Single-Payer in California Tabled
Assemblyman Ash Kalra and the Democrat Supermajority did not even bring AB1400 up for a vote, and I have thoughts...
It seems that even in a Democrat-controlled legislature, some progressive wish-list items are beyond the pale.
For weeks, progressive Democrats and the healthcare union activists have been crowing about single-payer coming to California and what a wonderful thing that will be. The seas will part, children will be fed, and you will enjoy waiting weeks to get an appointment with your doctor, just like you wait for weeks for an appointment with the DMV.
You know it’s true.
We were pushing back. We mounted petition drives, protests, and calls were issued to every member of CalLeg.
Of course, there was that ultimatum by the California Democrat Party: No Democrat was allowed to block or vote against the bill; if anyone did, their endorsement from the party would be cut off.
Well, I guess for certain CA Democrat legislators, that was a bridge too far.
For now, single-payer in California is dead in the water. Oh, they could resurrect it easily—like Frankenstein’s monster, it keeps coming back to life, and gets uglier with each reincarnation.
But with Monday being the final deadline for this Assembly session to get it moved forward to cap off the August-September legislative session—and before the 2022 midterms, we can consider it a dead deal.
From CalMatters:
Despite, or perhaps because of, an aggressive last-minute push by progressive activists ahead of a crucial deadline, legislation to create a government-run universal health care system in California died Monday without coming up for a vote.
The single-payer measure, Assembly Bill 1400, was the latest attempt to deliver on a longtime priority of Democratic Party faithful to get private insurers and profit margins out of health care. Because it was introduced last year, when it stalled without receiving a single hearing, it needed to pass the Assembly by Monday to continue through the legislative process.
Californians can breathe a little easier, and focus on what needs to happen—voting these miscreants out of office. No doubt, that was part of the CalLeg members’ retreat from this stinking fish of a bill. With Dementia Joe at the helm, California Democrat voter sentiment is testy and unpredictable, and beyond all else, these legislators want to hold on to their jobs. In order to cheat, you still need people to cast their vote, and despite threats by the Democrat Party to pull funding, there was little confidence that these folks would survive a challenge in 2022 if they voted with the party. Like the rest of us, they went with their own self-interest.
Well, damn. Not so progressive after all.
But even the threat of losing the party’s endorsement in the upcoming election cycle was not enough to persuade the Assembly’s Democratic supermajority to advance the bill for further consideration, effectively killing the effort for another year.
After several tense hours Monday afternoon, during which a scramble of meetings took place just off the Assembly floor, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, the San Jose Democrat carrying AB 1400, announced that he would not bring up the measure for a vote.
Kalra declined multiple requests to discuss his decision and whether he would seek another path forward for his proposal. Following the floor session, he waited on a members-only balcony outside the chamber until a group of reporters was told to leave by a sergeant-at-arms.
“I don’t believe it would have served the cause of getting single payer done by having the vote and having it go down in flames and further alienating members,” Kalra said on a Zoom call with disappointed supporters later in the evening, in which he shared that he believed the bill, which needed 41 votes to pass, was short by “double digits.”
And like the coward he is, he tucked his tail and went home. Kalra is part of the San Francisco Cabal, so he knows he’ll survive another day to plague the legislature. With redistricting and some inspired new patriots, the rest of them are not in such a cozy position. Those of us who watch smell blood in the water, and we’re ready to attack.
This is good news for Californians, and with Hair Gel’s second mask debacle on Sunday, it could portend a sea change in the political landscape of the state.
Ma tha Siobhan.