by thereisnospoon [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Disclaimer: I volunteer as the Netroots Outreach Coordinator for the Mary Pallant Campaign

Mary Pallant's campaign (which I have written about here, here, here and elsewhere) got a big new boost today: the endorsement of progressive CA State Senator Sheila Kuehl.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sara Rogers
Health Consultant
Office of California State Senator Sheila Kuehl

“Politically feasible” is just another way of saying that folks are scared to stand up to insurance companies. I don’t accept that. It’s time to take a stand for what we really want. It’s time to have hope.
- Senator Sheila Kuehl

SB 840 is alive and well in the Assembly Appropriations committee, much further along in the legislative process than it was in 2006, just before its historical passage out of both houses of the legislature and onto the Governor’s desk. Legislative deadlines for passage out of fiscal committees aren’t until August 15th and, between now and then, grassroots organizing and education efforts are really taking off. Every day, Senator Kuehl and her staff receive requests for presentations regarding SB 840, the truly universal healthcare bill.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Deborah Burger, R.N.
President of the California Nurses Association
President of the National Nurses Organizing Committee

With a major showdown coming today on the deeply flawed healthcare bill ABX1:1, the ranks of opposition are growing.

On Tuesday, I was pleased to join a press conference of a broad coalition of leading California unions and community groups, who came together to voice our common concerns about a bill that as several speakers said is not universal, primarily benefits the insurance industry, and would do little to protect California families against skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Subsequently, in a significant shift, the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO shifted its position on the bill to one of Not Support Unless Amended.

Further, the California Labor Federation endorsed a sweeping national healthcare bill, HR 676, that would establish a single-payer, guaranteed healthcare system, and is similar to a California single payer bill, SB 840.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Cross-posted on the California Progress Report.

I was taught in law school to treat with suspicion and closely examine any sentence that starts off with the phrase, "It is clear that..." and assertions made without evidence. We know from history that big lies are repeated often enough that they are accepted for the truth.

Every time this year that it appears that the legislature has gotten close to a deal on health care or water or actually made progress on some pressing issue Californians care about, there is an eruption of bald faced statements that "They're just doing that because of term limits" from the nattering nabobs of negativism.

As we are getting close to the end of this year, I've asked a dozen or more observers of the Sacramento scene, what would have been different this year had a proposition to change term limits not been placed on the ballot. The folks I've talked to include many who are cynical about the political process--yet none of them have been able to come up with a good answer.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I was taught in law school to treat with suspicion and closely examine any sentence that starts off with the phrase, "It is clear that..." and assertions made without evidence. We know from history that big lies are repeated often enough that they are accepted for the truth.

Every time this year that it appears that the legislature has gotten close to a deal on health care or water or actually made progress on some pressing issue Californians care about, there is an eruption of bald faced statements that "They're just doing that because of term limits" from the nattering nabobs of negativism.

As we are getting close to the end of this year, I've asked a dozen or more observers of the Sacramento scene, what would have been different this year had a proposition to change term limits not been placed on the ballot. The folks I've talked to include many who are cynical about the political process--yet none of them have been able to come up with a good answer.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

I was taught in law school to treat with suspicion and closely examine any sentence that starts off with the phrase, "It is clear that…" and assertions made without evidence. We know from history that big lies are repeated often enough that they are accepted for the truth.

Every time this year that it appears that the legislature has gotten close to a deal on health care or water or actually made progress on some pressing issue Californians care about, there is an eruption of bald faced statements that "They're just doing that because of term limits" from the nattering nabobs of negativism.

As we are getting close to the end of this year, I've asked a dozen or more observers of the Sacramento scene, what would have been different this year had a proposition to change term limits not been placed on the ballot. The folks I've talked to include many who are cynical about the political process--yet none of them have been able to come up with a good answer.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

[Editor’s note: Senator Kuehl is the Chair of the Senate Health Committee and the author of SB 840 to provide universal health care to all Californians through a single payor plan, commonly referred to as “MediCare for all.” She voted against AB 8 (Nunez-Perata), and yet had some complimentary comments about the authors and their aims and strengthening of the Democratic bill that passed yesterday. We publish her remarks in full because of their thoughtfulness.]

By State Senator Sheila Kuehl

Mr. President and Colleagues: As you know, I have been working to secure real healthcare reform in California for a number of years now. Along with my continuing authorship of SB 840, the single payer universal health care bill, I’ve also actively participated with other authors trying to craft incremental attempts to reform the health insurance market.

This year, as the chair of the Senate Health Committee, I’ve seen my mission as making certain that everything got appropriately vetted and discussed, while at the same time, continuing to build support for 840. Activists, supporters, organizations, and the panoply of more than 700 organizations, those that the press refers to as the “grassroots”, have done a magnificent job in building support for single payer.