With one-time payers failing, California’s process loses again – Orange County Register

Once again, the government-run medical facility crashed and burned in California.

Spectacular way.

Yes, it died with a whimper, not voted on ahead of time, which for any other policy wouldn’t be a big deal. But for those who pay alone – the Holy Grail of bad progressive ideas – it’s an epic.

The accumulation is extraordinary. After Spokesperson Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, unwarrantedly killed payers without a vote in 2017, called the measure “unfortunately incomplete,” which is (despite the fact) that didn’t stop the Senate Democrats from passing it), expectations were high this time. around.

But Rendon, as the leader of the Council and with the power to do whatever he wants, is not pushing this bill to be put to a vote either. Instead, he let the bill’s author, Representative Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, execute it last Monday.

“I’m really disappointed that the author didn’t put this bill up for a vote today,” Rendon said after Kalra decided not to put AB 1400 up for a vote, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I support one-time payers and fully intend to vote yes on this measure. Over time, we will have better and more successful regulations to bring us closer to this goal. ”

The 2017 One Time Invoice has no funding mechanism and hardly any operational language. It was such a weird joke that it passed the Senate. Only slightly better this time around, in that Kalra’s bill has the accompanying legislation being honest about the fact that taxes will be raised to a level of $163 billion.

That’s billion with the letter “b” in the new taxes.

Naturally, many Democrats don’t want it to be on the floor because any vote risks alienating them from their progressive base or moderate voters who don’t care how much. spike in their tax bills.

If the tax hike weren’t so bad, imagine how upset Californians would be when they realized that the government, which can’t run a functional DMV or pay unemployment insurance properly , really in charge of their health care.

Kalra said he didn’t bring the bill to the vote because the votes weren’t there.

Think about it for a moment: There are 80 members of Congress – 56 of whom are Democrats. The bill needs 41 votes to pass, meaning at least 16 Democrats are not supporters. Even so, I guess there’s more to it.

Perhaps Californians aren’t as passionate about progressivism as activists and doctors think.

The Democrats have full control of the state, control every office across the state, and have a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature. California’s Democratic leaders love to talk about the extent of their progress (even if it’s just to bolster their base), and it’s true that California is quite far to the left in philosophy. its dominant dominance.

But often, progressive policies fail at the ballot box, like rent control, eliminating the death penalty, affirmative action, Prop 13 amendments, and even one-time payers. Unfortunately, a lot of what happens in the Legislature and Administration is done without the heightened awareness and direct input of the electorate.

California Democrats are said to love the one-time payers. It was mentioned in the second paragraph of the California Democratic Party prologue and Governor Gavin Newsom campaigned for it.

But that looks more like lip service (thankfully) after the idea failed for the second time in five years.

Ironically, Newsom has said that he is fed up with lip service. As noted by Dan Walters of Calmatters, Newsom said while campaigning: “I’m tired of politicians saying they support people who pay alone but it’s too soon, too expensive, or other people’s problems”.

But even Newsom turned down a sole payer as governor, once he got the support he needed from activists like the California Nurses Association.

Leading up to Monday’s vote, or lack thereof, progressive activists threatened Democratic lawmakers such as Senators Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, who do not support AB 1400, said they would ensure dissenting Democrats would lose party approval.

“Love that some people in the Democratic Party celebrate diversity of people and not diversity of opinions,” Glazer responded to a threatening tweet.

With all due respect to Glazer, it’s no secret that the rest of us have woken up to only value diversity as long as diversity means there’s only one way to think and act.