I shared breakfast with Nick Leibham last week and discussed where he stands on a number of issues.  I mostly just lobbed topics and let him talk; this is the relevant transcript edited to be a remotely reasonable length and minus fun stuff like us chatting with the waitress and our occasional divergence into non-relevant shop talk.  Some parts I liked, some parts less so. But here it is.  Note this is a contested primary.

Iraq

Each and every day we remain in Iraq we’re compromising our national security further. It’s a blood feud that goes back 1400 years between the Sunnis and Shiites. American military forces are not going to be able to sort this out for them and at the end of the day they’ve got to want peace; they’ve got to want their own stable form of government; they’ve got to want democracy more than the American Marine Corps wants it for them

The longer that we’re there, the more strain it puts on our own men and women in uniform. They’re going out on third, fourth, fifth tours of duty, and you read about it all the time of course because we’re just miles away from Camp Pendleton

We need to come out and we need to set a date certain for when we are going to redeploy out of Iraq.

Military and Security

There’s one…threshold question that needs to be answered whenever even the thought of American military use is involved, and that is ‘Is it in the interests of the United States of America; Is it in the national security interest?’  Obviously the United States military has a role to play in ferreting out al Qaeda, in ferreting out terrorist organizations, in…making sure that our own interests abroad are taken care of.

But the United States military has no business in trying to create whole cloth [or] molding different societies.  It’s kind of antithetical- democracy can’t be imposed at gunpoint.  

They’ve got to figure it out for themselves. It can’t be the United States government doing it for them.

Immigration

The most fundamental job of a nation is to protect its sovereignty, and when you can’t secure your borders and ports you can’t protect your sovereignty…As a nation we need to recognize that we are going to have to put a significant amount of money, time and effort into suring up our southern border.

As a former prosecutor…if you really want to dry up illegal immigration, you hold employers accountable, and I’ll be the only one up on stage that has ever prosecuted an employer for hiring illegal immigrants. After that’s done, you get to other questions.

Health Care and SCHIP

We should be providing health care to kids and Brian Bilbray has staked out a position of essentially rabid ideology at the expense of some 10 million American kids…I think that it’s a disgrace that he decided to stand on ideology and stand with the President as opposed to providing these kids with proper medical care.  I think it’s just very mean-spirited and worse, it’s bad public policy.

My endpoint [on health care] is that every family should be able to see a family doctor of their choosing. The way in which we get there I think is going to be a battle royale come January 2009. And what is being pitched today out on the campaign trail- there isn’t going to be even a shade of resemblance once this thing actually gets done.

There is a little bit of overlap between Democrats and Republicans on a few issues. One, I think all parties agree that you’re going to have to see rapid and massive adoption of information technology and digital patient files.  That will cut down on everything from medical errors to back office expense.  And the estimates on what that would shave off- I’ve seen 10-12% of the total healthcare dollars. Secondly, another overlapping area is preventative care.  There are certain areas of medicine where this makes a lot of sense. This makes a lot of sense in the area of inoculations…it makes a lot of sense as it concerns preventative screening for certain diseases.  From a cost benefit analysis and a quality of years lived analysis.

You’ve got to have a very serious debate on how else you get there. we’re the only westernized country in the world that tells the pres drug companies that they can charge anything they want and it doesn’t matter…I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.

What that final product is going to look like, I’m not exactly sure.  But I know that…we need to look at that end goal…and say let’s try to get there.

FISA

we spoke briefly about the general nature of modern privacy before FISA

What’s much MUCH more disconcerting to me is the entire FISA bill…As somebody who has been a prosecutor and dealt with the 4th Amendment, I can tell you that this happened to have been the one amendment in the Bill of Rights that all the Founding Fathers could agree upon; that in order for the government intrusion there had to be probable cause signed off on by an independent magistrate that says you may have committed a crime. I find the entire FISA process to be constitutionally dubious. That doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be made constitutionally valid but I think that anytime you have wiretaps involved…that deals with an American citizen, you’ve gotta have a court sign off on it.  The only question in my mind is whether or not that has to be done prior to there warrant being executed or whether or not there is some grace period.  There is no doubt in my mind that the executive branch itself cannot act as both overseer and executioner (of warrants or wiretaps). That, I think, is constitutionally impermissible; I think it’s a violation of the judiciary’s proper role of interpreting laws.

