Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce and The Californian today to talk budget cuts.
(Read "Governor in town to talk about budget crisis" on Bakersfield.com.)
In his interview with The Californian, the governor slipped in a few comments about health care reform, an issue that seems to have been put on the back burner as the state scrambles to balance the books.
The governor's health care proposal died at the end of January when it failed to pass the Senate. (Read the posts "Governor's health plan flatlines" and "Governor's plan carries penalties for those who opt out of health coverage.")
Here are his comments from today:
"You wish you had more money available for all the reforms...That’s why we had a real problem with our health care reform.
"We knew that we needed $14 and a half billion in order to put all those various different reforms in place.
"We will go back. That doesn’t mean it's over. We are continuing to negotiate. We are continuing to hold those stakeholders together.
"We are using this opportunity to reevaluate and see where can we improve...We have extra time. Let's reevaluate the whole thing and improve on it and perfect it, so that the measure can pass the Assembly and the Senate."
(Thank you, Tara, for letting me listen to tape of the interview.)
