I have lived in California’s Congressional District 3 (CD3) for a few years. Rep. Kevin Kiley is my CD3 Representative. I do know that he was re-elected in 2024 by a margin of 46,179 votes in a district that cast 422,213 total votes out of a total population of 788,000. Our district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+4 which means we are a swing district: Or what back in the day constituted a moderate and pragmatic voting populace. We are also a district that has a growing minority population that stands at 30.9% or 243,492 people. And with an average household income of $99,000; we earn $11,000 less per year on average compared to California overall and only $2,000 per year more than the average US-wide.

To learn more about Rep. Kiley’s stances on issues affecting Northern California, I recently visited his web page (https://kiley.house.gov/) and found education and the workforce, judiciary, and transportation and infrastructure listed among the issues he purportedly champions. I care about those things too, for I served as the Education Committee Chairman in one of the most influential chambers of commerce in the United States. And as most Californians, I care about the prudent use of funds we are allocating to the growing demands upon our transportation and infrastructure needs. Rep. Kiley is your and my representative, so I must ask myself and you ought to ask this as well: should we support him in future elections?

CD3 has narrowly voted for President Trump in the past three elections while his margin of victory has slid from 8% in 2016 to 3% in 2024. I then reflected on how President Trump’s and private citizen/public chaos coordinator Elon Musk’s recent cuts to the federal workforce, defunding for scientific and medical research, and proposed cuts to Medicaid with its financial bleed over to Medicare have affected and will further affect people living in CD3. I have also stayed abreast of Rep. Kiley’s recent congressional actions. I am alarmed.

There are 5,464 federal workers in CD3, many of whom live in rural areas and contribute to the local economies of California’s smallest towns. That is a lot of households that are now scrambling financially because Musk’s DOGE is blindly throwing them out on the street. Two weeks ago, KCRA Sacramento did a piece on the federal workers sharing concerns about the sweeping layoffs. They reached out to Rep. Kiley. His response? Crickets. His office response? “A spokesperson for District 3 Congressman Kevin Kiley, whose district includes the Tahoe National Forest, told KCRA 3 he was unavailable to discuss the layoffs”. Democracy dies when its leaders go silent.

Because the federal government preferentially hires veterans (I too am one), many of these workers are people who have served our country. Federal workers provide guidance to private contractors such as geologists, biologists, wildland fire fighters and national park rangers who earn a living through their work on public lands. For example, they ensure that infrastructure and renewable energy projects move forward responsibility and that lands do not burn our prized property so that we may continue to enjoy our public lands. Bottom line: The loss of good-paying jobs and government expenditures at local businesses in CD3’s small communities will be felt pronto.

California’s rural communities will feel the pinch

Furthermore; the federal offices now have a reduced ability to work with private contractors, projects supporting renewable energy and road improvement and other industries have been slowed down or put on hold indefinitely. The absence of those contractors, who pump cash into rural California’s motels, bars, gas stations and restaurants, will further hurt small businesses. Contracts ranging from $500,000 to millions of dollars to do work on public lands have been paused or canceled.

President Trump’s and Mr. Musk’s cuts to the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health and other agencies on which our public universities rely will reduce our ability to educate and train students who directly serve the industries that Rep. Kiley purportedly values. They will also result in hiring freezes and potentially layoffs that will further weaken CD3’s economy. And we are already behind the average household income power curve folks.

Trump’s cuts, which seem to be unfolding with little consideration for how they will affect Americans ― in California’s CD3, this includes a conservative majority. Because our CD3 colleges train future contractors and take on federal contracts in support of industry, a range of undertakings that are wholly in line with those that Rep. Kiley claims to champion will be slowed down or perhaps canceled altogether.

Medical Support for The Deserving The House Budget Resolution, which Rep. Kiley recently supported, will be medically devastating. 14.9 million Californians rely on Medicaid or MediCal as we call it. Closer to home: 28% of CD3 relies on it. That is 220,640 of us. Those affected will be predominantly low-income and disabled people, and the proposed cuts will severely impact hospitals and clinics in rural, conservative communities. You know these people: they are over 5 million of our California children, 2.2 million of our elderly moms and dads, and so sadly 3.4 million of our working Californians. Shame on us for cutting them out if we do not hold our elected leaders accountable. Rep. Kiley…he has the deal of deals health care coverage wise: Congress member Premium plan rates vary depending on an individual’s age, tobacco usage, dependents and where they live, according to a 2017 Congressional Research Service report. The federal government contributes up to “72% of the weighted average” of all premium plans, “not to exceed 75% of any given plan’s premium.”

