Dan Walters' Capitol Q&A

Question: Every time I read a piece about funding coverage for the uninsured, I look for some reference to whether the bills address the high cost of health care. I do not assume the rapidly escalating cost of health care is wrongful. I am just confused by the lack of discussion about the causes and solutions, if any. I assume someone has meaningfully analyzed the issue. Is no one talking about the analysis? Do the bills address this, and I am just missing the coverage of the details?
-- Leslie Arnal, Sacramento

Answer: Fundamentally, the two competing approaches do little or nothing about health costs. Backers of single-payer care contend that it would rein in costs.
--Dan Walters

Question: Will prices (such as housing) continue to increase while our standard of living (paychecks) continue to not keep up? Is the state legislature really doing anything to combat this problem? As an experienced teacher, it is disappointing to know I cannot afford a mortgage anywhere within 50 miles of my work.
-- Clay, Upland

Answer: I doubt whether there's anything that the state government could do to affect overall prices or incomes, although it could conceivably affect teachers' salaries through money - if it had any money to spare in an era of deficit budgets. More seriously, there may well be an effort next year to substantially increase revnues for education, either through legislation or a ballot measure. Whether it succeeds is problematic.
--Dan Walters

Question: It seems to me that sometime in the last 30 years California governance went from being a good model for the rest of the Country to a laughing stock. To my mind, things really began going downhill in the mid 1980s and seem to have continued ever since. I can't really point to a single event that gives me that impression, but it seems the fiscal bickering (and the stavation of local government) resulting from Prop. 13 was part of the reason. Do you agree? What are your thoughts?
-- Chris Brown, Willits

Answer: I believe the deterioration of California's governance is evident, but that it stems not only from systemic changes in politics itself, but changes in the larger society which have made it extraordinarily difficult, perhaps impossible, to govern effectively. We have a perfect storm of intersecting political, economic and social currents that call into question whether the American system of governance is adaptable to an incredibly complex society such as California. I have written about the "crisis of governance" on many occasions.
--Dan Walters

Question: Do you think the Legislature will pass some form of AB 8 by Sept. 14? If so, do you believe Arnold will veto it?
-- Meg McComb, Huntington Beach

Answer: Whether the governor and the Legislature can come to agreement on health care expansion by adjournment is very uncertain. It could go down to the wire or the governor could call Legislature back into a special session on health care. And the Legislature is attempting to adjourn by Sept. 12, when Jewish High Holy Days begin.
--Dan Walters