Norberg is the current chair of the new statewide grassroots single-payer reform coalition, California United for Single-Payer (CUSP)
This is Steve Zelzer with Work Week and we have covered the struggle around health care, the situation of strikes uh, by healthcare workers and educators around the issue of healthcare and joining us today is Mark Norberg and he’s involved in organizing a statewide rally for health care in Sacramento.
0:22
Welcome Mark.
0:24
Thank you Steve. It’s an honor to be here. Thank you so much for giving my group an opportunity to share the work that we’re doing.
0:30
Great. So, why don’t you talk about your organization and this rally that you’re going to be having in Sacramento on March the 20th.
0:37
Sure. Thank you. So, um I’m the chair of California United for Single-payer – “CUSP” is our acronym and um the Calcare bill that’s being that’s been introduced by Ash Kalera. He introduced it about two years ago and at that point I was working with educators for single-payer. I’m heavily involved with my union and this was a group of teachers and we got hooked up with healthcare for us and a number of other organizations and just sort of a loose coalition to fight for that Calcare bill 2 years ago and there was a lot of energy and excitement over it. We really felt that we had the votes. We were working with the California Nurses Association and um the the bill went to the um uh healthcare committee. It passed the healthcare committee and then it went to the appropriations committee and we’re like here we go. And it was crushed in committee by Buffy Wix and all that year plus of organizing. I mean, we were assured it was going to get to the floor and that we had the votes and we were devastated, absolutely devastated. And we really had no plan B and we kind of licked our wounds for a while. And then after about 6 months, we said, “Okay, let’s let’s get together and let’s figure out what we want to do because we can’t.” This was like the fifth or sixth time a healthcare bill had come to the state and been crushed by one political organization or another. And so we met, we had a big summit last September and we were hoping, we were just inviting organizers.
2:10
We were hoping to get 20 organizers to show up and 70 organizers showed up. We had a whole all day summit. We broke into teams and really talked about what are we going to do. And what came out of that summit was we need to formalize an alliance between our groups. We don’t need a new organization to fight for healthcare.
2:29
We’ve got the people, but we’re not coordinating with each other. So, we drafted uh bylaws and we formed California United for Single-Payer. And there’s a few simple rules. First, in order to join, you have to be approved by two-thirds of the board. You have to agree to a few foundational principles.
2:49
Number one, that um we will not discuss any solutions that include for-profit healthcare insurers or or entities, right? we are only going to fight for publicly funded healthcare solutions. Um (2) you have to agree that um and understand that it is the Democrat party that is stopping this. The Democrat party is our opponent and we’re going to be calling them out. We’re going to call out the Democrat party and we’re going to call out individuals.
3:22
And then the third thing is anything any initiative that’s brought to our group that gets two-thirds support, it has to get two-thirds to pass. All members have to agree to support it. even if you didn’t vote for it, we want to be all for one and one for all kind of organization where you’ve got some skin in the game. And we opened our doors about 3 months ago to…to you know officially welcome people into the organization. And in that time 12 organizations have joined our group.
3:46
Healthcare for Us, Feel the Bern San Fernando Valley, PNHP Santa Barbara, that’s a health a physicians group, Hollywood for CalCare that comes out of the actors union. Educators for Single Payer-that was a group I’m involved with. The IDA Alliance, they fight for special education funding. San Gabriel Valley Progressives, Jewish and Allied Educators for Palestine, the San Joaquin Valley Democratic Club, Democratic Socialists of America, Santa Barbara, and Asians and Pacific Islanders for CalCare.
4:18
And you’ll notice there’s a few groups in there that are aligned with the Democrat party. And what we found was there’s immense anger within Democrat ranks. and people were willing to join us and say, “Heck yeah, I’m going to, I’m willing to to join this and call out my own party.” Um, we collectively represent 6,275 members. So, one of the things we agree to is when we have an initiative, when we send information out, everybody sends it to their entire database and everybody makes a good faith effort to um, you know, if it’s a boots on the ground kind of thing, bring people up there. So, our first really big event to kind of announce ourselves and and you know, push for single-payer is this Friday on March 20th. We’re holding a rally uh a day of action on the steps of the state capital. We’re on the West Lawn. It’s an all day event. Um we are going to uh begin about 11:00 in the morning. We’ll have medical mutual aid. We’ll have 12 organizations are going to have booths uh um there and and um ready to speak to people. One thing about our alliance is we are willing to work with anybody.
