Faster or slower?

The governor's sacking of Robert Sawyer from his post as chairman of the Air Resources Board seems to have divided the environmental community. The Central Valley types who were upset at the board's granting of an extension for the San Joaquin Valley to meet smog standards see the firing as a positive step. But others who liked Sawyer's professionalism and adherence to science are uneasy and don't seem to trust the Administration's claim that the governor is seeking a faster, not slower, regulatory pace on air pollution and global warming.

Industry reps, meanwhile, are more united in their support for Sawyer and concern that a greater involvement from the governor's office will mean more pressure, not less, to reduce pollution.

We won't really know until they appoint a new chairman and we see whether the board's executive director stays or goes.

Prison crowding

Andy Furillo reports here that the federal judges appear to be moving toward imposing a cap on the state's prison population, possibly releasing inmates early. While an argument can be made that the state could do this without endangering public safety, does anyone seriously believe that the public will believe that, and that the political conversation surrounding such a release will permit a reasonable discussion of the issue?

The state just adopted what could be the most far-reaching move toward rehabilitation, drug treatment and mental health care in a generation. It's taking steps toward reducing the number of parolees returned to prison, which is the real source of the overcrowding. It is building more beds to clear the hallways and day rooms to make room for education and training programs. Meanwhile, it appears that the Legislature and the administration will agree by the end of the summer on a sentencing commission to overhaul the state's system for setting terms and releasing inmates.

Many argue that those steps will fail. But rather than waiting six months or a year to see if the state turns the corner, these federal judges appear set on ignoring the democratic process and imposing their own solution.

The people who have been cheering this on -- mostly people who oppose the construction of new prison space -- might be surprised at what ensues. I think the most likely reaction is a public uproar over the release of inmates, and a demand for the construction of even more prison cells. We'll see.

The iPod

Many of you may remember the classic essay about the pencil, and how that simple product shows the global economy at work. Hal Varian has written a modern version of it here, focused on the iPod. The world's most popular music player has 451 parts that are made and assembled around the world. The final assembly in China accounts for only 1 percent of the value of an iPod, but when it is shipped to the United States, it counts as an import here, and adds $150 to our trade deficit. Remember that the next time you see a report on our balance of trade.

Schwarzenegger tours fire damage: 'Amazing'

AP PHOTO

Here is the pool media report on Schwarzenegger's visit to the South Lake Tahoe fire scene, from AP's Scott Lindlaw:

Schwarzenegger, Garamendi and Poizner walked through the rubble of several incinerated homes in a neighborhood called Tahoe Mountain, just outside of South Lake Tahoe. The former champion bodybuilder picked a dumbbell out of the debris and hoisted it for a few moments, marveling that it was one of the few objects to survive. "Look at this _ amazing," he said to an aide.

It looked like a post-apocalyptic scene out of "The Terminator."
Water-bearing choppers flew overhead during their tour.

Little else survived the inferno. Metal mattress coils, a bicycle, tools,
half-melted televisions, concrete foundations and chimneys were about all
that was left of several homes. Right next door other homes stood untouched.

The governor walked the scene in cowboy boots, a biege suit, but no tie.
Schwarzenegger also picked a scrap of partially melted metal out of the ash
and threw it to an aide, apparently as a keepsake. "It just melted," the
governor marveled.

The governor lingered at a burned out military-style jeep torched so badly
that the sheet metal and tire rims were virtually all that remained. He
picked at the melted glass that turned to fluid by the heat of the inferno.

It sounded like he called it a "Pinzgauer."

This from an MSNBC story about his own vehicles:

"Despite this however, in March 2003 he bought an Austrian six-wheeled tank
called a Pinzgauer, and modified to render it legal to drive on city
streets."

The truck here had four wheels.

45% of Republicans support amnesty

Chris Reed says there is a huge public demand for a crackdown on illegal immigration, and illegal immigrants. The public, he says, does not want "comprehensive reform."

He bases his conclusion on a Washington Post story that tallies up the number of crackdown bills introduced in state Legislatures across the country. I'd suggest a better barometer would be the number of those bills that actually pass. But even that would be only half the story.

Poll after poll, in California and nationally, shows that people are ok with a "path to citizenship" for immigrants who are already in the country illegally. This is what the right commonly calls amnesty.