And to make matters worse, Rep. Kiley showed his true colors with his support of this month’s PROTECT MEDICAID BENEFITS FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS; Congressional Record Vol. 171, No. 38. It is disingenuous. He is Harvard and Yale educated: knows better and I believe he believes you do not. It is a direct affront to anyone who understands that undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded coverage including Medicaid, CHIP, or Medicare or to purchase coverage through the ACA Marketplaces. Emergency Medicaid spending reimburses hospitals for emergency care they are obligated to provide to individuals who meet other Medicaid eligibility requirements (such as income) but who do not have an eligible immigration status, including undocumented immigrants and lawfully present immigrants who remain ineligible for Medicaid or CHIP.

The popular refrain was always: Regardless of citizenship, when in need of medical assistance, go to the emergency room if you have no healthcare. We pay for it folks. We always have-We always will-Until we re-engineer our healthcare system. Look at your healthcare stub. It shows what you pay and what your government subsidizes. Be thankful.

California, as per normal, years ago realized the cost associated with people of all colors, nationalities and economic conditions who sought medical care and as a state wanted to account for it. It is why it extended/expanded Medi-Cal to undocumented persons. And this program reportedly costs less to deliver – tax-payer wise than previously. It passed in our legislature.

President Trump recently shared …we are in for a little disturbance. Easy for him and his healthcare CEOs to say. They are billionaires.

He is right in one sense; US Medical care is big $ business. Many healthcare companies make a lot of tax-payer funded “welfare” money off it. When profits get eroded via public service medical care such as Medicaid, sooner or later, premiums for other health care alternatives go up. Like Medicare or private health insurance. We all pay for it regardless of socio-economic status. Rep. Kiley is playing what I perceive to be a carnival shell game on us all. We all will pay for it unless whe stop him from moving the medical care cost ball hidden under the cup.

So, shame on you Kevin. We should all be in Congress, right? And when we get there, let us remember where we came from and look out for all our fellow CD3-ers.

No apparent strategy but a desire to fleece

Back in my day it was all about mission, vision, and value. Here is what we are going to do based on where we want to go founded upon how we were brought up. It is all about the good fight.

America should be about a band of brothers and sisters rallying against those who are rigging the system. We all know there is corruption in government, business, and family life. We just want some semblance of checks and balances. I remember when in in the private sector, the way to call foul was to protest a sole source contract or to declare an anti-apartheid stance to be considered as a bidder. Those were noble initiatives. Where are they now for us common folks?

Last November post-election, Rep. Kiley was a special guest at Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 launch. Afterwards he introduced legislation that would strip the California Coastal Commission of its authority to review certain activities relating to national security, critical infrastructure or with a high economic impact. This comes months after the commission voted to bar SpaceX — the private space venture owned by billionaire and Donald Trump self-preservationist Elon Musk — from making additional launches at the Vandenberg Space Force Base on California’s Central Coast.

I get it. The more launches, the more Elon can charge the government. His organizations reportedly currently bill/tax us at $8 million per day for contracts they charge to us. He and Putin, who he allegedly is on regular contact with must be laughing all the way to the bank at our tax paying expense and integrity as a nation. Musk, like Trump, has a history of running a for profit non-profitably. Space X is his golden goose. He bankrolled Trump…and Rep. Kiley appears to expect us to underwrite it.

I have read a lot recently about ridding the federal government of employees who collect paychecks without contributing anything to their constituency. I cannot think of a better opportunity to trim some fat than Rep. Kiley who is hurting people in his district and destroying northern California’s economy ― in particular, small, rural, and conservative communities ― he is not fulfilling his duty as our representative.

He may not agree with the views of all his constituents, but he certainly needs to have enough courage to speak up to President Trump and Mr. Musk when their policies promise to hurt people in CD3. Please do your job Re. Kiley or have the decency to step down and let someone who is willing to protect Northern Californians take over.

Rich Powell is a former small business owner, corporate hi-tech industry executive, state Republican convention delegate, and US Army veteran. He was born in California and is proud to call northern California home and there is no place that he would rather live. His family have all benefitted from the responsible management of government assets in California as they contribute to the ongoing success to the local, state and US economy.