The curious timing of Arnold Schwarzenegger's CA health care proposal.

[WilliamPitt]

I have this odd feeling about Arnold and this health care plan. It seems like a big fat bushwhack to me, but I want to get your impression.

Arnold has never been within a billion miles of giving one shit about health care. He cut more than 100 health programs during his first term, which is why the nurses union stalked him like a leopard. He is on record as recently as 2006 saying, “I don’t believe in universal healthcare.” Instead, Schwarzenegger suggested that a goal would be to “insure half of the people that right now are uninsured.”

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/07/schwarzeneggers_2.html

Now, out of nowhere, he coughs up a health care plan?

Nope. Something stinks.

Let's see...

1. The GOP has been making California a priority in recent months, specifically regarding their attempt to rework the Electoral College setup. That must have involved Arnold, seeing how he's the governor and stuff.

Oh yeah, and...

2. HE PUT OUT OUT HIS PLAN TWO DAYS AFTER HILLARY PUT HER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE PROPOSAL OUT.

3. The CA Democrats are fighting his plan...but it seems to be better than Hillary's plan (if you set aside the fact that doing a state plan and a national plan are two different buckets of crawfish).

So.

* Arnold makes Hillary look like crap.

* Hillary takes a hit from Democrats, many of whom are already worried about having her as the nominee.

* The CA congressional Dems may well kill Arnold's bill later on down the line, sparing him the need to actually deal for the first time with health care issues not involving steroids.

Why?

The GOP is terrified of Hillary. If she gets the nomination, she'll win the general in a walk. All she needs to do is win all the Gore 2000 states, plus one more.

That one will be New Hampshire. Fer shur.

New Hampshire voted Dem (Kerry) in 2004 for the first time since 1946; voted out 30-year GOP House Rep. Charlie Bass in favoir of total rookie Paul Hodes; and will likely eject Senator Sununu in '08 and elect former Dem gov of NH Jeanne Shaheen.

Bush won NH in 2000 by a little over 3,000 votes. Had Gore won NH in 2000, had 4,000 of the 26,000 registered Dems in Cheshire County (who didn't vote) actually cast a ballot in 2000, Florida would have been a footnote. A lot of those registered Dems who failed to vote in 2000 showed up in 2004, in droves, and you saw the result.

Since then, batallions of Massachusetts people (including my mom) have moved to NH for the cheaper property. NH now votes like the northernmost county of Massachusetts, and will go Dem again in '08. Book it.

The Gore 2000 states plus one...NH. Bang, done, turn out the lights when you leave.

The GOP knows this all too well; why do you think Karl Rove has an Obama sticker on his car? He wants to raise Obama's profile and hopefully knock Hillary down a peg, because he knows that if she wins the nomination, it's a done deal in the general.

And I think some magnificent bastard deployed this Arnold health care thing as a flanking attack to undermine her big program, to remind everyone of her biggest failure, and to undercut support among nervous Democrats.

I don't think Arnold's bill will ever become a reality. It's a bushwhack against Hillary, further evidence of growing GOP involvement in California, and is a masterpiece of an ambush if I'm right.

Thoughts?

[glowing]

1. my thought is if Hillary's healthcare plan sucks that much... then she

is worthless for the next 4 to 8 yrs.

[pinto]

2. I don't know. This seems more an end run around state Democratic proposals.

But my perspective is as a Californian, so I've watched the health care 'tug of war' here for a while. Both Nunez (D) and Kuehl (D) have proposals up.

(As an aside, of those two I am backing Kuehl's proposal.)

The impetus to block them may play more into Arnold's actions than national politics.

:shrug:

[porphyrian]

3. I expect there will be more to come as they've framed Senator Clinton as our nominee for years now.

They are, and have been, confident that they can beat her. This is but a single part of their plan.

[catzies]

4. You are, of course, on to something...scuttlebutt here is that he'll run against

Barbara Boxer since he's termed out.

While she has great support, I'm nervous about the prospect of Senator Schwarzenegger nontheless.

[suffragette]

5. double whammy

It's starting to look like they are trying to set California up as the next Florida or Ohio and are moving what pieces into place that they can. That's the Electoral College part.

The health care part. Agree with you that it looks like a bushwack.
On a larger scale, I think the Republicans have set out to try to undermine the growing call for Universal health care. The 1st step was to co-opt the term Universal and use it to describe private insurance plans: Universal health insurance rather than care. That's already happened. We're having to use the more awkward phrase Universal single-payer. Not the best term for this since it requires more explanation and when people hear single payer, they think that means something they have to pay for on their own. Sadly, I think we've been outmaneuvered on the terminology part. The attention being paid to health care reform right now shows what a major issue it has become and right now there's an enormous push to get something in that sounds like what people are yearning for but won't actually be that or as above is set up to look like a response to what people want, but engineered to fail.

[fed-up]

6. "No reform at all would be better than giving Schwarzenegger a political victory & leaving ins cos..

Los Angeles Times

http://www.onecarenow.org/nunezhealthcarereformAB8.htm

Nuñez's unhealthy bill


No reform at all would be better than giving Schwarzenegger a political victory and leaving insurance companies in charge.


By Deborah Burger
September 6, 2007

In alliance with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic leaders of the state Legislature, led by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez ("Healthcare reform -- now," Opinion, Aug. 28), are rushing to enact a substandard health reform plan that will not reduce the health insecurity of California families.

They're apparently even willing to jeopardize Sen. Barbara Boxer and their own party's slim hold on the United States Senate along the way.

Here's the deal: Nuñez and some other Democrats are actively working with Schwarzenegger to put together a "compromise" healthcare package.

Schwarzenegger, the main architect of that plan, gets to claim credit for supposedly solving the state's healthcare crisis using "bipartisan consensus." As collateral damage to Democrats, Schwarzenegger can tout this deal to boost his candidacy against Boxer in 2010.

Nuñez could then get the governor's support for extending his term as speaker.


...snip


and read here for further insight into the difference between the plans

http://onecarenow.org/index.html