The latest was todays' release of the San Jose State University poll of Californians:

"In your opinion, should undocumented or illegal immigrants living or working here be allowed to become legal residents of California?"

adults: 57 percent yes, 33 percent no.
voters: 55 percent yes, 36 percent no.

Democrats: 66-25
Republicans: 45-48
Independents: 47-45

New poll on term limits, immigration

Today's piece of the San Jose State poll shows the term limits measure with a good-sized lead, but the numbers are clearly shaky. The measure is leading by more among Republicans and independents than among Democrats, which suggests that the opening line of the official summary saying that the proposal reduces the time a member can serve from 14 years to 12 is carrying the day. An oppo campaign that focuses on the part of the proposal that allows members to serve all 12 in one house or the other, or the part that allows some current members to serve even longer, will surely take those numbers down.

Clinton, Giuliani ahead in California

According to the latest poll from the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State. You can find it here.

US Supremes act on campaign finance case

The Supreme Court issued an important decision this morning involving campaign finance rules and the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance law. The decision in Wisconsin Right to Life case gave political groups funded by corporations and unions more license to air "issue ads" in the period before an election and limited the ability of federal regulators to ban the ads on the grounds that they advocate for or against a candidate. The winning side in the case included anti-abortion groups, the ACLU and the NRA.

The justices, in a 5-4 ruling, said the intent of the donors behind an ad is irrelevant and instead the ads should be judged only on their content. Furthermore, the justices said, only those ads that are "susceptible to no reasonable interpretation" other than appeal to vote for or against a candidate could be barred under McCain-Feingold's rules. The court rejected suggestions from some parties to the suit and three justices that they revisit a 2003 ruling that upheld most of the McCain-Feingold law.

You can read the entire decision here, via scotusblog.com.

Election Law Blogger Rick Hasen says the decision is a big win for fans of deregulating campaign finance. Based on everything else I have read, I think he's right.

New, unified legislative health care plan

This was inevitable: Perata and Nunez have merged their health care bills. For a point by point comparison of the original bills and the compromise version, go here.

The new bill has neither an individual mandate nor universal guaranteed issue. Instead, it has guaranteed issue for people who have no "serious" preexisting conditions. People with preexisting conditions that would keep them from getting coverage go into an expanded state-run pool funded by an assessment on the health plans. This sounds a lot like the Blue Cross proposal.

The new version, like both of the originals, covers only the employed. It does not specify how much employers will have to pay if they don't cover their workers, but an earlier analysis suggested that the fee would be about 7.5 percent. The new bill allows an appointed state board to raise that fee if more money is needed.

The new version covers all employers with no exceptions.

The compromise essentially opens the door now to serious negotiations with the governor. The key issues will be:

Universal, or not? Schwarzenegger wants the bill to cover nearly everyone in the state. The Democrats cover only the employed.

Guaranteed issue? The governor wants to require insurers to cover everyone who applies without regard to pre-existing conditions. The Democrats divide the pools into the healthy, who stay in the private market, and those with serious preexisting conditions, who go into a state-run high-risk pool.

Individual mandate. The governor wants to require everyone to have insurance. The Democrats want to require only employed people and their families to have coverage. The self-employed and early retirees would be the major groups who are not part of the Democratic plan.

"Shared responsibility?" The governor wants to tax employers, doctors and hospitals, with the provider taxes needed to draw down federal funds that are then used to expand Medi-Cal and increase reimbursements to doctors and hospitals that care for the poor. The Democrat version taxes only employers.

Bloomberg quits GOP

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg just quit the Republican Party to become an independent, after two days of speeches and meetings in California attacking the gridlock in Washington and calling for a new focus on centrism and solving problems rather than ideology. Will a presidential campaign be next?

In case you are wondering, Schwarzenegger again today said he has no intention of leaving the party.

Be careful what you wish for

I feel like I am the person to whom that admonition must have been directed. As a socially liberal, fiscally conservative environmentalist, I should be thrilled right now with all this discussion of people reaching across party lines to enact policies that more or less match my view of the world. Plus, that's basically the theme of the book I am writing about Schwarzenegger, so the more the topic gets discussed, the more people should want to read what I write.

