Opinion: Is California close to a health care deal?
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On Friday, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez came by The Times to give updates on his comprehensive health care plan, and to talk up his latest redistricting proposal for California. Some quotable quotes on the health care negotiations:
‘I think we have ample time to put together a plan almost as significant as AB 32.’ ‘I think we’re on the verge of doing something huge.’ ‘I think if we fail to deliver comprehensive heatlh care reform between now and Sept. 11 that we’re going to set this country back, and I feel the weight of that responsibility.’ ‘[The governor’s] got a business issue, I’ve got a labor issue. and we’re both going to have to figure it out. We’re both going to have to be Nixon in China.’ ‘The longer I serve as speaker, the more frustrated I become with the federal government and congress -- Democrat or Republican -- because they’ve done very little on the domestic front, and they haven’t delivered for California. They’ve failed to do anything on heatlh care, they’ve failed to do anything on transportation. And then when the state doesn’t do something, we get beat up for it.’
Nuñez also reiterated his enthusiasm for a ballot measure dropping the budget-passing requirement from two-thirds of the Legislature to a simple majority:
‘I think next year we run the risk of a very protracted budget battle. But I think that would probably be the last one. And it’s going to set us up perfectly for the initiative.’ ‘As long as we don’t ask for a simple majority vote on raising taxes, I think the voters will be very amenable to allowing us to do a budget with a [simple] majority.’