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"There They Go Again"--Only This Time It's the California Assembly Republicans

By Frank D. Russo

As hundreds of bills passed off the Assembly floor this last week, there has been some entertainment value in listening to Republican Members of the California State Assembly speaking about them.

I will never forget the debate on a bill to ban the use of transfats, deadly for heart disease, in fast food restaurants. The bill passed, but not before Republican Assemblymember Anthony Adams, a fairly articulate and almost always conservative member of the body, rose to speak in opposition. Reaching a cadence, Adams took his argument against governmental involvement to its logical conclusion. In forceful terms he asked, "Why not just ban all fat people in California?" A rather robust Democratic Assemblymember, Jim Beall, who by chance was walking behind Adams, was clearly startled by the comment, threw his hands up in the air and started waiving them. The chamber erupted into laughter and a few heads shook, with some doing both laughing and shaking in disbelief at the same time.

But on too many occasions in opposing the progress being made, the Republicans would not talk about the merits of a bill and instead whined about the process.

The Republican Assemblymembers have by and large marginalized themselves with opposition to the major legislation of the year that has made it through the committee process and passed before Friday's deadline. With no plan to provide health care to vote for, the Democratic bill, AB 8 by Speaker Fabian Nunez, was passed entirely with Democratic votes. It received the votes of all 47 Democratic Assemblymembers present and was opposed by all 32 Republicans votes in the house. The only Member not to vote was Democrat Nell Soto who was absent due to illness.

What did they have to say about this sad state of affairs?

Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines issued a press release after AB 8 passed calling it the "largest tax increase in state history."

If I can quote Ronald Reagan, "there they go again." This one is a whopper.

Aside from the fact that AB 8 does not have any tax increase, the distinction for "the largest tax increase in state history" belongs to a member of the Republican Party, Governor Pete Wilson. Wilson's 1991 tax package to balance the budget increased taxes by more than $7.7 billion. (Source: Orange County Register, 9/6/91). If I'm not mistaken, it was another Republican Governor who had the second highest tax increase in the state.

To quote President Reagan once again, "Facts are stubborn things."

Steve Mavigilio, the Speaker's press person, described the sour grapes process excuse for the lack of a viable Republican health bill in the Assembly this past week (an excuse, by the way, used on the Assembly floor by Republicans for their failure not just on health , but many other policy areas as Democratic bills came up) and put it into perspective in the California Majority Report:

During today's [Thursday's] debate, they said they were "saddened" that their health proposals were not considered in crafting the Speaker's comprehensive health care package.

But what was truly sad was their inaccurate misinformation campaign --repeated by seven Republican Assemblymembers -- that suggested that Democrats were responsible for their failure to develop a comprehensive health care plan.

For example, Assemblymember Tran said that his legislation (AB 1607) didn't even get a hearing. The reason? The author requested that it not have a hearing. Assemblymember Nakanishi also rose to complain about the failure of his bill that allow CalPERS members health care plan choices(AB 1377). The reason? The Assembly Health Committee's hearing was cancelled at the author's request. Assemblymember Bill Emmerson's insurance choice bill (AB 1214) also was not passed. The reason? The author requested no hearing.

Get the picture?

Assembly Democrats have reached across the aisle to work with Republican Governor Schwarzenegger to develop a comprehensive health care plan. Even Senate Republicans have stepped up to the plate with a full health care package of their own. Meanwhile, Assembly Republicans, unlike the Democrats and our Republican governor, did not even bother to have the independent cost and coverage analysis done by the nonprofit California Healthcare Foundation.

So, once again (sadly), Assembly Republicans are more interested in partisan fingerpointing than providing bipartisan solutions.

All this reminds me of the vote by the Assembly last year on AB 32, the landmark global warming bill that not a single Republican voted for in the Assembly. Like the health bill, it passed 47 to 32. There was one vacancy in the Assembly at that time.

This last week, there were many Assembly Republicans votes recorded against bills, even ones without any opposition listed in the Floor Analysis.

When on health and other matters of the day they complain about being marginalized from the process, the Repubicans have no one to blame except themselves--unless they want to blame the California voters.

Posted on June 10, 2007

Comments

Transfats

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=26280
Melmine poison in our food chain.Officials track contaminated pet products to save our pets;but the hogs,chickens,and fish fed melmine )_Safe for us humans to eat. Now thats real smart....they say it's a low risk.
"The FDA says that only 1% of imported food is inspected. In this “age of terrorism” does this make any sense?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/18/eveningnews/main2104249.shtml
Foster kids drugged out on Phyciatric drugs. Only to make big phamacudical companies rich.
I found babies, 2-year olds, 3-year olds being given mind-altering drugs," says Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Texas' state comptroller. There's Growing Concern That Anti-Psychotic Drugs Are Being Misused On Children In Foster Care

Health Care Cocktail
$43,000 a year to house one inmate in state prisons-disease breeding ground.$2.40 a day to feed one inmate slop.
State prisons feed slop food to inmates,their immune sytems are a breeding ground for disease. Then they are released on the public.
In Texas they cook chicken,a nice meal when inspection day comes.Gaurds take any good food out he back door. Inmates suffer boils brusting under their skin.

Posted by: Donna at June 12, 2007 11:12 AM

Trans Fat ....Continued

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001218842
We have thug president_ Congress can't control.
Who pushes war for strategic position
the Persian Gulf.
Who suffers on his watch?
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of certain pictures in a 50-page decision that said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."“Today's historic ruling is a step toward ensuring that our government's leaders are held accountable for the abuse and torture that happened on their watch,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “The American public has a right to know what happened in American detention centers, and how our leaders let it occur.""Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking. They are in total terror it's going to come out."

http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20070307.htm
Cell phones,wireless hand held.......Is your brain being fried?
The largest biological experiment ever,
The blood-brain barrier by Arthur Firstenberg

Posted by: Donna at June 12, 2007 11:16 AM

"Donna" presents a very scary scenario. If even half of it is true we are in big trouble. Looks like the "Blue meanies" have siezed control of our Government and we are at their mercy of which they have none.
Judging by Mr. Russo's article, it's pretty obvious who the "blue meanies" are. In a word, REPUBLICANS...

Posted by: Larry Phipps at June 12, 2007 05:55 PM

did you ever see a Republican relent on a position? It takes nine years, a whole bunch of deaths and for one of them to get their superficial feelings hurt or to be actually in charge of a prison commission to change their minds.

Nine years of absolute hell that they put hundreds of thousands of people through in their districts before realizing there is a problem with media access.

Here is proof that even a monkey can learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIkWjI4e_m0

But the king ape vetoed this bill even after his Republican monkeys finally saw the light.

Anything to preserve the law enforcement labor unions, long after people have learned that none of these billions spent, literally robbed from our children's education, does one thing to reduce crime

Posted by: Michael Westmoreland at June 13, 2007 12:28 AM

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