But I guess I find the general discussion of partisanship and compromise kind of excruciating. I am all over it when it comes to its practical application, what it means for health care or transportation or education or the environment. In each of those cases, in fact, it's going to play out differently, and it is going to play out differently depending on who is in the executive, who is in the Legislature, and what procedural rules empower or marginalize the minority. So while it's nice to commit to bipartisanship on general principle, it doesn't do much for me. I want to talk about how it applies to practical problems that are real to people in their lives.

Ceasefire

Schwarzenegger gave what has become his standard stump speech on post-partisanship this morning, but it certainly went over well with the audience at the Annenberg conference, most of whom had not heard it before. It's the one where he talks about the extremes not having a monopoly on principles, that it's principled to compromise for the common good, and he quotes Edmund Burke and JFK on the power of collaboration.

Also on hand were two former Assembly Speakers who had different takes on the question. Willie Brown spoke briefly, reminding folks that he was originally elected speaker with more Republican votes than Democratic votes and in fact a minority of the Democratic caucus. He later became a symbol of overreaching partisanship, although that was probably a bum rap. He was always reaching out to Republican legislators and governors on policy even if his rhetoric was red meat for the left.

Villaraigosa also spoke, and he mentioned that one of the things he did when he took over the Assembly was to shuffle the desks so that all the Democrats were not sitting, literally, on one "side of the aisle" with all the Republicans on the other. I had forgotten that. He said it was a small thing but an important thing that helped the members get to know each other and see each other as people, even if they disagreed on policy. He said there were Democrats he voted with every day who "I wouldn't have over to my house for dinner" and Republicans with whom he never voted but whom he was happy to hang out with.

Sandwiched between the speeches was an interesting morning panel on the role of the media. The consensus was that the media tend to contribution to political polarization by emphasizing conflict, giving good play to name-calling and failing, often, to explain the ideological or practical stakes over which people might be fighting and using shorthand instead that tends to portray every dispute as bickering.

The one big dissenter was Lawrence O'Donnell, who appears regularly on MSNBC with Keith Olberman. O'Donnell had an interesting take. He said we should ignore the shouting and the name-calling on cable television chat shows because "no one is watching." He said all of those shows get such low ratings that they are irrelevant in our political discourse.

Matt Dowd, who was chief strategist for both the Bush and Schwarzenegger re-election campaigns, disagreed. He said even if very few people are watching, every political office in Washington and many in the heartland are tuned into those shows, and they inform the opinion leaders who then inform the rest of us. I think Dowd has a point. The same thing, after all, has long been said about newspapers, that very few voters get their news from print. But television reporters get their news from print, and bloggers get their news from print, and talk radio gets its news from print. And then they all go out and amplify what they read. So you can't measure the influence of either medium simply by looking at the number of viewers or readers.

No outlet

I am at LAX waiting for my return flight to Sacramento. Has anyone else noticed that the few electrical outlets that airports used to have along the walls, hidden in corners, behind trash cans, etc., all seem to have disappeared? I couldn't find a single one in this entire terminal. What's up with that? I wonder how they vacuum the carpets now. Battery-powered sweeps? They must have outlets behind the ticketing consoles that only the maintenance people can use.

Two words

I on my way into LA last night I passed a store on Pico that seemed to be selling accessories, sunglasses, jewelry, etc. The store window had an advertising come-on that caught me eye: "Look Famous," it said. I can't get the phrase out of my head. I think it was the best two-word description of the LA culture I have ever read.

Can't we all just get along?

I am in LA for a bipartisan love-fest that would make the true believers on the wings gag if they could hear what its being said here. Last night featured NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire Republican who is thinking about running for president as an independent. He was introduced by LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the middle-class Democrat who usually acts like a Democrat but has always gotten along well with Republicans. Today Bloomberg introduces Villaraigosa (maybe he will say his name right this time) and then Gray Davis introduces Arnold Schwarzenegger for his keynote address. The topic obviously is the public's alleged disgust with partisanship and politicians who stick to ideological principles rather than compromising and accepting half a loaf. The title of the conference is "Ceasefire."

Also on the speakers' list for today: Matt Dowd, the political strategist who helped elected Bush and then was the key guy in Schwarzenegger's re-election campaign. The whole thing is sponsored by the Annenberg School of Communications at USC and was hatched at a dinner Villlaraigosa threw for Bloomberg at Wallis Annenberg's Century City home last fall. Not clear where it is leading but the money and power gathered at the Getty House last night would make an independent presidential candidate an instant player in the 2008 race.

