by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Today was the day the AB 1x1 was to be brought up in the Senate Health Committee. It didn't. Senator Don Perata asked to delay the vote until Monday since there were not enough votes to pass the bill. To complicate matters the Legislative Analyst came out with her report that had enough consternation about cost containment for the state that it made Senators nervous about moving forward. AP:

Given the Democrats' resistance, it seemed unlikely Perata could obtain the votes without changing the composition of the 11-member panel, although he has said he does not plan to do so. The committee's four Republican members have been opposed to the bill as an expensive and unnecessary expansion of government into the private health care system.

Democrats also sounded queasy about the potential expense, and they sought assurances that the state would not be saddled with new costs.

"It just seems to me that we go into it with a little more certainty of what the price might be," said Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "Otherwise we don't go forward."

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by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

It has come down to this: will any Democratic Senator on the health care committee vote against the proposal besides Sen. Shelia Kuehl? The Capitol Weekly has all of the wonky details:

The Senate Health Committee is chaired by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, who is openly opposing the bill. Kuehl’s opposition gives the bill’s supporters a single-vote margin on the 11-member health committee.

That means that any Democrat on the committee could single-handedly sink the proposal. And not all of the committee members are sure they’re going to vote for the bill. Kuehl, who has promised an exhaustive examination of the proposal, delayed the first hearing by a week.

“The issue I have is that we have a $14 billion shortfall,” said Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. “We are cutting services like you cannot believe. So how can we pay for a new health care plan?”

The Senate, in particular this committee is moving slowly on this proposal to examine all of the details. This will not be a repeat of the rapid fire passage of the energy deal during the Enron crisis. AB 1x1 is a major piece of legislation that should impact just about every single Californian. I for one am glad that it is being gone over with a fine tooth comb.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Now that the ball has dropped in Times Square, it's time for our "What's In, What's Out" list, where we take a look at what's hot -- and what's not in California politics.

In: Shane Goldmacher, Out: Dan Walters

Capitol Alert, shedding its high price subscription requirement, is the snazzy new way to get breaking news in the Capitol. Now if it would drop the whining W's -- Walters and Weigand -- for columnists that are capable of offering insight rather than daily lampooning of elected officials, they'd have a news product that would live up to the much-missed "Political Muscle" from the LA Times.

In: SEIU, AFSCME, Out: UNITE-HERE

Pragmatic labor unions SEIU and AFSCME, which helped muscle the new health care accord through the Assembly, are getting new respect in the Capitol. Meanwhile, UNITE-HERE -- whose leadership's scorched earth strategy failed to block Senate and Assembly approval of  tribal compacts -- appears to be throwing $2 million in members dues down the drain in fighting the compacts on the February ballot.

In: Adam Mendelsohn, Out: Adam Mendelsohn

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Anthony York has a nice bit of analysis on health care over at Capitol Weekly in an article of the same name. I would not be surprised to see this make the jump into the big newspapers. His main point is that the bar was raised for any deal when Arnold made the decision not to try and get any Republicans support and instead to pass a bill with a simple majority and get the funding approved on the ballot.

But in the process, the governor created a new problem. Now, the Legislature is charged with devising a plan that stakeholders will not simply passively support. Schwarzenegger and Speaker Fabian Núñez must now find a way to concoct a plan that supporters are willing to spend millions of dollars on to get the funding mechanism approved on the November ballot.

That is the crux of the new health care balancing act: How far toward the governor can the speaker stretch while still ensuring that labor unions and major players in the health care industry will be willing to open their pocketbooks?

“When the governor made the decision to go to the ballot for financing, he raised the threshold of what the deal needed to be for different stakeholders,” said Anthony Wright, director of the consumer group Health Access. “There’s a difference with what they’d be willing to tolerate versus what they’re willing to campaign for.”

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[courtesy of California Progress Report]

In the Democratic weekly radio address Assembly Health Committee. Committee Chair Mervyn Dymally talks about the new Democratic health care reform legislation. Assembly Bill 1X, authored by Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President pro Tem Don Perata that was approved earlier this week by his committee. He says the new health care bill is bold and realistic. He is joined by Assemblymember Ed Hernandez who addresses this issue in Spanish.

You may listen in English or Spanish or read the full transcripts of this week’s Democratic radio addresses follow: