Xavier Becerra Is No Moderate

The recent implosion and resignation of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has done more than expose another Democrat’s hypocrisy regarding sexual harassment and assault allegations. Coming less than two months before California’s primary elections, Swalwell’s sudden journey from gubernatorial front-runner to ex-candidate jumbled up the field seeking to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-French Laundry.

Amid the chaos among Democrat candidates, former California Attorney General and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra has seen a surge in support. But a recent article featuring attacks on Becerra as a “moderate” shows the radical nature of California Democrats, where the left hand doesn’t know what the far-left hand is doing.

Single-Payer Supporter

To paraphrase Shakespeare, I come not to praise Xavier Becerra, but to defend him as the true leftist he is. It seems more than a little absurd for a former chair of the California Democrat Party’s progressive caucus to call him a “go-along Democrat” and a politician “that is open for business with corporations.” Politico also notes that “a host of influencers on the left, including progressive news sites, have faulted him for not endorsing” a single-payer bill in the California Legislature, “and argue he didn’t further the cause as HHS secretary.”

But as I noted at the time of his nomination to head HHS in late 2020, Becerra has a history of supporting socialized medicine that goes back decades. Note, for instance, his comments supporting single-payer during a committee markup of “Hillarycare” (i.e., the Clinton health care plan) in 1994:

I do, as I said before, join my colleagues who support the single-payer plan. I do so because I believe that health care is a right, not a privilege, and I believe it is a responsibility, not an option. I also believe that our health care system must be prudent and cost-effective, and quite honestly, I’ve seen nothing that does a better job of addressing that concern than the single-payer system.

For years, while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Becerra cosponsored single-payer legislation authored by then-Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., well before a subsequent version introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., became a litmus test among leftists. During the debate on Obamacare, Becerra even called out then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in front of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for giving up on a “robust” government-run health plan too quickly — and subsequently got called on the carpet by Pelosi for it.

Becerra being to the left of Pelosi should tell us all we need to know about his lack of political “moderation.” But his actions in 2009 were consistent with his positions on health care since the start of his career. If Democrats now want to attack Becerra from the left on the grounds that he didn’t exploit the declining mental faculties of Joe Biden — who opposed single-payer during the 2020 Democratic primary and subsequently won the nomination — to advance socialized medicine while serving as Biden’s HHS secretary, that is an interesting choice to make.

Leftist on Immigration

Likewise, Becerra has taken leftist positions with respect to immigration and health care throughout his career. Unsurprisingly, Becerra, while serving as HHS secretary, approved moves allowing states to have illegal immigrants purchase Exchange coverage and later proposed and finalized a rule allowing DACA recipients to qualify for taxpayer-funded Exchange subsidies. Thankfully, a federal judge blocked the latter regulation, which last year’s budget reconciliation bill subsequently overturned.

While HHS secretary, Becerra also helped preside over a crisis at the border that not only undermined our national security but also led to the exploitation of thousands of immigrant children. Even The New York Times couldn’t shy away from exposing how lax standards within HHS led to alien children being exploited and trafficked as child labor by a system that badly let down some of society’s most vulnerable.

Trying to attack Becerra as a moderate should strike most reasonable individuals as absurd. It’s symptomatic of a leftist zealotry that former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., of all people, recently criticized as “an agenda that goes beyond what’s politically acceptable. … Until we separate ourselves from that agenda, we don’t win.”

If Becerra’s Democrat opponents want to attack him as an incompetent manager, someone who failed to rise to the occasion in the middle of a crisis, by all means, have at it. But the concept that Golden State Demorats can attack Xavier Becerra as an insufficiently committed leftist demonstrates how radical the party has become.