SUNDAY SAN DIEGO

A couple of weeks ago, the SD Reader’s cover story by Matt Potter, entitled "San Diego’s Bad Behavior in the Spotlight," was an insightful piece about some of the best political catfights and other donnybrooks in the area during 2006.

Most interesting was that significant portions of thearticle focused on how blogging impacted the political landscape throughout the year. First, a section on former Orange County Register editorial writer Chris Reed’s hiring by the San Diego Union-Tribune to pen America’s Finest Blog. Reed’s penchant to go after SD City Attorney Mike Aguirre resulted in Big Mike deciding he needed to blog back, and thus started The Aguirre Report.

Life has not been the same since.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

* If you have a badge issued to you by a member of the California Legislature, you may want to frame it for posterity. Speaker Fabian Nunez has announced that there will no longer be badges produced for non-legislators. Which really begs the question — why were badges created for non-legislators in the first place? I wonder if the current badge-holders will have to turn theirs back in. Undoubtedly for all of their hard work, Jason Kinney, Roger Salazer, Andrew Acosta and Steve Maviglio must have badges, no? I guess they will have to make their favorite drive from Sacramento to San Francisco while observing the speed limit. Sorry guys. * I can’t say how disappointing it is that the Governor has proposed what are, so obviously on the face of them, new taxes to finance this ill-fated government incursion into healthcare in California. When he and his senior officials are trying to thread some sort of needle over technical yet important distinction between a tax or a fee, then the Governor just doesn’t get it. For example, what kind of an person doesn’t think a hike in the payroll tax — is a payroll tax? After the… Read More

* If you have a badge issued to you by a member of the California Legislature, you may want to frame it for posterity. Speaker Fabian Nunez has announced that there will no longer be badges produced for non-legislators. Which really begs the question — why were badges created for non-legislators in the first place? I wonder if the current badge-holders will have to turn theirs back in. Undoubtedly for all of their hard work, Jason Kinney, Roger Salazer, Andrew Acosta and Steve Maviglio must have badges, no? I guess they will have to make their favorite drive from Sacramento to San Francisco while observing the speed limit. Sorry guys. * I can’t say how disappointing it is that the Governor has proposed what are, so obviously on the face of them, new taxes to finance this ill-fated government incursion into healthcare in California. When he and his senior officials are trying to thread some sort of needle over technical yet important distinction between a tax or a fee, then the Governor just doesn’t get it. For example, what kind of an person doesn’t think a hike in the payroll tax — is a payroll tax? After the… Read More

InDecember I praisedthe creation of the San Diego Institute for Policy Research, an effort by AMN Healthcare Exec and one time mayoral candidate Steve Francis to inject some additional free market thinking into the veins of the City of San Diego. (Maybe the City Council majority could use more than a free market speedball, perhaps also an intervention.)

At any rate, SDIRP is up and operating, apparently, as they just completed a survey through Competitive Edge Research & Communication called a "Barometer of San Diegans Opinions." Thanks to Competitive Edge guru John Nienstedt for shooting it over.

The results show that most San Diegans find the city’s financial situation bad, but getting better under the leadership of Mayor Jerry Sanders, who has high approval ratings. Additionally, Mike Aguirre has a relatively good showing, while folks are not so sure about the SD City Council. And, San Diegans do love the Governor.

Here is the press release:

San… Read More

Understand first that I write these blog posts between meetings and other business commitments as part of my day job, which is President and owner of a thriving insurance brokerage business. So let me apologize in advance for deficiencies in spelling and content. In my previous post on the Governor’s Health Insurance proposal, I pointed out the economic and legal reasons why its dead on arrival. At the end of the blog, I also point out why, if the Governor’s proposal were implemented and was successful, the health care system in California would collapse.

Health care affordability is at the core of what I help employers do every day.

So what steps should be taken now to make health insurance more accessible and affordable? Here are a few ideas:

1. Put the new money on the table first.Increase reimbursement rates for government run health plans first.Cost shifting to private plans will end and health insurance rates paid by employers and employees shouldcome down. When rates come down, access… Read More

Understand first that I write these blog posts between meetings and other business commitments as part of my day job, which is President and owner of a thriving insurance brokerage business. So let me apologize in advance for deficiencies in spelling and content. In my previous post on the Governor’s Health Insurance proposal, I pointed out the economic and legal reasons why its dead on arrival. At the end of the blog, I also point out why, if the Governor’s proposal were implemented and was successful, the health care system in California would collapse.

Health care affordability is at the core of what I help employers do every day.

So what steps should be taken now to make health insurance more accessible and affordable? Here are a few ideas:

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

REPUBLICAN SENATORS: CAN THEY STAND TOGETHER? Today, Senate President Don Perata will bring up the confirmation vote for Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education. Nunez is one of the top public employee labor union hacks in the state, and actually served as Chairman of the organized union-led effort to sink all of the meaningful and importance reforms that the Governor brought to the voters in the special election of 2005. If you look up Joe Nunez in the dictionary, you will see that he is a total union political hack. Senator Jim Battin penned a post on this site urging his colleagues to vote no. Voting against his confirmation, which under state law takes a 2/3 vote, should be one of the easiest votes that a Republican in the Senate has ever cast.

But it isn’t just an easy "no" vote, it is an important one. At stake is the… Read More

REPUBLICAN SENATORS: CAN THEY STAND TOGETHER? Today, Senate President Don Perata will bring up the confirmation vote for Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education. Nunez is one of the top public employee labor union hacks in the state, and actually served as Chairman of the organized union-led effort to sink all of the meaningful and importance reforms that the Governor brought to the voters in the special election of 2005. If you look up Joe Nunez in the dictionary, you will see that he is a total union political hack. Senator Jim Battin penned a post on this site urging his colleagues to vote no. Voting against his confirmation, which under state law takes a 2/3 vote, should be one of the easiest votes that a Republican in the Senate has ever cast.

But it isn’t just an easy "no" vote, it is an important one. At stake is the… Read More