When Things Heat Up, Where Do We Make Cuts?

Ivan Benavidez (left) and his brother Isaac who lost their home in the Altadena fire check on tee-shirts that might fit at a donation center at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Richard Vogel / AP Photo)
Could the tragedy of the devastating fires in Los Angeles be a glimpse into what the future may hold?
A lot has been said and political opponents have pounced on the news that Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass cut almost eighteen million dollars from the fire department’s budget.
What these news reports haven’t mentioned as much is that she also increased the police department’s budget by a hundred and sixty million dollars. That’s an increase of 8.1%. In the 2025 fiscal budget. She also approved increased funding to deal with the homeless problem in LA. Prior to this fire, it could be argued that crime and the homeless were the biggest problems facing the City of Angels, but to increase those budgets the money had to come from somewhere. And some of that money came at the expense of the city’s fire department.
In a December fourth memo, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristen Crowley warned about the dangers of the cuts. She said it cut back on mandatory training and overtime pay, impairing public safety. Over a month ago she warned that the city could not deal with a major fire like this.
The city of Los Angeles took a gamble on where to put the money and they lost.
Hindsight is twenty twenty and I’m sure the mayor wishes that the fire budget hadn’t been cut.
But cuts were made. There’s only so much money to go around.
So, you might ask, how is this a possible glimpse into our future?
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy say their DOGE committee will cut billions of dollars from the federal budget. They say it will get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. In addition to DOGE, Marjory Taylor Green will chair the Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee. The Trump administration has promised to make major cuts in government spending.
Most people, myself included, like the idea of cutting billions of dollars in the federal budget. But where do you cut? I’m sure that when the LA city budget was being decided the folks in charge felt that the cuts in the fire department wouldn’t hurt the city. They were wrong.
When Elon Musk took over Twitter he made some major cuts. It appeared to some observers that they were being made just for the sake of making them. He let go about eighty percent of his staff.
Musk paid forty-four billion dollars for the company. It’s now worth about nine point two billion dollars. Making cuts for the sake of making cuts isn’t always such a good idea.
The people of Los Angeles are going to need a lot of help to restart their lives. Will the Trump administration give them the aid they need? After all, California is a blue state and the soon-to-be President has never been a fan.
The FEMA budget doesn’t have the money it will need to help those who have lost everything. Will the Trump administration and the Republican Congress give them what they need? And if they do, where does that money come from? Will they make the cuts in other budgets to offset that expenditure? Will those budget cuts hurt us somewhere else sometime later down the road?
It's easy to talk about cutting government spending. It’s much more complicated to actually do it and do it right.
Not only have thousands of families lost their homes, but countless other people have also lost their jobs. Will the government have the money to pay unemployment insurance for everyone who needs and deserves it?
Thank God we have brave men and women who worked long hours under dangerous conditions to save lives and property. These government workers deserve our praise and respect, but we can’t depend on government agencies to do it all.
Thank God for all the charities and volunteers who are there to do what they can to help the victims get back on their feet. We need to do what we can to help these charities and our fellow citizens the best we can.
Donate to the Red Cross, The Salvation Army, or any other legitimate charity. A simple Google search looking for the ones you can trust will give you their links.
After January 20th America will be on a new trajectory. We’ve been promised a future of cuts in government spending. Let’s hope those cuts don’t hurt the services we need.
Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.
Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.
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