California Republican Legislators Just Don't Care About the Poor and the Rest of Us in Health Care

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Randy Bayne
The Bayne of Blog's California Notes

In a town hall meeting to discuss health care, Assemblymember Alan Nakanishi accused labor of killing health savings account legislation because "they care about the poor who can't afford it." By "it" he means health savings accounts, his pet solution to the health care crisis.

That was about the most substantive thing in an hour long town hall meeting attended by about 40 people in Jackson. Managing to avoid spending too much time on the advertised subject of the town hall, Nakanishi started with a lesson on how a bill becomes a law. As far as I can gather, he was trying to explain how hard it is to get legislation through the system. Granted, it isn't an easy process, but neither should it be.

Copies of four bills on health care that Nakanishi is carrying in the special session were available, but only passing reference was made to them. These four are tailored to express the Republican opinion that health savings accounts are the solution to the health care crisis. This is when he blamed unions, working Californians, for the failure to pass health savings account legislation by saying, "they care about the poor who can't afford it."

That's right, we do care, and proudly so, about the poor. How does a savings plan work for people who can't afford to put food on the table or keep a roof over their head? Where do they find money to save for anything, much less for something as specific and horrendously expensive as health care? The problem with Republican lawmakers is that they don't care about the poor.

Nakanishi's summation on health care is, "Health care is a mess."

In response to a question about the budget, "Why is the legislature spending more than it takes in?" Nakanishi launched into an explanation on how the budget is passed. It was a nice lesson, but didn't answer the question.

That was chiefly how this town hall went. The hour flew by as Nakanishi, unable to answer the questions gave lessons on how bills become laws and how the state passes a budget. Nice lessons, little help.

I wish I had more to tell you, but there really was so little substance to this town hall that I'm left wondering why he even bothered.