As a former prosecutor [and] law clerk in the US Attorney’s office in the Major Frauds and Economic Crimes section…I’ve never heard of anybody being given immunity when you don’t know what they’ve done. It’s not how the immunity process works.  You don’t say to somebody ‘Whatever you’ve done, don’t worry about it.’…It’s unthinkable to me as a lawyer and as somebody who will have…sworn to uphold the Constitution that I could ever support that.

California Emissions and the Environment

I’m not a scientist, but from what I have read…the EPA seems to have made their decision to deny California its waiver based on faith based science. That’s not good enough. If it’s warranted by the facts and the evidence, it should be granted.  During the next administration, if it’s a Democrat, I think we’ll get a fair hearing. And if we don’t, that’s ripe for congressional action to clarify the rule. Because it’s the congress that makes the laws, the executive branch simply carries out those laws.

The debate on the science (of global warming) is over. There is no doubt in any serious scientist’s mind that global warming is happening. There is virtually no doubt that mankind is directly causing global warming. The only question at this point is ‘What is the causal relationship and what are the consequences going forward?’

The role of government as it concerns energy and the environment I think is going to be crucial in the next 5, 10, 20 years. One of the things I very much hope to work on as a member of Congress…is pursuing and advocating for alternative energy in the areas of wind, solar, some biomass, hydrogen. And the role of the government here is to set high standards, it’s to help foster innovation- especially in the very early stages of research and development- and then I think it’s to turn it over to the market who does a great job of packaging this up…and if people can make a…fortune doing it, great. It makes good public policy, it’s good politics, I think it’s a good way to return some manufacturing to…the Americas.

It’s also an issue of national security. We send hundreds of billions of dollars each year to…Middle Eastern regimes many of them hostile to our interests. We know…that some of that money ends up with Hezbollah; that it ends up with Hamas; some of it filters down and ends up with al Qaeda. We’re funding both sides of the war in this particular time.

Then there is the great moral calling of our time which is addressing the global warming problem itself…There is no doubt that our kids will bear the full brunt of this, and we need to figure out now a way to mitigate it because to do anything other than that is nothing short of…long-term child abuse.

Economy

Two prime reasons (for the current economic situation).  One, it has been fiscal insanity on the part of the Bush administration…We see that in everything from the weakness of the dollar which hits you…at the pump and in the grocery aisle, to being able to sure up many of those social programs which we know have a pending disaster: Medicare, Social Security, our infrastructure, etc.  Secondly, the war. You cannot talk about anything else in this campaign until you address the war.

We are spending- the estimates are- $10-12 billion a month.  We have direct outlays to Iraq…upwards and including $500 billion.  For one single solitary day of war making in Iraq, we could have sent 160,000 low-income students to college for a year.  For 3 1/2 months of war in Iraq we could have provided healthcare coverage to those 10 million…American kids for 5 years under SCHIP.  Until we end that, again, we are committing long term fiscal child abuse.  Because we’re not paying for it…we’re borrowing money from…foreign creditors to finance this thing. It’s completely and totally irresponsible and it must end.

There’s some middle class tax cuts that…we should retain. We should retain the 15% capital gains rate as opposed to seeing it revert back to 20%. More than 50 million Americans at this point have 401Ks; hat benefits them greatly.  We need to once and for all end the AMT.  These last couple years it has snagged a whole cross section of our population that it was never meant to hit, and the doubling of the child tax credit is a positive thing. It’s a positive thing for San Diego families and San Diego parents.  Of course, the recklessness as it concerns the Bush giveaways in terms of the top 1%- no. That’s fiscal insanity and I will be a voice to end it.

Most interesting for me was an interlude about halfway through the interview where we lapsed into discussing this year’s election in an historical context:

We win this fight because their platform is old and it’s worn out…The Reagan Revolution…which started really in 1964 with Goldwater’s defeat…it culminated in 1980 and 1994 and the end of the Bush years are a bookend. It’s tired, it’s played out, and it no longer offers up a positive agenda for America. This isn’t just a change election in the sense of Democrats or Republicans.  This is a paradigm shifting election and Democrats can capture that…they’ve got a lot of work to do but we can capture it and I think the pendulum is swinging our way.

The House just took another stab at S-CHIP legislation, and passed it out with 265 votes.  The veto override got 273, so that sounds like a step backwards.  I don’t think so.  Ten Democrats didn’t vote, and all of them can be expected to vote yes.  43 Republicans voted with the Democrats, which is I think one more than before.  The point is the cosmetic changes to the bill did little to get Republicans on board.  But they had to vote against kids’ health care, again, and take a stand on an issue where Democrats are favored by a 2:1 margin.

Democratic ideas for fixing the healthcare system to cover the uninsured enjoy more support among Americans than proposals coming from Republicans, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll shows […]

Two of the main proposals advanced by Democrats received majority support in the poll.

Sixty-two percent said they supported requiring large employers to help pay for coverage whereas 31% opposed it. And 51% said they favored a mandate that individuals purchase health insurance, much as drivers are required to carry auto coverage; 39% disagreed.

Tax breaks to make insurance more affordable — a leading Republican idea — more closely divided the public, with 44% backing that approach and 45% opposing it.

In one of the most politically significant results, the poll finds that independents and moderates were generally lining up with Democrats in the healthcare debate.

A lot of California Republicans didn’t vote today, as many were back home in their districts surveying fire damage.  If they bothered to talk to anyone in the state, they would know that the Healthy Families program (as S-CHIP is known in California) is about to go broke and requires “emergency measures” to stay afloat.  On November 17, the money will dry up, and the options are severely limited.  As many as 830,000 kids could become disenrolled if the program is forced to shut down.

That’s what’s really at stake in this debate.  It’s a political issue, but a personal one as well.  More often than not, the political IS personal.  What our representatives decide has a major impact on how we live.  They need to do right by children.

The movement for guaranteed healthcare remains centered this week in California, as plans based on huge public subsidies for insurance corporations wend their way through a special session of the legislature.  The good news?  In-fighting has broken out between Governor Schwarzenegger and some of the Dems in the legislature, making it harder for them to reach the anti-patient compromise they’re shooting for.  RNs and patient advocates, among other groups, continue to monitor the situation and work to ensure that any bills hurting patients are defeated. 

Nationally, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report looks at the health care angles of the latest Republican Presidential debate.  Seems like they’re more interested in attacking Hillary Clinton than the healthcare crisis.

Clarence Page notes the central confusion over the SCHIP veto:

…the public has been very supportive of Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, for children whose family income is too high for Medicaid but too low to afford private coverage. Nevertheless, the president and his allies are reduced to reminding people that, “Pssst, it’s government health care so you’re supposed to be afraid of it.”

Hopefully, George Bush is right and S-CHIP is the first step towards guaranteeing all people, child or adult, have access to healthcare.

Right now, that’s only true in San Francisco.

Finally, as health insurance takes a bite out of wages, labor unions getting more involved in healthcare issues, and nurses in the Appalachian region Appalachian RNs are striking.  Go, nurses!

…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

(We like it when Mr. Rosenberg writes here – promoted by jsw)

Front-paged at OpenLeft

Note: This is only about California, but the message is national.  Our measures of economic need are severely out of whack, which is a significant contributing factor in the making of bad social policy

A new report from the California Budget Project, the fifth iteration of “Making Ends Meet: How Much Does It Cost To Raise A Family In California?” [PDF], shows that the basic cost of living a no-frills, no-savings existence in California is substantially above the poverty line, the minimum wage, and even–for most families analyzed–the median hourly wage.  Nearly half of California’s full-time workers cannot make ends meet in a two-parent, two child family in which both parents work, and thus must pay for childcare-one of four family types analyzed.  Things are even worse for single-parent or single-income famities.

Among other things, the report strongly indicates the need for explanding SCHIP (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program), which President Bush recently vetoed.  “It shows the president is wrong. That famiy with inomes of up to and above 300 percent of poverty level do need asisitaint to afford health care if they don’t have emloyee-based health care,” said long-time CBP executive director Jean Ross.

According Ross, the no-frills budgets, “don’t provide any room for saivngs, for retireent or college,” nor do they provide services many now take for granted. “No DSL or cable.  Just bare-bones utilities,” Ross said.  Because each iteration of the report involves improvements in methodology, Ross cautioned that the reports could not be strictly compared to one another, but were primarily intended to provide the best possible contemporary analysis at the time of release.

Poverty Line Inadequate

Results from this approach, which analyzes actual living expenses on a regional basis, set a substantially higher level for keeping ones head above water than the poverty line, which was set back in the early 1960s at three times the cost of a basic food budget by a government economist Mollie Orshansky, who never intended it for general use as a poverty threashold.  But it was the first thing that came to hand when general insterest in poverty suddenly exploded, and has never revised, much less replaced, except for inflation adjustments.

“Orhansky just passed away this past year,” Ross noted, while pointing to “general and widespread agreemnt that it [the poverty line] is inadequate.”

Not only have increases in other costs-such as health care and child care-greatly exceeded food since then, there are substantial regional differences as well, with particularly high housing costs throughout California, especially in the Bay Area.

The report analyzes living expenses for four family types: a single adult, a single working parent with two children, a two-parent family with two children and one working parent, and two working parents with two children. Of these, only the single adult family income requirements indicate that a substantial number of them earn enough to get by.  Compared to statewide median wage of 17.42 an hour, a single adult needs $13.62 an hour ($11.45 to $14.55, according to region), a single-parent family needs $28.72 ($23.88 to $31.67), a two-parent family with one parent working needs $24.22 an hour ($21.37 to $26.35), and a two-parent family with both working needs $17.39 an hour ($15.05 to $18.53).

In contrast to using the poverty, The report explains:

This report takes an alternate approach. It starts from the ground up, building a basic family budget based on the cost of housing, food, child care, and other essentials needed to support a family without public or private assistance. The standard of living envisioned is more than a “bare bones” existence, yet covers only basic expenses, allowing little to no room for “extras” such as college savings, vacations, or emergencies.

Specifically, this report estimates typical costs of housing and utilities, child care, transportation, food, health coverage, payroll and income taxes, and miscellaneous expenses for four hypothetical families: a single adult, a single working parent with two children, a two-parent family with two children and one working parent, and two working parents with two children. Because housing and other costs vary throughout California, this report provides basic family budgets for 10 regions within the state.

The breakdown of family expenses analyzed is as follows:

Full report-with regional breakdowns and more-is here [PDF]

I was actually looking at this Robert Novak column for another reason, but this is a bit worth mentioning.  Seems that our post-partisan governor toed the party line, when push came to shove.

While 19 of 22 Republican governors once favored the Democratic bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), only two signed a Tuesday letter to President Bush urging him to sign the measure.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, a former governor of Utah, helped bring around his former colleagues. Even California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a presumed supporter of the SCHIP bill, joined his fellow Republicans. The only GOP governors signing the letter were Connecticut’s Jodi Rell and Utah’s Jon Huntsman (following the lead of his state’s Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch).

So the governor of UTAH has more courage of his convictions than our Arnold.  Classy move.

Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Just a link dump this evening, I’m afraid. Let me know what I missed.

To subscribe by email, click
here and do what comes naturally.

• SoHum Parlance: Ron Dellums endorses Hillary Clinton
  
  http://redwoodreality.blogspot.com/2007/10/ron-dellums-endorses-hillary-clinton.html

• The California Majority Report // Today’s Fresh Meat
  
  http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&ptid=9&aid=2343

• Speak Out California! – Weblog: While California Dreams- Weekly Update Vol.1 No. 18
  
  http://speakoutca.org/archives/2007/10/while_californi_16.php

• The Liberal OC » What’s So Wrong About Health Care for All?
  
  http://www.theliberaloc.com/2007/10/06/whats-so-wrong-about-health-care-for-all/

• SoHum Parlance: Democrat of the Year dinner
  
  http://redwoodreality.blogspot.com/2007/10/democrat-of-year-dinner.html

• San Diego Politico: Help Prevent Animal Cruelty in California
  
  http://www.sandiegopolitico.com/2007/10/help-prevent-animal-cruelty-in.html

• San Diego Politico: Republicans fooling themselves on the 78th
  
  http://www.sandiegopolitico.com/2007/10/republicans-fooling-themselves-on-78th.html

• San Diego Politico: Ron you’re no longer in the Minor Leagues
  
  http://www.sandiegopolitico.com/2007/10/ron-youre-no-longer-in-minor-leagues.html

• skippy the bush kangaroo: calling on fellow californians
  
  http://xnerg.blogspot.com/2007/10/calling-on-fellow-californians.html

• Irvine Housing Blog » Blog Archive » Irvine Median Home Price History
  
  http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/2007/10/07/irvine-median-home-price-history/

