Meanwhile, the GOP leadership asks us to consider absurd bills like H.R. 1505, which this week passed the House Committee on Natural Resources, where I sit as a Member. This legislation will hand over control of all public lands within 100 miles of the borders – like our national parks, forests, and beaches – to U.S. Customs and Border Protections. Ironically, it’s named the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act. Under H.R. 1505, without any public notice, U.S. Customs and Border Protection could build roads and gates and install surveillance equipment in places that Americans treasure – from Glacier National Park in Montana to Cleveland National Forest in California and Olympic National Park in Washington. This legislation would, in effect, hand over the keys to many of the most beautiful places in America – places you and I own as the birthright of being an American, places that with proper stewardship our great grandchildren will one day own too.
H.R. 1505 is the latest chapter in the ongoing story of a Republican Congress that is attacking decades of environmental protections – and their efforts are getting increasingly creative and desperate. This bill would exempt U.S. Customs and Border Protections from complying with dozens of popular protections for public health and our environment, including the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and even the Farmland Protection Policy Act, which aims to preserve America’s agricultural lands. I’ve been in public service for decades, and I can’t recall a time when public lands were ever under such repeated assault by people who are dutifully sworn to protect them.
There are several unanswered questions about how this legislation would impact rural communities, potentially decimating their economies and destroying local jobs. The national outdoor recreation economy – which includes camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, and many other activities – contributes $730 billion annually to the U.S. economy and supports nearly 6.5 million jobs across America. How will H.R. 1505 affect areas that depend on outdoor recreation as their economic engine? At a time of high unemployment in rural areas, we can’t afford to let that question go unanswered.
Disguised in the name of border security, this bill undermines the future of our national parks and forests, rolls back landmark environmental protections, and opens to the door to increased economic uncertainty in rural communities. We must stand strong against H.R. 1505 and any further attempts by Republicans in Congress to attack our public lands.
Congressman John Garamendi sits on the House Natural Resources Committee. He previously served as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Interior Department under President Bill Clinton and as the chair of the California State Lands Commission.
Pro-democratic movements in the Middle East are in the midst of their rendezvous with destiny, but America’s destiny can no longer be linked with the fates of dictators, military juntas, and theocratic regimes. We must develop energy independence; we must Make It In America.
America must develop a national energy plan that prioritizes the need to (1) Make It In America, (2) transition away from dirty fossil fuels, and (3) secure energy independence. The events unfolding in the Middle East – and subsequent spikes in fuel prices – demonstrate America’s need to transition away from unclean energy from an unstable part of the world.
We spend 16 percent of our defense budget – more than $100 billion – securing oil shipments in the Straits of Hormuz and elsewhere, and there is little doubt that American foreign policy has been perversely shaped over the years by the raw calculus of oil politics (see: U.S. policy in Iraq over decades). It’s long past time that we wean ourselves off of foreign dirty fossil fuels. Energy security is national security.
A comprehensive national clean energy plan, including solar, wind, geothermal, cellulosic ethanol, advanced biofuels, and the Integral Fast Reactor is necessary to break our dangerous addiction to oil and to keep America safe. We have the technology and resources to be completely energy independent, creating thousands of good American jobs and strengthening our global competitiveness.
According to a recent Pew study, between 1998 and 2007, clean energy jobs “from scientists and engineers to electricians, machinists and teachers” grew almost three times faster than jobs in the overall economy. An analysis by the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley suggests that transitioning to a 20 percent renewable portfolio standard by 2020, utilizing 40 percent biomass, 55 percent wind, and 5 percent solar, would create 188,018 jobs.
Clean energy is good for the environment, good for national security, and good for thousands of Americans who desire a rewarding career. That’s why I’ve authored Make It In America legislation that requires clean technology made with federal taxpayer dollars to be made in America. If we don’t Make It In America, we’ll buy it from a global competitor. China is now the world’s third largest wind power producer and the world’s fifteen largest photovoltaic solar power stations are in the European Union.
2011 has been electrifying year for millions of ‘small d’ democrats and people throughout the Middle East, but if we don’t act fast, we risk letting the 2010s be known as the decade the lights went out in America. For centuries, America has led the world on a long march toward freedom and democracy. Let’s reclaim our clean energy leadership and lead the world toward clean energy independence.