Actually, Bloomberg dining alone would accomplish that. His speech was ok but not great, a lot of platitudes even as he insisted that this is not the time for platitudes. He did talk about the tough decisions he has had to make on the public schools, taxes, health care, greenhouse gases, among other things. The message was strong but his delivery leaves a lot to be desired.

Killing the messenger

I find it hard to believe that te Democrats will go along with CCPOA's move to block confirmation of Dave Gilb, Schwarzenegger's director of personnel. The prison guards are mad that the Administration has not yet negotiated a new contract with their union. The parties are at impasse and will soon head to mediation. But nobody seriously believes that Gilb is the driving force behind the deadlock. He's a career civil servant who has worked for the state for 30 years. The policy on this issue comes straight from the governor and his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy. Gilb is their agent. As he should be. Firing him is not going to move the sides any closer to an agreement.

May revenues

The Department of Finance monthly report is in for May, and, as expected, it shows revenues falling below projections the department submitted as part of the governor's May revision of his budget. The numbers are a little different from what was reported earlier. For May, revenues were down $397 million. For the fiscal year to date, they are down $538 million. You can read the full report here.

Finance notes that May is not a big month for state revenues. June is a bigger one. Payments due this week will go a long ways toward showing whether the dip was a one-time thing in May or the start of a downward trend that is likely to continue.

Testing technology

Tom Emswiler of the New America Foundation proposes an independent institute to test and study the effectiveness of new health care technology as a way to reduce the expensive arms race underway in hospitals and clinics. Good idea. He uses as his prime example of the problem the latest surgical robot for prostate cancer. He quotes a Boston hospital CEO saying that he feels pressured to buy the new gizmo even though it has not been proven to do a better job than traditional surgery.

I saw a presentation on that equipment earlier this year at a health care conference for journalists in New York. In that case, a surgeon at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital said it most definitely did produce better outcomes. But it also did nothing to cut costs. In their case, as men saw that they could have surgery with fewer complications, less time in the hospital and a faster return to work, more were opting for it instead of drugs or radiation. The result: higher health care costs.

Cover Boy

First Newsweek. Now Time. With his "soulmate," NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Banning domestic partnerships

Despite the controversy over gay marriage, even in California, poll after poll has shown that voters have no problem granting marriage-style rights to same-sex domestic partners. California has created a system in which its domestic partnerships are almost marriage in everything but name only.

Now a religious conservative activist, Randy Thomasson, and a former assemblyman, Larry Bowler, have begun circulating an initiative that would repeal those laws and essentially ban domestic partnerships in the constitution. It would also reinforce the state's existing ban on gay marriage.

Here is the title and summary:

MARRIAGE. ELIMINATION OF DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP RIGHTS. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between one man and one woman is valid or recognized in California. Prohibits decreasing marriage rights shared by one man and one woman. Voids or makes unenforceable certain rights and obligations conferred by California law on same-sex and heterosexual couples registered as domestic partners, concerning subject areas including, but not limited to, community property, intestate succession, stepparent adoption, child custody, child support, hospital visitation, health care decisions for an incapacitated partner, insurance benefits, death benefits, and recovery for wrongful death. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Unknown, but potential increased costs for state and local governments. The impact would depend in large part on future court interpretations.

If it qualifies, it is hard to see how this passes. While there still might be a majority to ban gay marriage, it's a shrinking one, if it still exists. And by trying to also ban marriage-type rights for domestic partners, the proponents will look mean-spirited and vindictive. I think it goes down.

U.S. Supremes rule on paycheck protection law

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that "paycheck protection" laws that limit a union's right to spend dues money for political purposes do not infringe on the union's First Amendment rights. The Washington state supreme court had used that rationale to gut a state law passed by initiative. But the U.S. Supremes did not go further and rule that the forced collection of union dues for political purposes was itself unconstitutional. And while the Washington law is restored, it has since been weakened by other means and is not expected to have much impact on the state's political scene. Here is the decision, via scotusblog.com.

'Learn English'

That's the guv's advice for immigrants who want to succeed in school and beyond.

"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set," Schwarzenegger said at the 25th annual National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention, which included many who produce Spanish-language material.

