The future of the health care plan in the state senate only got murkier yesterday, as pro tem
Don Perata compared the complex measure to the failed energy deregulation bill passed in 1996.
Don Perata wrote in a letter: "
When major legislation passes with great fanfare, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, play to the cameras, and quickly go along. It happened when the state enacted energy deregulation – only to create a crisis from which we’ve yet to fully recover."That’s not something I intend to repeat, especially on an issue as crucial to our state as the health of its citizens.
The Senate will debate and act on healthcare reform when we have the facts to be sure we’re getting it right."
Perata told a San Francisco television station the health care plan was "DOA," but later sent out a press release to clarify his remarks.
Meanwhile, Speaker
Fabian Nuñez continued to send out releases pointing out that the bill was a Democratic bill passed on a party-line vote, while publicly appearing with the Republican governor who has pledged to sign it.
Today, the governor and Speaker begin a three-day roadshow to push the health care plan. The release from the speaker's office states, "Speaker Fabian Núñez (D-Los Angeles) will join Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and representatives from business groups and labor unions to
express their support for the Democratic comprehensive health care bill, Assembly Bill 1X1."
Democratic comprehensive health care bill...postpartisanship, indeed.
The AP's Samantha Young reports: "Voter wariness over tax increases, angst about what the plan will mean for those who already have insurance, a mounting state budget deficit, an increasingly shaky economy and business opposition
suggest an uphill battle for the health proposal.
"At the same time, opposition groups are threatening to place a competing health care initiative on the November 2008 ballot.
"'What is being proposed is very bold, ambitious, controversial,' said
Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive of the Public Policy Institute of California. 'There's a lot of uncertainty about whether it will pass.'
"Meanwhile,
the California Nurses Association is urging senators to reject the Assembly bill in favor of a government-run, single-payer health care system. Senate Democrats have supported such a plan in the past, but the governor has vetoed it.
"The group also plans to file its own competing initiative if the legislative measure goes to the ballot unchanged."
"And we all go down together!""'
The bill is destined for failure. There's going to be a lot of opposition because it's such a tremendous overreach by government,' said
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association."
Hmmm...and single-payer is less of an overreach?
Anyhoo, now that the Year of Health Care is, uh, done, it's time to focus on that election in 48 days.
"In a sign that Californians are tapping into a presidential primary season largely playing out elsewhere,
the race here between Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has narrowed substantially since October, according to a Field Poll released Tuesday," reports Dan Smith in the Bee.
"Clinton still holds a 14-point lead over fellow U.S. Sen. Obama among likely voters in the Democratic primary, 36 percent to 22 percent. But the margin between the two has dropped from the 25-point gap Field recorded just two months ago.
"Poll Director
Mark DiCamillo said his findings show California voters – who will go to the polls Feb. 5 – have started to tune in to the primary debate raging two and three time zones away.
"'The events of Iowa and elsewhere are having an effect,' he said. 'Many voters in California were kind of reflexively behind Clinton. Now, they're not as sure. … Hillary Clinton has been on the defensive more in the last month than she has in the entire campaign.'"
"Weeks after unveiling a relief plan for struggling subprime borrowers, U.S. Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson came to the epicenter of the nation's foreclosure troubles to tout the effort as a "market solution" that would be fixed if it falls short," reports Jim Wasserman in the Bee.
"At a town hall-style event in Van Buskirk Community Center here, Paulson and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spent more than an hour listening as local officials, loan counselors, community members and borrowers described the troubles they were having getting help from their lenders.
"'Unfortunately, there (are) all too many stories like yours in the country,' Paulson told one borrower who said she could no longer refinance her home and would almost certainly lose it. 'This is why we're trying to find solutions.'
"
Stockton had the nation's highest foreclosure rate last quarter, according to Irvine researcher RealtyTrac, with one filing for every 31 households. Its unsold housing inventory is so large it would take 25 months to sell all the houses on the market today, according to Sacramento-based TrendGraphix."
"The state of California
is not funding a mountainous $48 billion tab for medical benefits promised to future government retirees, a bill that ranked as the second largest in the nation last year," reports Gilbert Chan in the Bee.
"The escalating liability, which accounting rules now require listing on the balance sheet, would hurt the state's debt rating and consequently raise the cost of borrowing if it goes unaddressed. Equally as important, since tax revenues are not expected to cover it, taxpayers will be forced to sacrifice services or sell bonds at ever-higher interest rates to accommodate the obligation.
"'
That $48 billion is quite a lot. The substantial annual increases (to fund the benefits) the states are facing … is really stunning,' said
Katherine Barrett, co-author of a ground-breaking report, released Tuesday, from the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts' Center on the States."
"Leaders of Los Angeles County's
organized labor announced Tuesday that they will throw their political heft behind state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas in the race for county supervisor, publicly kick-starting what promises to be the most intensely contested county board election in 16 years," writes the LAT's Jack Leonard.
"The endorsement by the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor provides the liberal Ridley-Thomas a valuable boost in his campaign against the more conservative Los Angeles City Councilman
Bernard C. Parks, viewed by many as an early -- if slight -- front-runner in the race to succeed retiring Supervisor
Yvonne B. Burke.
"Parks picked up an important ally Tuesday, when Supervisor
Gloria Molina said she is supporting him, in large part because of his fiscal conservatism."
Meanwhile, in
>My millionaire can beat up your millionaire news, Steve Westly's millions have decided to support Proposition 93, which is opposed by Steve Poizner's millions.
"Westly's announcement that he will serve as Proposition 93's "campaign chair for outreach" came as opponents of the measure touted the fact that former Gov. Pete Wilson has decided to oppose the Feb. 5 ballot initiative.
"Westly praised the measure as a "common-sense" way to bolster an inexperienced Legislature facing a chronic budget deficit and massive issues ranging from global warming to education."
Hey, maybe if the governor endorses now, they can reprise those Proposition 57 ads! We'll get the popcorn ready...