Congressman John Garamendi represents California’s 10th Congressional District. As a state legislator in the 1970s, he authored the first renewable energy tax credit in America.
With his State of the Union address, President Obama delivered an important message that Congress and the American people need to hear: our nation’s leaders must pass legislation that creates American jobs now.
America, our shining city on a hill, has been blessed with great fortune in our proud past, but as the President noted, every generation faces new challenges and new opportunities. We must be bold and forward looking, never forgetting that America’s prosperity has always relied on hard work, solid education, and well-maintained infrastructure. We’re a nation that has always thrived when we’ve built things – the light bulb, the automobile, the Internet, and the GPS. We need to build things again. We need to Make It In America
During the Great Recession, America stared into the abyss, but with the leadership of President Obama and Democrats in Congress, we steered our economy toward a better path. We invested in infrastructure, education, manufacturing, and smart tax incentives, putting millions of Americans to work. With the Recovery Act and other pro-growth, pro-jobs laws, we did a lot, but we need to do more. President Obama is right to call on this Congress to pass legislation that creates jobs now.
America – the idea and the nation – is at a crossroads. For decades we have stood by watching our manufacturing sector atrophy. We’ve seen hardworking breadwinners thrown to the curb, because big corporations can make more profits offshoring jobs to countries with atrocious labor and environmental standards. We’ve seen middle class families kicked out of their homes, because wages have not kept up with costs. We’ve seen too many great people on the sidelines of our economy, their talents wasted and dream deferred, because there simply are not enough jobs. We must do better. We must Make It In America again or else we’re not going to make it in America.
An American child born today will grow up in a world where her nation’s long held claim to economic supremacy will be challenged by peers in China, India, and elsewhere. She will live in a world where computer literacy and access to high speed Internet largely predict achievement. She will live in a world of infinite potential for people and nations committed to a better future. She will live in a world where mass transit and clean energy are everyday necessities of life, creating good jobs for someone somewhere. Let’s make sure we Make It In America and create American jobs now, so that she will live in a world where America is still the leader of the free world.
American manufacturing, which produced the largest middle class in history, is crucial to building sustained prosperity for the years to come. Across this country, we see evidence of a new fledgling Clean Energy Industrial Revolution. Detroit is producing hybrid cars, Pittsburgh is constructing robotic instruments, Schenectady, New York is developing advanced batteries, and Livermore, California is building solar panels. Across this country, clean energy is creating jobs.
In his State of the Union address, the President called for one million electric cars and a stronger clean energy standard. By setting this goal, the President was challenging Americans to dream big.
The President is right. This is our Sputnik moment. Imagine if we had responded to the challenge of Sputnik by soaring to the moon in a space shuttle that was Made in the Soviet Union. We could have gone that route – admitted failure and surrendered our economic and security assets to another country. Instead, we focused on inventing and constructing crucial technology, which sparked a wave of new businesses and jobs. Similarly, to address our twin 21st century challenges of energy security and advanced infrastructure, we cannot depend on the kindness of other countries. To enhance our geopolitical security and to create the jobs of the future, we have to strengthen these key manufacturing sectors.
As we see when basic scientific research spurs the flourishing of new industries and generates millions of new jobs, public policy has a valuable role to play in setting the stage for a return of America’s manufacturing prowess. A good first step would be to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent on American-made transportation and renewable energy projects. I am introducing legislation to this effect. Strengthening domestic content requirements for high-speed rail, solar panels, biofuels, and other growth industries will create jobs, right here in America, right now. It just makes sense.
America has energetic entrepreneurs, a skilled workforce, and visionary inventors. Let’s give them the opportunity to do what they do best- to work. The building blocks of a prosperous future are available today. Let’s start building.
Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek, CA) represents California’s 10th Congressional District, which includes parts of Contra Costa, Solano, Alameda, and Sacramento counties. As California’s Lieutenant Governor from 2006-2009, he chaired the California Commission for Economic Development.
Americans correctly believe that the most critical issue facing our nation is job creation. You would think the Republican-run House of Representatives, in its first major policy vote of the 112th Congress, would be focused on putting Americans to work. Instead, House Republicans have decided their number one priority is repealing the Patient’s Bill of Rights, legislation that is creating 250,000 to 400,000 jobs a year.
