Ventura County Star

Now, Joe Mathews -- a former Los Angeles Times reporter and Schwarzenegger biographer -- reports that the governor's advisers recently held a formal discussion to consider whether Schwarzenegger should renounce his party affiliation and become an ...

Mark Paul, a scholar for the New America Foundation, which sponsored Tuesday's discussion, noted that since 1998 California voters have approved $108 billion in general obligation bonds.

"Californians want, and so they borrow," Paul said. "There is an unwillingness to actually pay for things with taxes or user fees."

...Some partisans scoff at the independent voters, saying that they "have no opinion or convictions." But, independent voters very often have a mix of beliefs and principles that don't completely fit into one party's mold. A study done at the New America Foundation shows that the independent voter is generally younger, male, college-educated, a fiscal conservative (willing to accept fewer government services in exchange for paying less in taxes), pro-choice, an environmentalist, pro-securing the border, and growing in numbers of minorities.

...The New America Foundation's idea is embodied in AB2940, by Assemblyman Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles. It would establish the California Employee Savings Program, to be administered by the California Public Employees Retirement System, the same entity that invests the pension contributions of state and local government workers...LINK

SACRAMENTO — There are 4.1 million New Yorkers who get healthcare coverage under Medicaid, the federal safety net for the poor. For each of them, Uncle Sam spends an average of $5,891 a year.

In California, there are 6.5 million low-income people who rely on the same program. For each of them, Uncle Sam spends just $3,419.

Who makes up the difference?

SACRAMENTO — Facing a September deadline to create the universal or near-universal healthcare system they've talked about all year, lawmakers and health policy experts are now confronting the issue's most politically sensitive question: How much can ordinary Californians afford to pay?

Better access: If the emergency room is the only place open when people are off from work, that's where they will end up. And that increases medical bills. Instead, creating more clinics that are open after hours and on weekends gives people more options.

Better coverage and reimbursement: If more people are enrolled in health insurance programs, then less of the healthcare costs for the uninsured would be pushed onto others. There would be less cost-shifting if government programs increased reimbursements for treatments...

Imagine a restaurant in which the maitre d' asked each patron to show a credit card before being seated. Those with a card would be seated, served and then given a bill for the cost of their meal. Those without a credit card would be fed for free.

How long would it take for the paying customers to figure out that they were paying not just for the cost of their own food, but also indirectly for the free food served to others?...