Single Payer, Sentencing Commissions Moving Through The CA Legislature

Thanks to Frank Russo for informing us that Sheila Kuehl's SB 840, the single-payer health care plan which is the the result of years of work and refining, has passed the California State Senate for the second straight year. The mostly party-line vote was 22-14, with only Lou Correa voting with the Republicans against the bill.

Speaker Nunez and President Pro Tem Perata have health care bills up for votes, likely tomorrow, that are expected to pass. Then the other chamber gets a crack at them all, then there will be some process of negotiation and merging of all of these health care-related bills resulting in whatever the Governor and the Legislative leaders decide is an acceptable final product. It's great that, by virtue of continuing to push SB 840 and not backing down, Sen. Kuehl will be in that room for those negotiations. So this is not a fool's errand, it's a vital step to continue to push this state toward universal single payer healthcare and show the nation that it can be done.

In other news that really warms my heart, Sen. Gloria Romero's SB 110, providing for an independent sentencing commission that will have the power to recommend sentencing guidelines, the TRUE way to reform our broken prison system, passed the State Senate. Better yet, a companion bill passed the Assembly, so it looks like this sentencing commission proposal has a very good chance of winding up on the Governor's desk. Lou Correa again was the only Democratic Senator to vote against the bill. I sense a pattern. But it passed, and that's spectacular news. Hopefully the final bill will give the commission some teeth to actually mandate sentencing reform, and take the process out of the hands of "tough on crime" legislators.

And the Senate also voted to put the nonbinding Out of Iraq resolution on the February 2008 ballot. I only really appreciate this in the sense that I'd love to see the Governor have to sign it. Will he protect his party or "let the people decide?" Other than that, I'm apathetic toward it, and I do believe it's a stalking horse to get more Democrats to the polls in February, who may be more disposed to approving the term limits initiative that would allow the Democratic leadership to stay in office.