rules to help fire victims rebuild.
Hiltzik also ignores reasonable and widely-accepted proposals, such as that a Special Master should be created to oversee the disbursement of federal funds, given California’s penchant for misallocating funds meant for other purposes. In 2019, for example, the co-author of California’s cap-and-trade legislation complained that Democrats — his own party — were diverting funds “for investments that are barely related to the original intent” of the program.
Even left-leaning Capital Public Radio faulted Newsom for failing to spend his budget on wildfire prevention — and then lying about it.
All states face natural disasters; only California seems unable to learn from the experience.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