5:29
So you don’t a question I have is you know the uh your union I think you’re a member of the uh CTA and the California Nurses Association National Nurses Union say they’re for single-payer. Um they support single-payer. Where are they in this coalition? So, um this is an issue uh with unions,
5:49
Right? Um CTA and the NEA and um the Cal Nurses. They’re very much believe in the inside game that the Democrat party can be negotiated with.
6:02
But I mean, why wouldn’t they want a mobilization of their members? I know I’ve been covering Yeah. nurses strikes uh where nurses are fighting for health care. I mean, it’s crazy, but you know, healthcare workers don’t have healthcare.
6:16
They negotiate. Teachers have been fighting in San Francisco for health care. That’s been a major issue on the bargaining table. It seems like that issue of single-payer, everyone getting healthcare, taking it off the bargaining table would be a no-brainer for those unions that are facing fights themselves over healthcare.
6:36
Yes, you would think. I can’t speak for the California Nurses Association, but I am a member of the CTA and I’m heavily involved in it. And what I can tell you is that union leadership is heavily aligned with the Democrat party and they just don’t believe we’ve lost we’ve lost the mindset that unions are adversarial,
7:02
Right? That the way you win is you confront power and you you’ve you get power to fear you, right? That has changed. Um Kashama Sawant has a really great term. She calls it “business unionism.” And what’s happened over the years is unions went from like I mean you look at the history of unions like it was like violence right at first like people were< putting their lives on the line going against companies.
7:30
Now it’s we get a seat at the table with them right we sit down with them and if we are nice enough and we give good enough arguments they’ll give us things and that’s where they’re at. It is really frustrating talking to union leadership about the need to confront this. They just won’t do it. Now that’s changing. There are more and more people inside the union like myself which is like we need to divorce ourselves from this party.
7:53
Well, even even if you don’t divorce yourself from the Democratic party, which I in favor of Labor Party, but wouldn’t you want to mobilize your members who are fighting over these very issues to come and say, “Look, we’ve got to have singlepayer.” In fact, covering these rallies both of healthcare workers, Kaiser, and of educators, uh, UF and UC, none of the speakers talked about single-payer at these rallies, which was like bizarre. Here you are.
8:19
That’s one of your issues. Why wouldn’t you say we need single-payer to get it off the table and to fight these corporations uh HMOs who are basically ripping us off?
8:28
Yeah. No, there’s it’s it’s it’s really maddening. There’s three big reasons. One is they are heavily aligned with the establishment. So they want access to power. They do not want to piss off. You know, they’re having, you know, at the national level, they’re having dinner at the White House. I mean, these are they’re rubbing elbows with really powerful people and they’re not going to be in the union forever and they want jobs, right? There’s there’s opportunities if you show the Democrat party that you’re a team player.
9:01
Number two is that there’s you you would think that that union leadership would know what single-payer is. I’m a member of the badass teachers caucus, right? We’re a we’re a caucus within CTA. One of the things that the caucuses do is when somebody’s running within the union, you have to interview with the caucuses. We ask for for any level within the union, you know, do you support single-payer? I would say 99% of the candidates, the people that are that that interview that are running for leadership, they will say, to be honest, I don’t really understand what it is.
9:38
There is huge lack of understanding of what single-payer is and why it would transform our lives. But the question I have is these unions on the record for single-payer.
9:45
They say that they’re for it. They put out publicity. They put out articles.
9:49
Why haven’t they had an education campaign even among their own members to educate them about why we got to get rid of private control of healthcare? It seems like again a no-brainer.
10:00
So, so I can I mean again I could kind of shed some light. So support for single-payer is CTA policy now because of educators for single-payer and people within the union like myself.
10:14
We got that policy. But the leadership like the ultimate power within the the union lies with the body. There’s I’m a state delegate and we meet four times a year. We can override the leadership if you bring something to the floor. But there’s this huge co institutional tradition of you follow leadership.
