Politicians talk a lot and journalists spend a lot of time recording what they say, but what’s more important is watching what they do. Budget triage is when politicians really vote their priorities. They like to call it ‘values’, but it’s really about which group they’re pandering to.

California’s monstrous $321 billion dollar budget exposes what the priorities of the state party and particularly that of Gov. Newsom, who still aspires to be the party’s presidential candidate in 2028 really are.

So what does the budget cut and what does it keep?

Free health care for illegal aliens, a major national controversy that was contributing to the budget deficit (but when your state budget is $321 billion, your entire government is one big deficit) gets a slight haircut.

Illegal alien invaders are no longer eligible to sign up and existing illegal aliens will now have to $30 a month (obviously a pittance) while their kids and seniors get it for free.

The savings are not that significant on the scale of the budget, but on paper it adds something and it makes Gov. Newsom look a bit more sensible to prep for his presidential race. (In practice, charging illegal aliens a few bucks while they run up tabs of tens of thousands of dollars is laughable.)

But where Newsom and the state party are happy to spend money is Hollywood. I previously wrote about Newsom’s pledge to his donors to double Hollywood’s tax credits to an insane $750 million.

Last year, Disney’s ‘Paradise 2’, a series about political corruption, fittingly received over $12 million, ‘Untitled WB Film’ got $20 million, ‘Untitled Disney+ Project’ picked up $14 million, ‘Suits LA’ got $12 million to shoot in LA, ‘LA Nights’ got $19 million to also shoot in LA, Apple’s ‘Bad Monkey 2’ got $20 million and ‘Untitled Drag Queen Movie’ got $1.6 million.

The myth is that this creates jobs and is a good investment for the state. It’s not. It’s simple corruption.

Given a choice between illegal aliens and Hollywood cash, Newsom picked Tinseltown. But no politician with a haircut like that was ever going to do otherwise.