The Republican repeal would return America to the dark days when insurance companies told patients and doctors what treatments to pursue, a time when insurers routinely discriminated against Americans to maximize their profits.
When Democrats in Congress passed health care reform – the Patient’s Bill of Rights – last year, we put a stop to the worst abuses of the insurance industry. We told the insurance companies they can no longer drop coverage for women who become pregnant or get cancer. We told the insurance companies they can no longer deny care to children with pre-existing conditions, and by 2014, no American will be turned away from insurance because they have the misfortune of falling ill. We told the insurance companies they must allow young people under the age of 26 to be covered under their parents’ plan. We’ve replaced the Insurance Industry’s Right to Discriminate with the Patient’s Bill of Rights.
I’ve known women denied coverage after a pregnancy, cancer victims kicked off their insurance after their diagnoses, and parents terrified to seek better employment out of fear that losing their employer-provided coverage would put their child with asthma in danger. Many of my proudest moments as a public servant have been spent fighting these insurance companies on behalf of California consumers, particularly as California’s Insurance Commissioner.
Today, if you are in the market for new insurance, because of the Patient’s Bill of Rights, you are now protected by the strongest consumer protections that have ever existed in America – and the system is now improving with every passing year.
Republicans in the House tell us this debate isn’t just about ‘repeal’. They say they want to ‘repeal and replace’ health care reform, yet they’ve offered no serious alternatives. During the years they controlled Congress and the White House from 2000-2006, Republicans offered no solutions to the health care crisis. For years they told us they’d get around to fixing health care later. Later is now, and we still see no real solutions from their side of the aisle.
The Patient’s Bill of Rights has already lowered the prescription drug costs of seniors, and in less than a decade, we’re completely closing the dreaded Medicare Part D prescription drug ‘donut hole’. One in every five seniors is in the donut hole. What is the Republican solution?
The Patient’s Bill of Rights ends annual and lifetime limits on coverage. This doesn’t much matter for a Member of Congress with gold plated coverage, but if you’re struggling to make ends meet at a low paying service sector job – say at McDonald’s – knowing that your insurer can’t cut you off once your medical expenses exceed $2,000 can bring a Super Sized sense of relief. What is the Republican solution?
Indeed, by 2014, every American will have access to the same coverage that a Member of Congress already enjoys. We’re able to do all of this while simultaneously lowering the deficit by $230 billion over the next decade, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. How does it make sense to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit while denying you access to vital consumer protections?
At the end of the day, House Republicans had their vote to repeal the Patient’s Bill of Rights, but we all know that neither the Senate nor the President have any intention of repealing health care reform. We’ve had our debate on ‘repeal and replace’. Let’s move on to the health care discussion that really matters: how best to ‘implement and improve’ the tough consumer protections found in the Patient’s Bill of Rights.
Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek, CA) served as California’s Insurance Commissioner for eight years. In the early 1990s, he authored health care legislation in California that would have insured almost every Californian. The legislation was a key inspiration to President Clinton’s health care framework.
A new report out on job creation in March showed that 162,000 jobs were created last month, more than any other month in the past three years.
Yet recovery is incomplete until everyone who wants a job has a job. Throughout California, most communities are still facing double digit unemployment rates, and the district I represent – the 10th Congressional District – is no exception. We’ve survived the worst of the Bush recession, but we have a long tough road ahead.
That’s why this Saturday, I am hosting a jobs resources fair at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill (321 Golf Club Road at the DVC Cafeteria). More than 40 organizations and employers will be on hand to help unemployed residents develop the skills necessary to find a job.
More information, including how to RSVP, is over the flip…
Participating organizations and employers include AAA, AARP, Aero Precision Industries, AT&T, Back on Track Expungement Services, California Department of Rehabilitation, Central Sanitation, CMS (Medicare), Contra Costa County Central Labor Committee, Contra Costa County Library System, Contra Costa Water District, Department of Veterans Affairs, Dow Chemical, DVC Career & Employment Center, DVC Green Tech Program, EBMUD, EDD, EDD – Senior Employment Services, Experience Works, Inter-City Services Inc., IRS, Kaiser Permanente, Las Positas College Veterans First Initiative, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Michael Chavez Center for Economic Opportunity, Northern CA Teamsters Apprentice Program, Opportunity Junction, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), PG&E, Pile Drivers’ Union, San Francisco Business Times, Sandia National Laboratory, Social Security Administration, Solano Community College – Employment Development Office, Solar Universe, State Farm Insurance, Sybase, U.S. Army National Guard, University of Phoenix, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Postal Service, Wells Fargo, and Year Up.