"It's that simple. You've got to learn English," he said. "I know this sounds odd and this is the politically incorrect thing to say and I'm going to get myself in trouble. But I know that when I came to this country, I very rarely spoke German to anyone."

Read the whole thing here.

San Jose corruption case tossed

An interesting ruling in the corruption case of former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales: a judge has dismissed the charges against him after finding that the prosecutors misread the law and misinformed the grand jury that indicted him.

"This is not bribery," the judge wrote, according to this story in the Chronicle. "This is politics."

Gonzales was accused of steering a garbage contract to a company in exchange for its commitment to raise wages and switch to the Teamsters union. According to the article, the prosecutors never claimed that Gonzales received money in exchange for his action, but suggested that he took the action for "indirect future advantage."

Not good enough, the judge ruled. That's a standard, he said, that infringes on the First Amendment rights of people to lobby their elected officials.

Sicko

I got to see a preview of "Sicko," Michael Moore's new film on the health care industry, as a guest of the California Nurses Assn. in Sacramento Tuesday. I recommend it, if nothing else as a conversation starter about the problems we face and how other countries have addressed them. Moore will get raves from the left for his cheap shot on the first-class health care the government apparently provides to suspected terrorists at Gitmo, and he deserves any thrashing he gets from the right for pretending that Cuba is just a nice island country with great health care, rather than the police state that it is.

But the two parts I liked best were rather more subtle.

One was an interview with a British doc who explained what he liked about working in their system and showed us that he is living quite comfortably on his government salary. If he wanted to be fabulously wealthy, he said, he would do something else.

The other was Moore's chat with a Canadian conservative who explains how tax-supported health care for all, and the redistribution of income it involves, has become ingrained in the nation's culture.

Both of those interviews made me think and question some of my assumptions rather than only wincing at the board across the forehead that Moore so often applies.

I will have more to say about the film in my column for Thursday.

WSJ says consumer-directed plans hit 'speed bump'

The Wall Street Journal has a piece today casting doubt on the future of consumer-directed health plans. You can read the entire article here if you subscribe, or a good summary with additional comments here, from the California Healthcare Foundation.

Rudy snags war room captain

Jeff Barker, the former Sacramento journalist who ran the Schwarzenegger campaign's rapid-response "war room" and then set up a similar operation in the governor's office, is off to NYC to work for the Giuliani campaign. Politico has a running scorecard and where the Arnoldistas have landed on the presidential trail.

Serious as a heart attack

A rare piece of good news on the health care front, from the Wall Street Journal:

The rate of death from heart disease in the U.S. was cut in half between 1980 and 2000 thanks to better medical treatment and a reduction in the incidence of some risk factors, a new study shows.

About 47% of the reduction resulted from medical measures, including improved treatment for heart-attack victims and the use of drugs to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, according to a statistical analysis reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

Another 44% of the reduction in deaths came from lifestyle improvements such as less smoking, more healthful diets and increased exercise that lowered cholesterol and blood pressure. However, other risk factors such as weight gain and higher incidence of diabetes offset some of the lifestyle gains.

Read the whole thing here if you have a subscription.

May revenue shortfall

Finance Director Mike Genest has just fired off a letter to legislative leaders alerting them to a big shortfall in May revenues that leaves the state more than $750 million short of what the governor just projected in his revised budget. Most of the shortfall came in pesonal income tax revenues, though withholding -- a sign of current economic activity -- was close to projections. The sales tax and corporate income tax were also down.

Taxing carbon

Quebec has adopted a carbon tax as part of its plan to fight global warming. But the province's natural resources minister says he hopes the tax, at .8-cents per liter, will not be passed on to conumers by the oil companies. He says he is counting on the "good will of the gas companies" to absorb the charge.

Huh? I thought the point of a carbon tax was to send a signal to consumers to use a different, less-polluting fuel, or at least to make them pay for the pollution (or global warming) that they cause. Seems like that benefit disappears if the oilies show "good will" by eating the tax.

On protecting white incumbents

This Dan Walters column accusing Democrats of having drawn a 2001 redistricting plan to protect white incumbents from primary challenges by Latinos has sparked a backlash at the left-leaning Calitics website, where bloggers and commenters seem to think Walters has lost his mind.