10:34
Leadership for these reasons doesn’t really want it. A they are they don’t want to piss off the Democrats. Because a lot of them just don’t understand it. And C and this is a little insidious. I think this is in my personal opinion.
10:49
There is a fear within union leadership that if single-payer passes that’s one less reason to join a union. Because
10:56
what’s something you always hear about universal healthcare? It’s like, well, I have union negotiated healthcare, so I don’t I don’t I don’t I don’t need to fight for single-payer. There are a lot of people think their union negotiated healthcare is better than single-payer.
11:11
And union leadership believes I think that if we get that, it’s one less uh something one less thing that will appeal to people to join the union. It’s it’s sad because Isn’t that a capitalist free us up?
11:28
Isn’t that a capitalist ideology?
11:30
Totally. Totally. I mean, unions that we have the union unionism, business unionism is a real problem. Um, we have like the NEA is the largest labor union in the world. We have infrastructure second to none. We are embedded in every community from coast to coast and has some of its most trusted members. If the NEA, this is the National Education Association, if the NEA wanted to, it could be leading this country in the fight for universal healthcare. We could be doing it right now. And I I I am fighting these fights all the time inside the union. One reason I’m doing this is because I’m really getting frustrated with fighting within my own people. And so, you know, California United for Single-Payer, this allows me to have the fight just directly with the establishment. I don’t have to go through bureaucracy just to get outside of the union to have these fights.
12:23
So, nobody was organizing. No, no union was organizing a day of action. This day of action is totally outside the union.
12:31
But why haven’t is there one union that’s endorsed this rally?
12:37
Uh I don’t believe that there’s a union that has publicly endorsed. I mean that that’s bizarre that is on the record,
12:50
Right? It is it’s it’s complicated politics for BS reasons. I think it’s it’s poor leadership. It’s people not understanding the power that we have. I think it’s people overestimating the power of the Democrat party. And it’s going to take members, grassroots members, and those of you that are in unions, it’s going to take you getting involved with your union and pushing and and and shouting out these things and demanding that the unions get on board.
13:20
Um, I think a lot of it is again members sitting back and allowing the leadership to steer the ship and they’re not steering it in the right direction. And so that is why we’re doing this is to call out not just the Democrat party but also show our union like you could have been doing this like what are you doing?
13:38
And it’s an emergency situation with the cutbacks in Medicaid uh the uh end of the insurance subsidies for ACA.
13:46
3.4 million people are going to lose Medicaid in California. Um cutbacks in and public health system. Uh what are the conditions now for working people, poor people in California as far as getting healthcare? because these cutbacks are going to mean that people will probably die uh because they can’t get healthare.
14:05
No, there’s massive problems right now.
14:06
So, I’m just looking at some statistics right now like over 3,000 people die every year and just in California because of lack of healthcare. Nationally, it’s something like over 45,000. 60% of bankruptcies, 60% of personal bankruptcies are medically related. 60%.
14:26
Um, our costs are out of control. Like you were saying, we we pay double what any other country pays for worse outcomes. And here’s another really in from, you know, doctors used to not be on board, right, with this. The nurses always were, but doctors were like, I don’t know. Now they’re on board because of the the paperwork and the expenses to them and and the declines in applications. So in 2022, 30% of health care providers said they were getting 10% of their claims denied.
14:59
2024, just 2 years later, that jumped to 38% were saying 10% were getting denied. Now it’s at 41% of healthcare providers are saying 10% of their claims are being denied. It’s insane. So I think it is important to just explain like why single-payer will solve all these problems because I there’s there’s still a lot of misinformation. So right now we live in a multi-payer system. You go to your doctor, right? And they there are a multiple number thousands maybe of insurance companies they might apply to get refunded. They got to find out is it do do you are you in our network? Which insurance company is it? Right?multi-payers. The single-payer bill keeps all the medical providers still private.
15:46
So your doctor, the clinics, the hospitals, they’re still privately owned and operated. But it eliminates all the insurance companies and creates a single public publicly funded insurance plan. So when you go in, you go into your doctor, there’s no insurance company between you and your doctor. You and your doctor, and you and your doctor alone make the decisions on what you need. It is dealt with. He can refer you to anybody. There’s no more in network, out of network. You can go to any doctor you want, any clinic, any hospital. They have to take you. And when you go in, you sit with the doctor, you get what you need, and you leave. You don’t see a bill. You see nothing. There’s no co-pays. There’s no deductibles, nothing. And it is fully comprehensive.It covers everything. You know, obviously your body, but vision, dental, hearing, long-term care, everything.
16:38
And CalCare, the bill we’re fighting for this – the nurses union helped write it like they do deserve a lot of credit for pushing this and if it passes it will be like a world standard healthcare but what is it by the fact that the unions are not supporting this rally what does it say to the politicians because the politicians get their money from these unions they get their support from these unions — and other people they they’re supported by unions what does it say to the politicians that The unions themselves are not supporting a rally. It’s not revolution. It’s a rally for single-payer in Sacramento.
17:11
I mean, it’s like this is a reform of the system to have single-payer. Canada, they have single-payer. Other countries, they have single-payer. I mean, is it that radical to have national healthcare or single-payer?
17:22
No, it’s not. I mean, 90% like something like 90% of Californians want it. It’s not radical. But our our political system, the Democrat party, is not run by unions. It’s run by corporations.
17:33
Yes. The unions give money, but they do it for access. They don’t do it for control because the But you have like April Verrett who’s now president of the National SEIU was controller of the de California Democratic Party. Aren’t these people embedded in the Democrat totally there?
17:52
Well, but the the power comes from corporations. It’s corporations that control these parties. They don’t listen. They do not stay awake.
18:01
There’s no politician that stays awake. But I mean, look, look, has 750,000 members. Say that again. has what? 325,000 members in California. Isn’t that enough membership to have your own party, to have a Labor party?
18:15
Yes. Yes. All this is true. We could be leading the way in a third party of labor. We could be doing all of this, but the leadership is so embedded and so I mean, this is decades and decades of training, right? the the people that rise to leadership, these are very carefully cultivated people that are not going to rock the boat, right? So, by the time you become president or vice president or treasurer or head of a committee, you’ve already been pre-screened. Like, I’ll never ever be a rise to leadership in the union. I am considered a crazy radical. Now, I I still have sway. I mean, I I’m influential. People come up to me and go, “Oh my god, Mark, I love it when you come to the mic. It’s so true.” And I’m like, “Well, then like vote for stuff that I’m talking about.” Right? But it’s you it’s just it’s a it’s decades of the mindset that you follow that you follow leadership. And look, most people, they’re not bad people. They honestly believe that they’re doing the right thing. They honestly believe I I’ve had these conversations.
19:24
They’ll say to me, “Mark, I agree with what you’re saying, but you have to be a realist. The fact of the matter is the Democrat party is in charge. They have two/3 majorities. It’s not changing. And if we don’t align with the Democrat party, then we get nothing.” That’s their mindset. And this idea that I believe like we can we can kick them out. We leave them and form our own party. We don’t even have to be big enough. We don’t have to be as big as a Democrat party. We just have to be big enough where they can’t win without us.
19:58
But well the base the base of the Democratic party in California is are the trade unions without the trade unions right and the labor movement. Where would the Democratic party be? Now another issue I want to talk about is the whole question of privatization of Medicare because there’s this program which you’re familiar with Medicare Advantage and United Healthcare uh which was involved in denialism using AI to deny people is in charge now the majority of Medicare privatization of Medicare through Medicare advantage.
20:22
Yeah. And yet the unions are actually pushing that. I mean the AFL CIO other unions are pushing Medicare Advantage. How do you figure that?
Well, because it gives them the veneer of supporting health care reform,
20:34
right? Because again, the biggest problem we face is ignorance. People do not understand that there’s a difference between Medicare Advantage and Medicare for all. And they don’t even they they you know, like they go, “My grandma has Medicare. Like it’s it sucks.” It’s like, “No, Medicare, the kind we’re talking about, it’s it’s it’s yes, kind of like what your grandma has, but it’s a million times more robust.” Right. Um
20:58
uh uh go back to your question really quick.
