California is depopulating, with some 500,000 taxpayers fleeing the one-party socialist state in search of lower taxes, less onerous business regulations, and a friendlier government that views them as assets and not ATMs.

So not surprisingly, the state has found itself in a $22-billion hole. 

This doesn't seem to bother the state's insular ruling class, which blames the pandemic, President Trump, and a host of other factors for the flight, secure in the sense that those taxpayers can always be replaced by newcomers.

Illegal aliens fit that bill nicely, given the massive benefit packages the state doles out to court them.

Now reality is biting.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

But now, as the liberal-leaning state confronts a projected $22.5 billion deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state can no longer afford to contribute to the [Migrant COVID testing] centers, which also receive federal and local grants. The Democratic governor in January proposed phasing out state aid for some medical services in the next few months, and eventually scaling back the migrant assistance program unless President Joe Biden and Congress step in with help.

The U-T, which never bothers to disguise its left-wing political orientation anymore, notes that conditions have changed as the pandemic is phasing out, so perhaps these services will not be necessary anyway.

Several other news outlets have zeroed in on the COVID testing centers alone as "some medical services."

But the fine print in the U-T piece says that the entire "migrant assistance program" is on the block as the state goes into the red.

Last June, the state Legislature, in a law signed by Newsom, voted to guarantee "free" health care to all illegal aliens over the age of 50 in the state even as California's taxpayers shoulder some of the highest health care costs in the nation. 

According to Reuters:

LOS ANGELES, July 27 (Reuters) — California's governor on Tuesday signed into law a major expansion of the state's Medicaid coverage to all low-income residents aged 50 and up regardless of their immigration status, extending eligibility to some 235,000 undocumented people.

Governor Gavin Newsom, a first-term Democrat facing a Republican-led recall election in September, said the bill is a key milestone in efforts to bring universal healthcare to the nation's most populous state.

California leads all 50 U.S. states in the number of unauthorized immigrants - roughly 2.9 million in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, though other estimates put the figure closer to 2.2 million.

That comes on top of a state measure to hand out free health care to all illegals under the age of 26.

According to the New York Times:

In a budget plan unveiled this week, Newsom proposed allowing undocumented immigrants to sign up for Medi-Cal, the state's health program for low-income Californians. (This is distinct from an ongoing effort to create a single-payer health care system in the state.)

The state already allows undocumented Californians under 26 to join Medi-Cal, and those 50 and over will become eligible in the spring. Opening up Medi-Cal to the remaining undocumented population — approximately 700,000 people — would cost $2.2 billion annually, Newsom said.

"We are positioned with this budget to be able to deliver on what we've been promoting: universal health care for all," Newsom said at a news briefing on Tuesday. "I'm proud to be here — I hope we see this replicated across the country."

It was a getaround from federal rules prohibiting illegals from accessing federally funded free health care for the indigent.

Now that Newsom has offered it to illegals, and has found that he can't pay for it, he wants the feds to pay for it.  According to the U-T:

Though the White House declined to comment and no federal legislation has advanced, Newsom said he was optimistic that federal funding will come through, citing "some remarkably good conversations" with the Biden administration.

...from, whom else, FEMA:

Already, one potential pot of federal money has been identified. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement to KHN noting that local governments and nongovernmental providers will soon be able to tap into an additional $800 million in federal funds through a shelter and services grant program. FEMA did not answer KHN's questions about how much the agency spends serving migrants.

That would be the same FEMA that initially denied East Palestine, Ohio any aid whatsoever to its residents, who fled a toxic engulfment from a train wreck this month. 

It did seem that that ridiculous denial may have been premised on not having much money left in its coffers.  If FEMA has been shelling out for illegals in these past months, as five million surged across the border, suddenly things are pretty clear as to what's going on here.

It's important to note that Congress forbade illegals from accessing federal health care dollars for a reason — it was costly, and it was unconscionable, given that Americans pay inflated health care rates under Obamacare, which is compulsory.  California ignored that reason, and insisted on its own on handing out free health care to illegals, and suddenly found itself out of money.  Instead of recognizing reality, it wants Uncle Sam to pay, even though federal legislation says it's not to pay.  Don't count on Joe Biden to respect that.  For him, it's another getaround to import more Democrats.

But even Biden seems to be getting the hard reality message that Newsom has gotten: he's rolled out new asylum restrictions from country-shopping migrants who go from country to country in search of the best benefit package, prohibiting migrants from claiming asylum if they've crossed more than one border to hit the States and make their claims.  That's a big one — it dates from the Trump era, and it's fully compliant with established U.S. and international law.  If a Haitian has been granted asylum in a place like Brazil or Chile, he can't toss his passport and come to the States claiming persecution in Haiti.  Asylees under international law get one time to the asylum well — the first country of safety, in fact.

Biden is going to be taking tremendous flak from the open-borders left on this restriction, but apparently he has no choice.  He's being howled at by blue-state mayors angry at their gargantuan municipal bills for their champagne welcomes to illegal aliens, such as we see in New York, calling for bailouts.  He's being blasted by blue-state governors as well for the migrant surge.  The red-state governors have gotten the ball rolling by offering free transport to illegal aliens to the blue sanctuary cities of their choice, and the result has finally moved mountains as the blue mayors and governors pressure the feds to pick up the tab now.

Biden doesn't have the political capital, let alone the goodwill to ram legislation through to pay for the full fare of five million illegals plus unknown numbers of gotaways.  He's out of money and out of ideas, and the public is angry, leaving him just the Trump solution to embrace, which has got to be bitter stuff.

Newsom's got his hand out though, because he, too, has run out of money.

What an amazing picture we see unfolding now.  Red-state governors such as Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis got this ball rolling, running desirable states that taxpayers are fleeing to, and then refusing to pay for the illegals invited in by the blue state hypocrites and their senile president. 

Now reality is hitting, and illegals are starting to see their free ride slowly fade away, forcing them to pay for their own services and make decisions about their best options accordingly.  Many will return to their homelands.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.