Will Assembly Democrats Capitulate to Bullying from the Left and Pass State-Controlled Health Care?

With Monday’s legislative deadline for Assembly Bill 1400, California’s proposed Single Payer state-controlled health care, the Assembly will decide to pass it or kill it.

Predictably, progressive activists have ramped up the threats on lawmakers. As Fox 40 reported last week, “Progressives threaten to pull endorsements from California lawmakers who reject single-payer health care bill.”

But it’s far worse than that headline.

Assembly Democrats are already divided, with moderates opposed to state-controlled healthcare. But the far left is singing another tune. “Progressive Caucus Chairman and California Democratic Party Executive Board Member Amar Shergill confirmed Thursday the group will take steps to make sure members who vote ‘no’ on the legislation will not be endorsed by the California Democratic Party for the upcoming election,” Fox 40 reported.

“No endorsement from the party could mean a major lack of activism, support and funding for those seeking reelection.”

The Globe was told by a Capitol insider Democrat lawmakers are growing worried over the threats coming from the left.

“Any Assembly member that thinks they can ignore the party, ignore labor, ignore people, vote against us and then still get the endorsement might find they have a tougher reelection battle than they thought,” Shergill told Fox 40.

Their desperation is showing.

As the Globe reported earlier this month, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 11 was introduced in the California Legislature to enact significant tax increases to fund universal single-payer health care coverage in California.

Single payer is a universal state-run healthcare system financed by taxpayers, that covers the costs of healthcare for all residents by a single public system.

Assembly Bill 1400 was introduced simultaneously with ACA 11, the “Guaranteed Health Care for All” state-run healthcare bill, which has been kicking around the Assembly for several years now, was heard and passed in the Assembly Rules Committee, but not without some strong debate and some would say, rule breaking, or at least blurred lines enough to be a highly dubious passage.

Democrats are trying to ram this bill through, by any means necessary.

The Tax Foundation reports “this will increase taxes by $12,250 per household, roughly doubling the state’s already high tax collections, to fund a first-in-the-nation single-payer health-care system.”

Previous statewide single payer healthcare proposals elicited estimates of more than $400 billion to implement. The entire 2022-23 state budget proposal is $286 billion.

“The top marginal rate on wage income would soar to 18.05 percent—nationally, the median top marginal rate is 5.3 percent—and the state would adopt a new 2.3 percent gross receipts tax (GRT), at a rate more than three times that of the country’s highest current pure GRT,” the Tax Foundation reported.

California residents can’t afford the $12,250 tax increase per household, nor can the state even support a health care system larger than the state budget.  The DMV can’t keep up with drivers license renewals and vehicle registrations. The EDD is still burdened by the $31 billion in fraud payments.

There will be reliable Democrat Party lawmakers who support the bill, despite what constituents want. But many of the lawmakers will channel their inner Sen. Kirsten Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin, rebuffing the threats, refusing to be bullied.

And really, do lawmakers even want state-controlled health care for their families? I think not.

The Globe will follow up on this vote.