21:04
Well, the question is the privatization. Oh yeah. Medicare I mean uh you know Medicare did not cover everything like dental like I and these companies including Nancy Pelosi with the support of Nancy Pelosi said we’re going to make Medicare better by allowing companies to provide other things that Medicare is not covered. So they put in this Medicare, you know, uh, advantage, which now has been taken over by United Healthcare, these private companies that are denying people health care. Yeah. And and what’s going to happen, one reason that they like this is they want some kind of really cheap health care system set up that they’re still making profit from, but that’s just bare bones. Because what’ll happen is they’ll dump all the people that arereally high risk off the the premium plans.
21:52
Sure. the public will be on the hook. So, this is what they’re setting up these dumping grounds. It’s like charter schools,
21:58
Right? Charter schools suck up the money. They kick out the kids that are low performers that have to go back to the public schools that the same thing’s happening to healthcare. And and again, because there’s so much ignorance, it sounds great, right? The way they frame it, it sounds like they’re doing something, but they’re not. They’re just slaying the table for more profit gutting from the insurance companies. It’s all BS. The only thing that’s going to work is we have to if CalCare or Medicare passes you insurance companies will not be allowed to sell anything that’s covered by CalCare. The only thing they’ll be able to provide is insurance for non-electric procedures. So they’ll be this little tiny boutique insurance company for like people that you know want nose jobs and that’s it. But I do want to say one thing. We’re going into this under very clear-eyed. it the the chances that the Democrat party is going to let this pass is almost zero.
22:54
Almost zero. And we’re fully aware of that. But what’s different this time, a I mean, Ash Kalra is bringing this forward. So, we felt like it’s would we’d lose an opportunity to talk about healthcare if we didn’t do something for this.
23:09
Is he going to be speaking? He is not. He is not. He He is aware of what we’re doing. He’s
23:15
I don’t understand what what is this? you’re having a rally for his bill in Sacramento and he can’t speak at the rally.
23:20
He sent us he sent us a letter was he was trying to make it there’s some kind of schedule conflict and I I don’t have any reason to doubt that. I mean the fact that he stuck his neck out and is even putting the bill out there. I got nothing but nice things to say about Ash. Um but but we are anticipating they will do the same thing. They’ll crush it in one of the two committees. But this time what we’re doing is we’ve now got this alliance and we are already we have four committees. We’ve got an education committee, coalition building strategy, and um communication. Our strategy committee is already building out a year plus strategy for the eventuality that
24:06
what about what about a union committee because it seems as you said even in the CTA it’s not a top priority. I mean the CTA for example if they supported this rally they could have TV ads throughout the state if you have a health care problem under private healthcare with Kaiser with Hos with come to the rally and speak out.
24:22
I mean that would be they could we could win on this. They know that the the NEA could we could win. I mean, imagine the CTA. We could have uh forums explaining what Calare is in every single school building in every ommunity throughout the state. We could do it could be coordinated. This is the kind of infrastructure we have. We could do a week where we get the entire state of California talking about Calgary.
24:48
They won’t do it. I have brought these things to the union. I’m a I’m a delegate. I can bring bills to the floor. I have I have brought bills to say let’s organize. And they’ve well well even like even in Sacramento there two strikes there uh that have taken place in Sacramento. The strike issues is healthcare.
25:05
Yeah. In these strikes. Yes.
25:07
I mean are I mean you’re like hey this is what you’re striking for. Why don’t we have a statewide
25:14
this what you’re saying right now the anger that I’m hearing in your voice the exasperation. That’s why we’re doing this because the second the second you start explaining what’s going on that this is the reaction that people get.
25:25
They’re like, “What? Why aren’t we doing this?” And that’s what we want. We want to shine a spotlight on this so that when they kill it, we’re ready to mock people up and bring them on and say, “Look, we’ve got an organization. We’ve got a plan. We will move towards a ballot measure. If this fails, we’re done. If this fails, we are done going the legislative route and we’re going to build a statewide coalition of the willing and go for a ballot measure either statewide or maybe like a city kind of ballot measure, which is possible, but we’re meeting with people now that have expertise in crafting ballot measures to talk about what kind of things we need to talk to be thinking about. We’ve got a lot of growing to do to get to that point, right? We are nowhere near that but we do that’s our game plan.