At the job resources fair, participants will have access to one-on-one resume review and interview skills training. In addition, we are also hosting some helpful workshops, including:
Social media for the uncomfortable
Accelerating Career Transition: how to use local market-place information as an effective tool to identify companies, job leads and career opportunities, and preparing for interviews with Jud Walsh, Director of Business Development, SF Business Times
I will do all I can in Washington to promote legislation that creates jobs and improves our economy, but nothing replaces old-fashioned initiative.
If you are one of the 12.5 percent of Californians still looking for work, or if you simply want to brush up on your job skills in preparation for a new career, you are welcome to stop by. If you know someone who might be interested in attending, feel free to invite them.
Attend our job resources fair, and who knows? The tools you need to finally land work may only be a workshop away.
NOTE: Congressman Garamendi, California’s first elected Insurance Commissioner, will be leading an hour long discussion on the merits of health care reform sometime this evening on the House floor. It will be broadcast on C-SPAN. This post will be updated when he appears, and staff will live-Tweet it on the Congressman’s Twitter page.
It’s a beautiful Saturday spring day in Washington. I’m walking west on East Capitol Street. Before me the Capitol is glowing white in the bright morning sun. My thoughts are on the health care debate, and the one hour opportunity that I will have to argue the issue on the floor of the House today. As I enter the East plaza I pause and look at the Capitol dome and realize how special this moment is.
It’s special for the 32 million Americans about to receive health care. It’s special for our economy about to see the largest deficit reduction in 20 years. And it’s special for me to be able to represent the people of Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and Sacramento Counties.
My thoughts are crystallized at this moment by an elderly couple who walk past me towards the Supreme Court building. They were holding a hand painted sign, “WE THE PEOPLE,” one of the ever present signs around the Capitol.
There’s more…
“We the People”, the first three words of the Preamble of the United States Constitution is used every day by the talking heads on TV and radio. But those three words are just the beginning of the preamble. Here is the entire message:
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
“A more perfect union” implies that the progress of the American experience is never complete. The adjectives “more” coupled with “perfect” lead me to conclude that my task as a Congressman is to seek to improve the state of our union while knowing that my efforts, indeed our collective efforts at any time, will still be imperfect. It will be left to those who follow to continue the fight to improve the union.
“Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity….” In these words is found the genesis of the great debates of the American age. What is “justice”?
From the very beginning of our nation’s history, competing sides have fought to define the scope and reach of justice. Extending voting rights to people without property was once fiercely debated. The women’s suffrage movement bitterly divided our nation. The end of slavery and the long path to civil rights for all races was a multi-generational fight that on some levels continues to this day. The rights of sharecroppers and immigrants and the LGBT community and political dissidents and faith based communities of all stripes have been the source of much consternation in the history of our Republic. Many of the basic protections afforded to citizens in our democracy – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pensions for veterans and their families, Section 8 housing, universal public education, environmental protections, national parks – to varying degrees these have all pitted father against son, neighbor against neighbor.
With the passage of time a more perfect union has emerged and a broader consensus has been reached. Yet for many Americans justice is not yet secured. When personal and national economic conditions deny individuals access to the health care necessary for survival, where is the justice? The Declaration of Independence calls for every American to have access to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet 45,000 Americans die each year because they do not have health insurance and millions more uninsured remain one accident away from economic devastation. For the victims and their families, lives are robbed, liberty is not pursued, happiness is not attained.
“Promote the general welfare.” Why would the framers of the Constitution include this clause if not for a strong concern about the well being of individuals and the American community? I believe this is why it was included, and as we vote tomorrow on the health care legislation, these words will be on my mind. I know countless individuals who have lost their health and their wealth because they did not have health insurance.
I know the economy is losing its ability to compete internationally as we spend 17% of our wealth on our health care while our competitors in Europe and Asia spend no more than 11%. Yet with all our extra expenses, Americans die earlier and our babies die more often. Our health statistics place the United States at the bottom of industrialized nations in health outcomes and preventable deaths. We spend more; we get less; and neither our general welfare nor our individual welfare are as good as they could be or should be.
Tomorrow’s vote on the health reform bill will be an historic moment in the process of forming a more perfect union. Under the legislation, 9,000 people in my district with preexisting conditions will finally be able to have access to insurance. 96,000 seniors will see their Medicare improved with significant prescription drug discounts and free preventative screenings. 106,000 families will receive tax credits to make their coverage more affordable. 52,000 young adults will be able to attain coverage through their parents’ insurance. 1,400 families will avoid bankruptcy. 10 new community health centers will be founded in our communities.
On the long road forward toward real social justice, this is a major landmark that our great grandchildren will read about in the history books. It’s not a perfect bill, but few bills are.
In the fight to extend health coverage to every man, woman, and child, this bill is an incredibly important beginning. But it’s still just a beginning. On the day health care reform is signed into law, I will continue my work in Congress fighting to strengthen our health care laws. Our founders called upon every member of Congress to work toward a more perfect union. I won’t live to see a perfect union, but it is a tremendous honor to see a more perfect union formed before my eyes.
Congressman John Garamendi represents California’s 10th Congressional District. He served eight years as California’s first elected Insurance Commissioner and also served as the chair of the California State Senate Health Committee. In the early 1990s, he authored a health care reform bill in California that inspired President Bill Clinton’s health care reform proposal. More information on health care reform is available at Congressman Garamendi’s website and on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Playlist: The Benefits of Health Care Reform for Seniors
Playlist: The Health Care Status Quo, Women as Pre-Existing Conditions, Past Success of Rate Regulation, Creativity and Innovation Denied: Job Lock under the Current System
I’ve had many incredible experiences during my 34 years in public service, but never have I been blessed to receive the support of two presidents in just over a week – until now. On Thursday, at a Bay Area event, I received President Barack Obama’s support for the November 3rd 10th Congressional District special election. This followed our great endorsement rally with President Bill Clinton last week.
At President Obama’s San Francisco event last night, the President introduced Garamendi, saying: “Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, who is running for the California 10 [in the] upcoming election – everybody has got to go out there and work for John.”
The President went on to say “The reason you’re here tonight, the reason I’m here tonight is because we know that our work isn’t done. We still have enormous challenges in this country. There are far too many people out there who are really going through a tough time – out of work, seeing their hours trimmed, their wages cut. Americans who are subject to the whims of health insurance companies or who can’t afford quality health insurance in the first place. Too many Americans who are seeing the American Dream slip further and further and further out of reach. … Now is the time to secure our future.”
More over the flip…
I am deeply honored to have the support of President Barack Obama. I share the President’s positive, progressive vision for our nation and look forward to the opportunity to actively represent the people of the 10th Congressional District in Congress.
President Obama has pledged to change our country for the better, but he needs strong allies in Congress who are ready, willing and able to fight for our shared values. As I told President Obama – Mr. President, you can count on me from day one to stand with you in the battles that lie ahead to heal our nation.
But while I’m prepared to be a reliable vote for our shared progressive values, I face a Republican opponent who has a fundamentally different vision for America. Many pundits have already begun framing our race as a referendum on the policies and values of President Obama and Congressional Democrats. They want to create a narrative that says our special election will reveal where the voting public stands on the jobs-creating federal stimulus package, full funding for public education, and comprehensive health care reform with a robust public option. As you may know, I am unapologetically in favor of all three. My opponent takes an opposing point of view, supporting the Tea Party agenda instead.
I say let the prognosticators make our election about the critical issues that face our nation, because I know that with the support of President Obama, President Clinton, and committed progressive activists like you, we’re going to win this election.
Election Day is less three than weeks away, and thousands of vote-by-mail ballots are being cast weekly. If we make sure every voter in the district hears our message and knows where we stand on the critical issues, we win. If we become complacent, if we let national Republicans shape the dialogue in our election, if we permit the politics of fear to dominate the politics of hope, we risk facing the unthinkable on Election Day.