• The People’s Vanguard of Davis: West Sacramento Police Under Fire in Arrest of Two Black Port Workers
  
  http://davisvanguard.blogspot.com/2007/10/west-sacramento-police-under-fire-in.html

• California Must Continue to Lead the World, This Time It’s Water – California Progress Report
  
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/california_must_3.html

• Californians Will Have 51 Presidential Candidates to Choose from in February 2008 Primary–As It Stands Now – California Progress Report
  
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/californians_wi.html

• Governor Schwarzenegger Has Over 550 Bills to Sign or Veto in One Week – California Progress Report
  
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/governor_schwar_16.html

• The Bayne of Blog’s – California Notes: Sac Bee calls on readers to contact Congress – ask for override support
  
  http://blog.bayneweb.com/2007/10/sac-bee-calls-on-readers-to-contact.html

• happening-here?: What animates Dianne Feinstein…
  
  http://happening-here.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-animates-dianne-feinstein.html

• If I Ran the Zoo: Sunday Sierrablogging
  
  http://tehipitetom.blogspot.com/2007/10/sunday-sierrablogging.html

• The California Majority Report // Today’s Fresh Meat
  
  http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&ptid=9&aid=2344

• Schwarzenegger Vetoes Transparency in Local Government Bill Passed Overwhelmingly by Legislature – California Progress Report
  
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/schwarzenegger_56.html

• Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal
  
  http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/10/king-lear-blogg.html

• Firedoglake – Firedoglake weblog » Pelosi Praises Fox For Their Efforts to “Reverse Global Warming,” and Pigs Fly
  
  http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/10/07/pelosi-praises-fox-for-their-efforts-to-reverse-global-warming-and-pigs-fly/

• Bitch Ph.D.
  
  http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-live-to-serve.html

• DownWithTyranny!: JERRY LEWIS– UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE BUSH REGIME, GETS A PASS FROM BOEHNER; HE’S RUNNING AGAIN: FOR OFFICE AND FROM “THE LAW”
  
  http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/10/jerry-lewis-under-protection-of-bush.html

• Creek Running North » This is why…
  
  http://faultline.org/index.php/site/comments/this_is_why/

OK, I’m back, and today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Let me know what I missed.

To subscribe by email, click
here and do what comes naturally.

Wingnut myths never die

• SFist: Marines Crucified at Oakland Airport
  http://sfist.com/2007/10/02/marines_crucifi.php

Sometimes I miss where I
grew up

• Alaska: The Interior :: The Ojai Post
  http://www.ojaipost.com/2007/10/alaska-the-interior.shtml
• Alaska: The Peninsula :: The Ojai Post
  http://www.ojaipost.com/2007/10/alaska-the-peninsula-halibut-cove.shtml

The CA Dem leadership’s
pet project

• The California Majority Report // The Crumbling Term Limits
  Movement — The Façade of “Grassroots Movement” Falls Apart
  http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&ptid=9&aid=2337
• California Progress Report – Leader in Opposition to
  California Term Limits Reform Indicted for
  Felony Campaign Fraud in Oklahoma
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/leader_in_oppos.html

Inmigración

• Creek Running North » Chertoff lies, migrants die
  http://faultline.org/index.php/site/comments/chertoff_lies_migrants_die/
• Migra Matters: Stuck in Limbo
  http://migramatters.blogspot.com/2007/10/stuck-in-limbo.html

The Art of the Possible

• California Progress Report – “Looking Beyond the Horizon:
  Investment planning for the 21st
  century,” issued by State Treasurer Lockyer, is our site of the day
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/looking_beyond.html
• . . . Surf Putah: A Response to Bill Lockyer and a Modest
  Proposal on the Budget Deficit
  http://surfputah.blogspot.com/2007/10/response-to-bill-lockyer-and-modest.html

Local Stuff

• BeyondChron » The Progressive Case Against
  Proposition C
  http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4970#more
• BeyondChron » Newsom Should Name Ed Lee to Head
  Housing Authority
  http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4966#more
• BeyondChron » Guest Editorial: Newsom Hides
  Behind City’s Children in Attack on Campaign Finance Reform
  http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4967#more
• The People’s Vanguard of Davis: School Board Candidates
  Debate Career Technical Education
  http://davisvanguard.blogspot.com/2007/10/school-board-candidates-debate-career.html
• SFist: UPDATE: Safeway “Giving”
  http://sfist.com/2007/10/02/update_safeway.php
• The People’s Vanguard of Davis: Commentary: Large Money
  Raised in School Board Elections
  http://davisvanguard.blogspot.com/2007/10/commentary-large-money-raised-in-school.html

