While media remains riveted on President Trump’s Twitter tweets, a divisive battle among Democrats in California has brought acrimony and unleashed bitter feuds between sparring politicians. The vitriolic health care debate has opened deep divisions between Democratic factions who have proposed a $400 billion Universal Health Care bill in California and opponents who say its supporters failed to show how the state would pay for it. The infighting has reportedly led to Death threats against a Democratic lawmaker who opposes the legislation.
Speaker: proposal an unfunded shell
California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said the bill lacks any credible means of funding before shelving the proposal last week. Rendon described the bill as an empty shell that promises universal funding but doesn’t have a funding mechanism. “There was absolutely no funding attached to a $400 billion proposal, no service delivery mechanism,” he told The Hill publication.
The Democrats' failure to agree on a workable single-payer health care system in California does not bode well for similar national proposals that Democrats like Bernie Sanders have advocated.
Supporters say the bill could be reintroduced in January under a new session while detractors say nothing would have changed to make universal health care in California affordable.
Proposal being pushed by Nurses Union
For its part, the California Nurses Association, which is leading the push for universal health care, claims opponents are doing the bidding of opposition industry groups that fund Democratic political action groups.
Nurses Union spokesman Michael Lighty claims Rendon is carrying water for special interest groups and intends to kill the bill permanently, according to an article in The Hill published yesterday.
However, any specifics on how California Democrats on either side of the proposal would pay for the massive legislation were not mentioned. Meanwhile, Rendon claims supporters of the bill have made death threats against him and more protests against opposition members have cropped up across the state. Democrats have supermajorities in the state House and Senate and a Democratic governor, which gives them all the necessary tools to provide unlimited Universal Healthcare.
Rendon’s removal of the bill acts as a political pressure-relief valve to protect so-called moderate Democrats who fear voter retaliation should they have to vote against universal health care.
California healthcare-fail may affect Democrats' national component
The apparent inability of a wealthy, blue state like California to fund a universal health care plan does boost confidence for national Democratic calling for government-run health care.
Infighting exploded in May during the state Democratic Party Convention after a Sanders-backed party chair candidate lost. Sanders supports government-run, single payer health care. At the same time, Senate Democrats are fuming at Rendon for not giving House Democrats a chance to debate the proposal in earnest.
Some political analysts say Senate Democrats wanted House Democrats to debate the bill and take some of the heat from its opponents.
The universal healthcare debate has sparked rare derision and disunity between the Democratic super majorities in a state that recently passed a massive gas tax to pay for crumbling infrastructure – a tax that prompted an acrimonious backlash from voters in that state.