26:13
Well are you are you going to have speakers I mean there’s so many people hurting health care workers who are fighting for healthcare hospital Kaiser I mean teachers these teachers I mean there’s so many workers in California nationally who in their negotiations their in their
26:30
union negotiations are fighting for healthcare. If it was off the table the money would go to wages instead of the healthcare the insurance companies. Are they be speaking at this round?
26:40
Yes. So, added Yeah. So, in addition to those organizations that are going to have booths and we’re doing our medical mutual aid, we’re going to be doing legislative visits, right, where we’re issuing summons to the legislators. So, anybody who’s RSVPd, if they want, they’ll meet and we’ll have streams of people going to the different offices. And then starting at about 1 1:30 I think our speaker stage opens up and we’ll have speakers from each one of our um organizations right plus um uh workers strike back is coming uh the green party is going to be there and code pink and we have the last hour of our show is our featured speakers we have Melanie Cohen from Code Pink will be speaking Tina Frederick’s from Pasadena school board representing teachers and school boards and the education. Um Dr. Melina Abdullah from Black Lives Matter. Kshama Sawant is coming in from Washington from Workers Strike Back and Dr. Butch Ware is going to be uh
27:48
but what about what about people who are losing family members who are going bankrupt uh union members who arefighting for health care. I mean, when I’m interviewing these health care workers and they’re talking about I need they want to pay more and more from healthare and asked me negotiations.
27:57
They instituted price increases for their healthcare while they were without contract. Uh it seems like these workers are the ones that should be talking about I’m getting screwed as a healthare worker. I can’t even get healthare.
28:09
Yeah, absolutely. Uh everybody that RSVPs when they get their confirmation uh there’s a link we have open mic uh opportunities. So, if you want to get up and speak about your healthcare experience, you just fill out a link and then we we’re popping it in the schedule. So, we’ve got I mean, it’s almost 4 hours of of opportunities between our organizers and our featured speakers. So, if anybody uh wants to go, you just we want you to RSVP in advance um so that we can um have some kind of idea of the crowd size and um uh if you want to speak, we just want to know, okay, what’s your topic? You know, what’s your story? immigrants immigrant uh immigrants have been faced with cutbacks in their healthcare as well. Yeah, these are the workers that do our our help our food production and they’re not going to have healthcare. I mean, this is a threat to the public and and the and these immigrant workers who are doing our health our farm work.
29:10
Well, yeah. I mean, every every um kind of segment of the society, you know, there’s the the general things that will help everybody like the stuff that we’ve already talked about, but each kind of segment of of the working class and the the job market, it gets impacted differently. So, like for example, um the here in California, um film making, right? We have the Hollywood for Calcare is part of our group. They’re all in the industry and they’ve said we lose millions and millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars in in business opportunities because film companies,they don’t want to come and shoot here because we we don’t offer free healthcare. They go to Canada. They they say it happens all the time that film shoots, especially from other countries, they’re like, “No, we’re going to go shoot in Canada. They got free healthcare.” Um, small businesses, if you talk to any small business owner, the crushing costs of providing healthcare is off the charts. Um, having the ability, how many people do you know that are like, I can’t quit my job. I’ll lose my healthcare. We are imprisoned by this. And look, that’s intentional. And when I talk about like, you know, that the corporations run the Democrat party, not only do they want this, do they want the system because of the immense profit that’s being extracted. I mean, we’re talking billions and billions of dollars. It is a way to control the working class, right? Corporations do not want you to be able to leave whenever you want, you know, and just go and move around to any job. They want the fact that you’ll lose your healthcare. They want that there because they can then, you know, extract other things, not give you that raise, you know, the working conditions, you’ll deal with it because or even strikes. If you go on strike, you have to be fearful. healthare the the SAG after guild these long strikes if you have a family member that has cancer this is a nightmare to go on strike because you’re going to lose your healthcare you know this is like that will all be lifted the power of the working class I mean it’ll be transformative that that’s the thing is that having you would think there’s sometimes in this fight you know when people are being abducted off the streets and there’s world war II happening people say well you know is this the fight is healthcare really the And
31:31
I’m like, it is a central fight. It is a central fight. If we get singlepayer healthcare, it will take the biggest bite out of the capitalist system that we’ve ever seen. And then we can go on to the next fight with this alliance and these relationships.