But the allegation Walters makes is not exactly far-fetched. The San Fernando Valley district drawn for Rep. Howard Berman, in particular, drew a federal lawsuit from Latino rights activists claiming that the lines were drawn to reduce their clout in the primary. The suit was dismissed by the courts, which found there was no legal basis for the discrimination charge.

Here is a MALDEF press release in which they argue that the plan intentionally diluted Latinos in Berman's district and the adjacent district drawn for another white Democrat, Brad Sherman.

For some juicy legal and political details on that fight, the Institute of Governmental Studies at Berkeley has the working papers of the Berman/D'Agostino consulting firm that has been behind the congressional redistrictings in California for decades now. You can find the index here.

How big is the hidden tax, and where does it come from?

The California Foundation for Commerce and Education, a business-backed group, has released a study by Stanford business professor Daniel P. Kessler that suggests the lion's share of the "hidden tax" or cost shift in health care is due to underpayments by public programs, not the cost of caring for the uninsured. Also, the same group released a critique a few weeks ago disputing the New America Foundation's "hidden tax" report. That critique is here. New America responded here.

Trade is trade

In this San Diego Union-Tribune article on the possibility of a China-based company building an auto plant in Tijuana, I noticed this reference to a truck plant that another China-owned company has already opened in Jasper, Texas. The Texas plant will produce small off-road trucks based on designs from China's third-largest automaker.

Then there was this:

"Eighty percent of production at the Tiger Truck plant...initially will be exported."

So how do those exports affect our "trade deficit?" Since they are exports, they should reduce our deficit. But since the company doing the exporting is owned by a Chinese firm, maybe not.

This is another example that shows why we need to completely rethink our attitude towards trade, and balances of trade. It does not really matter with whom we are trading, whether they are next door, across town, upstate, on the other side of the country or on the other side of the world. Trade is trade. In the long run, we all benefit from it.

'Adulthood for adults'

Russell Roberts writes eloquently here on why he opposes a government ban on trans-fats.

UPDATE: And if you think he is overreacting, you might want to read about this British "crackdown" on middle-class wine drinkers.

Driving while smoking

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday or Thursday on SB 7 by Sen. Oropeza, which would make California the first state in the nation to ban smoking in a car with minors. The bill would create a $100 fine on anyone caught smoking in a vehicle containing someone 17 or younger...

GOP Leader's remap plan

Here is Mike Villines' press release on his latest redistricting proposal, ACA 4.

I like the idea of a random selection of commissioners. I know a lot of people say you have to be some sort of expert to do this, but I'm not buying it. You have to be an expert to actually draw the lines, but you don't have to be an expert to preside as a public commissioner over that process. I agree with Villines that if we can trust a panel of citizens to decide life and death in a murder case, we can trust them to draw political boundaries.

I also like most of the criteria he wants to use as guidelines. I am not sold, however, on the need to draw lines that maximize competition once everything else has been taken care of. I think the lines should reflect the communities, period. If that results in greater competition, fine. If not, too bad.

Regulating insurers

Via the California Progress Report, Here is the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights' report on their bill, AB 1554 (Dave Jones) that would regulate health insurance rates. Regulating rates is the great hope of the left in the battle to control health care costs. But while the bill seeks to control insurer profits, it does nothing about actual health care costs, from hospitals, labs, drugs and equipment to the salaries doctors and nurses earn. Not to mention our increased use of all of the above as we age and need or at least seek more medical care.

Whatever one thinks of insurance companies, the vast majority of the recent runup in costs comes from those other cost drivers, not insurance industry profits. Interestingly, the bill was amended in an Assembly committee to exempt insurers seeking rate increases of 5 percent or less or which spend 90 percent or more of each premium dollar on care rather than overhead and profits. If that 90 percent is lowered further to 85 percent, it would make the bill weaker than Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposal, which simply bans insurance companies from spending more than 15 percent of the premium on anything other than care. Looks like another door opened to compromise...

Declarations of Independence

The number of Americans who consider themselves either Democrats or Republicans has dropped to its lowest level in at least two years, according to a Washington Post poll released this morning. Just 57 percent of those surveyed said they considered themselves Democrats (32 percent) or Republicans (25 percent). Another 38 percent described themselves as independents, with 6 percent saying they were in a minor party or had no opinion. The historical data released with the poll went back only to April, 2005. The previous low for the parties was in the fall of 2005 when 58 percent claimed allegiance to one of them. You can see the full poll results here.