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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[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

In the State Assembly, Republicans and Democrats came to agreement on the state’s budget.

Republican Governor Schwarzenegger supported the budget passed by the Assembly.

All the Democrats in the Senate agreed with the Republican Governor and the Republican Members of the Assembly.

But the two Republicans in the California Senate needed to fund the Government for the next year could not be found.

The Senate Pro Tem hinted that the Republicans would come on board for a price – it was just that the Republicans couldn’t agree on a price.

What they did agree upon was that the Republican “price” had little or nothing to do with the budget. They want other things in addition to the fiscal integrity demanded by and acceded to in the Assembly.

The State’s Republican Governor’s plea to his fellow party members went ignored.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

As hundreds of bills passed off the Assembly floor this last week, there has been some entertainment value in listening to Republican Members of the California State Assembly speaking about them.

I will never forget the debate on a bill to ban the use of transfats, deadly for heart disease, in fast food restaurants. The bill passed, but not before Republican Assemblymember Anthony Adams, a fairly articulate and almost always conservative member of the body, rose to speak in opposition. Reaching a cadence, Adams took his argument against governmental involvement to its logical conclusion. In forceful terms he asked, "Why not just ban all fat people in California?" A rather robust Democratic Assemblymember, Jim Beall, who by chance was walking behind Adams, was clearly startled by the comment, threw his hands up in the air and started waiving them. The chamber erupted into laughter and a few heads shook, with some doing both laughing and shaking in disbelief at the same time.

But on too many occasions in opposing the progress being made, the Republicans would not talk about the merits of a bill and instead whined about the process.