31:42
Well, one of the things that is an obstacle and the Democrats have created this is uh it has to be approved by the federal government and you know they have written a law so you have to get an approval from the government. the government, federal government, Trump of course wants to privatize everything.
32:00
Uh they don’t want public health care and they want people basically uh to get a cash and then you negotiate for your healthcare.
32:08
What do you think about that and the fact that the federal government has to approve anything that how can you do it on a state level alone?
32:14
So look the the the best way to do this is at the national level. There’s no question because the federal government it doesn’t have to worry about balancing books. like you can just pay for stuff, right? And at a f at a federal level, you’re paying for the war.
32:30
Exactly. I mean, you you know these things like we can’t afford it. It’s all BS cuz the minute we want to destroy a third world country or you know go to or blow people out, suddenly there’s just buckets of money. They they can literally print their own money. So doing at the federal level is is where we need to do. And most states, they just don’t have the size or the infrastructure or the tax revenue to manage it. But California is the fourth largest economy in the world. We are larger than most countries that have single-payer healthcare. So California has the infrastructure to implement this. There’s no question. And I don’t know the specific specific intricacies of the law, but it we there’s already a the the a plan laid out. So the Calcare bill, it does not provide a funding mechanism.
33:23
So if the Calcare bill passes, all it says is the state of California must provide these following things, right?
33:30
Then it would go to like an appropriations discussion where the the legislature would then decide, okay, exactly how do I want to pay for this?
33:38
And then that what they would do is the money that we get for medic Medicare, the law says that you can you can take that money and not spend it on the federal Medicare program if you’re providing something of equal or better service. So according to the law right now, we would then be able to take that federal chunk and put it into the CalCare because it’s providing what it’s supposed to be providing and more.
34:06
Right? So there are some intricacies that have to be followed. Um but this legislally legally this absolutely can happen.
34:15
Yeah. But this legislature won’t even tax the billionaires. I mean well they’re saying that they they needed an initiative to tax the billionaires. But they Democrats have a super majority 2/3 majority in the legislature. They could have an oil depletion tax. They could have all kinds of tax on the billionaire. They’re refusing to do it. He doesn’t even talk about it.
34:37
Yes, they can do anything they want. And this this ridiculous notion that we just have to get Democrats elected. Come to California and let us show you what happens when you get super super majorities of Democrats. Super majorities. They They just stand for the billionaires. This is It’s a shame.
34:53
Well, I have a question. Why would the CNA be supporting Tommy Styer, another billionaire for governor? You have to ask the CNA. I don’t want to speak for the CNA. Um, but I mean, you know, like, do we need more billionaires in our in our government?
35:08
The the unions, they take their cue from the Democrat party. They I mean, they they are looking for because again, they believe in access to power. So, what they’re looking for is this happens all the time. They they don’t pick the candidate that’s best. They pick the candidate that they are pretty sure is going to win. And then they get behind that candidate. And then when that candidate wins, well, now they’ve given that candidate money and they’ve been friendly and now the the theory goes that they’ll you’ll have an in with this new administration.
35:39
But Nome promised to provide single-payer too when he was Absolutely. Absolutely. The Democrats when when Schwarzenegger was governor, they brought the bill to the floor. They passed it because knowing he would veto it, right? I mean, it’s a game. And I think people are waking up, but we’re here to, you know, really expose and continue to point out what’s going on and to say to the working class, you got to wake up. You’ve got to wake up. You’ve got to start paying attention. You’ve got to do your homework. You need to understand what single-payer is. You have to be able to talk about it to your friends and family. And you’ve got to be able to take on the the arguments. There’s literally no reason not to do it. You know, uh you’ll hear like, “Oh, we can’t afford it.” Every single study shows it will cost us less money. Even the Koch brothers tried to find a way that it would cost more money. Google Koch brothers Medicare report. They had an internal report. They paid people to find a way to show it would cost more. They couldn’t do it and they buried this study and then it got out that even the co-corporation couldn’t figure out how it would cost more money. Well, this whole idea of Trump that you’re going to give cash to people and then they’re going to go out and negotiate for health care as an individual. No. And what’ll happen is, you know, if if if you think this voucher plan is going to work, and you see, people are suffering so much that these crazy plans, they’re built to sound really good on the surface, right?