Schools

• Schrag: The Zigs and Zags of Education Reform 50 Years
  After Sputnik
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/schrag_the_zigs.html
• Daily Kos: The march toward total fascism breaks wrists and
  legs on the way
  http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/3/11038/4157

Environment

• California Progress Report – Chevron’s New Coat
  of Lipstick
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/chevrons_new_co.html
• The Liberal OC » Prevention of Farm Animal
  Cruelty Act
  http://www.theliberaloc.com/2007/10/02/prevention-of-farm-animal-cruelty-act/
• California Progress Report – Full Day of Special Session
  Hearings This Thursday on California Water Issues
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/full_day_of_spe.html

Other (not less
important, just other)

• California Progress Report – Retailers and California
  Chamber of Commerce Lobbying Governor
  to Veto Bill Requiring Them to Act Responsibly in Protecting Credit
  Card Data
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/retailers_and_c.html
• The California Majority Report // Tuesday’s Fresh Meat
  http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&ptid=9&aid=2333
• The Bayne of Blog: States going to court to force Bush to
  provide health care to children
  http://blog.bayneweb.com/2007/10/states-going-to-court-to-force-bush-to.html
• SFist: New Tunes Tuesday #3
  http://sfist.com/2007/10/02/new_tunes_tuesd_2.php
• California Progress Report – California Voters Have Right
  to Know Who Financed, Aided , and
  Abetted Attempt to Rig the Electoral College
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/california_vote_6.html
• The Progressive Connection:: Jerry McNerney Is Not A
  Progressive
  http://www.theprogressiveconnection.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=145
• Working Californians | Jet-Setting Not Governing
  http://workingcalifornians.com/blog/julia_rosen/2007/10/02/jet_setting_not_governing
• California Progress Report – The California Budget Impasse:
  Political Chicanery or Democracy in Action?
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/the_california_41.html
• The California Majority Report // Today’s Fresh Meat
  http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&ptid=9&aid=2336
• California Progress Report – Former Gang Members Ask
  Governor Schwarzenegger to Sign AB 1049 for Youth Parole Re-Entry
  Programs
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/former_gang_mem.html
• Working Californians | LADN Attacks DWP Workers
  http://workingcalifornians.com/blog/julia_rosen/2007/10/03/ladn_attacks_dwp_workers
• California Progress Report – Expanding Family Leave in
  Today’s California: Why Governor Schwarzenegger Should Sign SB 727 and
  AB 537
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/expanding_famil.html

(Updated with Video from FamiliesUSA. You can sign their petition in support of SCHIP here. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been fairly good on SCHIP issues. A little slow, but fairly good. Back in August, he wrote a letter with Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) opposing limiting rule changes in SCHIP. While the letter (PDF) stops short of supporting the program passed by Congress (it hadn’t been passed at the time), he has shown support on several occasions in the past.

Well, now the president has vetoed SCHIP. It didn’t take the president very long, I suppose he really, really fears creating any “middle class entitlements”.  So, it is no longer enough to simply enough to merely voice his support for SCHIP, and to decry a potential veto. I know, I know, time is tight with your upcoming vacation to China, but can’t you squeeze some time in for the kids? The time is now, he must actively lobby to garner the final 16 votes needed in the house to override this veto. In fact, there are enough votes in California alone to override. 18 California Republicans voted against the bill, so there’s a place to start. The only GOP holdout, Mary Bono, is praying that the SCHIP vote masks the rest of her reactionary voting record.

While Arnold seems to have lost some of his patina of being outside of the system for California Republicans, he still holds some allure outside of the state. So, even if he isn’t successful with 16 of the CA’s Republican Congressmen, he should be working on those from other states. Use some of that “post-partisan” rock stardom for the good of the nation, you know?  Leaders from groups around the state and the nation are looking to Arnold to lead on this issue. The AARP was particularly vocal on pressuring Arnold. And FamiliesUSA, who supported this video, is working overtime to pressure any and all votes in support of SCHIP. Arnold should be as well. Once again, it is Arnold who must decide if his legacy will be that of just another Republican to katybar the doors to progress, or of a leader who reaches across lines and uses his political capital for the good of the state, and the nation.