Please visit http://www.garamendi.org to see where I stand on the issues that matter to you. If you like what you see, I’d love to have your support. Call 925-979-1050, and we can set you up for remote phone banking. Most importantly, if you live in CA-10, if you have friends or family in CA-10, please make sure they understand how critically important it is to vote in this election. Presidents Obama and Clinton are powerful allies, but nothing is as powerful as the personal contact our supporters have with their neighbors.
California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi was a two term State Insurance Commissioner and a former State Senate Majority Leader. His legislation expanded clinic access to millions of Californians, created quality green collar jobs through alternative energy tax credits, and brought billions of dollars to transportation, infrastructure, and university research. A special general election will be held on November 3rd.
Last Tuesday, I had one of those days we treasure for life. I had the honor of receiving a public endorsement from President Bill Clinton at a rally with hundreds of enthusiastic Bay Area supporters at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco.
The crowd was enthusiastic attentive, and the issues discussed far ranging – from solving the healthcare crisis to stabilizing our economy to slowing the ravages of climate change to creating high quality, middle-class jobs.
It’s impossible to upstage the former President, and I won’t try. Below are excerpts of his wonderful speech. CBS 5 has partial video.
FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON:
“I was thinking today as I was driving down here of so many things of the extent to which my life has been intertwined for the last 18 years with the Garamendi family.
“You heard John say that he and Patti served with great distinction. He was the Deputy Secretary of the Interior where he worked on everything from climate change to resolving water disputes in California, and he did a superb job of everything. And Patti at the Peace Corps, where we began what has now been an unbroken strain of bringing back the Peace Corps. Bringing more people back into it, going into more countries. …
“This world has been pretty good to us. But on the other hand, California has the 4th highest unemployment rate in the country; Compton was ground zero of the earthquake of home mortgage foreclosures even before the failure of Lehman Brothers and the financial collapse. On September 15th, 2008, the day that Lehman Brothers collapsed, before that happened, already two-thirds of the American people were actually worse off than the day I left office. Little known fact. The median income after inflation was $2000 lower on September 15, 2008, than the day I left the presidency. And health costs after inflation had doubled. College costs after inflation have gone up 75 percent. … We can’t go on for eight more years where nobody gets a raise.” …
More over the flip…
“I’m here because I love John … I’m here for him because I think he’s good on the issues that will determine the future of California and the future of America. …
“If I didn’t know John Garamendi, but I know what I knew about America. And I was living up here thinking about how to bring Northern California back, and bring the state back, and bring the country back, and what we’re supposed to do for our world, I’d be at this rally to support him. And I’m glad you’re here, and you need to talk about it. …
“We’re not coming back until we make up our mind that we’re going to stop spotting our competitors. John alluded to this. You go look at the numbers. If we’re right now at about 17 percent of gross domestic product on health care, and ranked 36th in health outcomes – Columbia is 22nd. They spend five percent of their income on health care. So we’re spending 17 percent on health care, give or take. No one is else is more than 11.5 percent … Every other wealthy country. …
“We are spotting every American competitor $900 billion a year. That is, we are spending $900 billion a year on health care we would not be spending if we had any other system. … We cannot afford to spot our competitors $900 billion a year, when we don’t even insure everybody. We can’t tell the people who do have insurance their situation is secure. And we’re not delivering better results. …
“It’s almost as if a lot of these people who went to the town hall meetings and berated our Congressmen are saying, “Here’s what we want you to do. We want you to impose on all of us a $900 billion tax. And then we would like you – when we pay – we want you to convert it all to cash, and wheelbarrow it out to the mall on Washington DC, and show it to all of us on national television, so we can see what $900 billion looks like. Then put kerosene on it and burn it, because we ain’t getting nothin’ for it.” …
“I don’t understand how people can say the worst thing we can do is something and the best thing we can do is nothing. This is killing our country, folks. I know something about economics. I hope I have a little bit of economic credibility with you. So never mind if your heart doesn’t ache for the people who don’t have insurance. Never mind if you’re not worried sick that your neighbor’s whole family could lose their insurance next week. Never mind all that. Just be cold blooded about it. This is the dumbest economic policy the United State could pursue, and if you want to change it, send John Garamendi to Congress,” President Bill Clinton said.
# # #
Once again, I would like to thank President Clinton for his heartfelt endorsement. I am proud to call the former President a friend and mentor. Thank you also to all the volunteers and staff who helped put on this amazing event. Our campaign will be successful because supporters like you took nothing for granted. Our field operation is in full swing, and with voters already receiving their vote-by-mail ballots, we are in a critical moment of our campaign. Thousands of your friends and neighbors will soon cast ballots – some already have. If you’d be interested in volunteering (remote phone banking is available), please visit our volunteer page for more information.
California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi has spent more than three decades of public service fighting for green jobs and affordable health care as a state legislator and State insurance Commissioner. Featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, and NPR, he has been a passionate advocate for the public option in federal health care reform. Vote by mail has already begun for our November 3rd election, and the stakes are high. Please visit http://www.garamendi.org for more information on Garamendi for Congress.
(They certainly are circling. I’m quite confident that John Garamendi, if elected before the health care vote, will stand up for Americans, not the insurance companies. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)
I was asked to come on to talk about my past experience with the health insurance sharks who are long on making a profit and short on consumer protection. I said what needs to be said about health care reform: it is irresponsible to force people to pay for insurance if we cannot control the cost of their premiums. As I explained to the Los Angeles Times in a story printed today, this is akin to forcing millions of Americans into an insurance market with sharks circling. They have sharp teeth, and they smell blood. It brings a new perspective on who the “consumers” are in health insurance.
Without effective protections – most importantly a robust public option allowing competition – we will continue to allow administrative and advertising overhead to skyrocket. Otherwise, the insurance companies will be able to charge a captive audience whatever they want for insurance.
Some in Washington are seriously considering penalizing Americans for being unable to afford care in a marketplace that doesn’t control costs. If voters in the 10th Congressional District choose me to be their representative in Congress, let me be clear. I will not vote for any bill that includes the individual mandate unless I am confident that bill offers generous subsidies for Americans struggling to make ends meet and unless that bill includes the public option to provide real competition in the health care marketplace. I regulated the insurance companies for eight years as California’s State insurance Commissioner, and I know those companies well enough to know that we can trust them to put profits before people. They aren’t friends to consumers.
More over the flip…
In California in the first half of this year, according to data provided by the insurance companies to state regulators, PacifiCare denied 39.6 percent of all claims, Cigna 33 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 28 percent and Kaiser 28 percent. 45,000 people died last year in the United States because of a lack of health care coverage. These are not statistics you see in the rest of the industrialized world. Profits ahead of people, greed ahead of the general good is no way to run a health care system.
The proposals outlined by President Obama and most Congressional Democrats are good starting points for health care delivery that I can support. They would make significant strides in lowering costs for individuals and small businesses while providing a consumer-friendly path to universal coverage. However, if the language in the Senate Finance Committee bill comes to my desk for a vote, a bill without a public option that fines people for not being able to afford private insurance, I will vote “No” without hesitation.
Some will read this and say to me, “But John, don’t you think we need to compromise?” I am open to compromise, and that is why I am not demanding Medicare for All, the best solution for our health care woes. I recognize the political realities and want to see real improvement in health care delivery. What I don’t want to do is penalize poor and middle class Americans to guarantee insurance companies have greater profits. We know the public option is likely popular in almost two-thirds of all Congressional districts, including almost all Democratic districts. In CA-10, which I hope to soon represent, it is estimated that 64 percent of the population supports a public option.
Others will ask me, “But John, don’t you want a bipartisan health care bill?” My response to that is this: there are plenty of kind-hearted Republicans in this country who sincerely want health care reform that works. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, elected Republicans in Washington are more interested in stopping health care reform to appease their insurance company benefactors and embarrass President Obama than they are interested in working with the President and Congressional Democrats to make life better for the American people.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson fought tooth and nail to pass Medicare in 1965, the most important improvement in health care delivery in U.S. history, did you know he had the support of 13 Senate and 70 House Republicans? We must come to terms that we now live in a different political climate. Even with the watered down Senate Finance Committee bill, I would be shocked if we managed to find five Republican votes. In this polarized political climate, I am more interested in pursuing the best policies. In the health care debate, that means a comprehensive health care reform package that removes administrative excess, controls prescription drug costs, and ends the shameful practices of denying coverage for those who have preexisting conditions and finding technical reasons to kick people off their insurance when they become sick. That also means making sure the insurance companies know that if they continue profiteering off our suffering, the public will have another option – the public option.
Some pundits and prognosticators will tell you the public option is lost, that we need to accept the tenets of the Senate Finance Committee bill if we want to see health care reform passed this year. Don’t believe them. As I explained at the Democratic Unity Brunch last week in Concord, health care is in the hands of the Democratic activist base, including the many men and women that make up the netroots. You have stood strong on the public option and helped shape the national narrative. Continue contacting your representatives in Congress and tell them no public option is not an option you will support.
I’m convinced we’re winning this fight. Let’s keep up the pressure, and when we get a comprehensive health care bill with a public option on the President’s desk, remember, you helped make it happen.
Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi served two terms as California’s State Insurance Commissioner. As a California State Senator, he served as chair of the Senate Health Committee. For more information, please visit http://www.garamendi.org.
What a night! As you may have seen, last night I was the highest vote-getter in the 10th Congressional District special primary election and will now face Republican David Harmer in the November 3rd general election.
I want to thank our incredible team of hard working volunteers. They spent countless hours knocking on doors, making phone calls, and making their presence known at community events throughout the district. Our success would not have been possible without them, and they have my deepest gratitude. Because of their efforts, we won all four counties in the district.
I also want to take a moment to acknowledge my competitors in this election:
To David Harmer: Congratulations on your victory among Republicans. I look forward to two months of dialogue focused on the issues and solutions that matter to the people of the 10th Congressional District. I intend to make it clear that a radical right wing agenda that seeks to stop health care reform, starve the education of our children, fails to finance the transportation and infrastructure systems we need, and advocates more tax breaks for the most wealthy is not in the interests of the people of the 10th Congressional District, California, or America.
To Senator Mark DeSaulnier: Your health care town halls helped establish an important dialogue in the campaign about the need for comprehensive health care reform. You are an institution in Contra Costa County, and you have many admirers. You deserve special acknowledgement for your work seeking a constitutional convention. The two-thirds majority requirement has worsened California’s problems and I look forward to working with you to bring a working democracy and majority rule back to California.
More over the flip…
To Assemblymember Joan Buchanan: Thank you for highlighting the concerns of small businesses in your campaign. I look forward to having a conversation with you about innovative ways we can promote job growth in the region. As a former school board member, you also helped focus the debate on education policy, and I thank you for that. I think you’d agree that in the long term, a sound investment in education is the most important economic stimulus of all.
To Anthony Woods: I’m not the first person to say this and I won’t be the last: you have a bright future in politics should you choose to pursue a political career. I first joined the state legislature around your age, and I quickly fell in love with public policy. You have an intelligence, grace, and resume that is worthy of elected office. Thank you for your service to our nation; and thank you for helping to make the issues facing LGBT people a focus in this campaign. You deserve the freedom to openly serve our country, and I pledge that one of my first acts in Congress will be to co-sponsor legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
To Adriel Hampton: Thank you for highlighting the importance of online outreach. We followed your use of social networking and Web 2.0 tools, and I look forward to chatting with you about the ways we can use the Internet to better reach out to our constituents. You were an accessible and upfront candidate and have my sincere respect.
It’s been a hard fought campaign, and now that the primary is over, we Democrats must unite. We will not allow radical, regressive right-wingers, with their block-progress-at-all-costs agenda, to get a toehold here is the 10th Congressional District – this is a forward-looking, forward-thinking, progressive Democratic district and I intend to fight for every vote to keep it that way!
I look forward to working with President Obama and the Democrats in Congress to protect Social Security, fix our broken health care system, create jobs, broaden educational opportunity, protect the environment, and bring needed federal money back to the district. This election was truly a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to get to Washington, DC to represent the people of the 10th and begin to tackle the many challenges facing our nation!
Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi is the Democratic nominee for California’s 10th Congressional District. He is a University of California regent, California State University trustee, chair of the California Commission for Economic Development, and chair of the California State Lands Commission. He was a twice elected State Insurance Commissioner, Deputy Interior Secretary under President Bill Clinton, and a Peace Corps volunteer. A special election will be held on November 3rd. For more information, please visit http://www.garamendi.org.