37:13
So, all that’ll happen if everyone gets like a $10,000 check every year, what do the insurance companies do? they’re just going to jack up their rates even more because they know you got 10,000, right? And they’ll jack it up so that you’re back to still on the verge of bankruptcy. As long as there is for a for-profit entity in healthcare, it will not work. You will have these constant problems of healthcare getting denied, healthcare costs skyrocketing. Those will never go away because of the capitalist dynamic. It pushes you to prioritize capital over people, right?
37:46
and things like education, healthcare, military should never be pro profited uh uh be for profit, right? Because that’s what’s going to lead the horse is how do we make more money? We need these things publicly owned, right? Like public schools where it’s about the students, what’s best for people that needs to be at the center.
38:08
But I mean, charters now in California nationally, I mean, you know, uh these money that they want to go in California for bonds now for education is going to charter schools.
38:20
People are paying for charter schools with taxes that are privately run. Uh they’re introducing AI into these charter schools. Uh uh I focused on one in Richmond where they the owner wanted to have uh training his students uh uh on software to make money from software, the introduction of software into into education for profit.
38:43
Yeah. And the jury’s out. I mean, we’ve now had charter schools for what, 20 years or something like that. The data is out. Charter schools do not perform better than public schools. In fact, I think most studies shows public schools actually perform better. And it is rife with corruption. Just Google charter school corruption. It is story after story.
39:02
Well, I mean, Twin Cities in Sacramento area, $140 million disappeared. Yep. From a charter school.
39:10
Yeah. What is interesting about this story in Twin Cities is that there’s been no investigation. Rob Bont, the attorney general, is not even investigating where are the $140 million. So, they’re shutting schools, public schools in California, and $140 million has gone missing at the Twin Cities, I mean, you know, Twin River School District in Sacramento, which just went on strike, the the public school teachers. So, the cover up of the corruption in these charter schools. I mean, where is this? Where’s the state? Where’s Rob Bonner? Where are the governors? Where’s the Tony Thurman school? That’s their donors. That’s their donors. They’re they they are they are not going to uh go against their task masters. And again, just to the another point about these charter schools, just like these these, you know, uh cheapy health care plans, it’s a dumping ground. It creates uh you know, charter schools do not they kick kids out that are low performing. The the public schools become the dumping ground, you know, and they’re underfunded.
40:17
Every charter school has money being taken away from a public school, right? Um so, but why do why does the CTA and the CTF support charter schools?
40:27
Again, because they they don’t want to. There’s huge reticence to rocking the vote and going up against the political establishment. I mean, this if you’re undermining if you’re undermining public schools, like all these school closures, many of them now in San Francisco and Oakland, there are public schools. The charter schools stay open. So, here we are closing public schools and the charter schools are staying open. Isn’t that destroying public education?
40:51
Yes. Yes. I mean, unions are they’re they’re they’re going to face a reckoning if unions don’t um you know, get their priorities straight. It people are people are really unhappy. Um the survey just we just did a survey of um Cal CTA members and it’s public survey. Uh, and it was grim.
41:19
Like the number of teachers, I think it was I want to say something like 60% but don’t quote me are like living paycheck to paycheck. The number of people that are working two or more jobs. PE the number of the percentage of teachers that are making less money yearover-year because of the rising health care costs. That was striking. I mean, horrific numbers. And my question is always, okay, what’s the battle plan to address this? What are we doing? This this we’re acting like it’s 1972.
41:43
It’s the same stuff we’ve been doing for decades. It’s get behind the Democrat party. I mean, we just gave it was Prop 50, right? That allowed the Democrats to basically secure their majority, their supermajorities in this state, right? We gave them $5 million. The CTA gave them $5 million of our dues to get that passed to advertise that. Okay, great. But all that’s doing is protecting the status quo, right? Nothing for single-payer.
42:20
But that’s my point is this thing that’s happening now that would transform our lives. Not a penny, not a penny to support it. