Welcome to my official website. Now that I'm no longer in the California State Legislature, but, instead, am a member of the California Integrated Waste Management Board, this site is intended to help you learn about me--my past, present and future.
It is also a place to read current essays, learn how to subscribe to my essays, if you wish, and contact me.
It has long been my intention and my privilege to spend my life in public service. My bio shows a good deal about how I went about that, but there is still much to do. I hope that you will enjoy the website. Thanks for visiting.
NEW!
by Sheila Kuehl
June 29, 2009
As many of you may know, I was the author of a bill to establish a Medicare-like, single payer program in California. The bill passed both houses of our state legislature in 2006 and, again, in 2008, and was vetoed both times by the current Governor. Since I termed out of the Legislature at the end of last November, the bill is being carried this year by Sen. Mark Leno (SB 810).
In 2008, not-yet-President Obama proposed, as a part of his healthcare reform package, the establishment of a "public option"---an insurance plan offered by the federal government as an alternative to private health insurance, and against which the private companies, left in place, would compete. I have been asked how those who support single payer should respond to this proposal and how those who want health reform for the country might express their opinions. >> Budget Essay #11: 2009 Budget Blues Part Three: We Dance, We Drill and (Hopefully) We Defyby Sheila KuehlJune 22, 2009 This is the third in a series of new essays on the current (May-June 2009) state of California budget considerations and analyses on contributing factors. In this essay, I describe how the Republicans force an all-cuts budget and then vote against the cuts, what the Floor votes on the Democratic Conference Committee budget meant, and options for a majority-vote budget fix. >> Budget Essay #10: 2009 Budget Blues Part Two: California Is Terminatedby Sheila KuehlJune 11, 2009 This is the second in a series of new essays on the current (May-June 2009) state of budget considerations and analyses on contributing factors. In this essay, I set out the magnitude of the gaps and the Governor's proposals for cuts, cuts, cuts to the 08-09 and 09-10 budgets. >> Budget Essay #9: 2009 Budget Blues, Part I: Interpreting the Failure of Prop 1Aby Sheila Kuehl This is the first in a series of new essays on the current state of budget considerations and analyses on contributing factors. In this essay, I report the Governor's opinion that Prop 1A failed because everyone voted against new taxes, and a subsequent poll on the subject which came to a different conclusion. >> Prop 8 Ruling: The Court Has Lost Its Wayby Sheila Kuehl
May 26, 2009 It had been my intention to write my next essay on Prop 1A, not Prop 8, and to analyze poll results from voters who opposed 1A, and to go from there to present some possible approaches to a balanced budget. But the California Supreme Court ruled this morning that Prop 8 could, in fact, be adopted by a simple majority of those voting in an election. After reading the opinion, I decided to write this essay. The entire opinion dangled from one very weak premise: that, somehow, even though the Court insisted, in the Marriage Cases opinion last year, that the word "marriage" was so important it couldn't be denied without violating the State Constitution, they suddenly decided, this year, (with the exception of Justice Moreno, writing in dissent) that marriage is nothing but a word and that denying such a word to same sex couples did not represent a "revision" rather than an "amendment" to the Constitution. Below, language from the opinion (which also upheld the validity of the 18,000 marriage performed before the election, creating an interesting apartheid in California) and some thoughts. (To read the entire essay, click on the title, above).
(To read past essays on the failed Propositions, the budget and State Boards, click on "Read archived essays"). Read archived essays. |
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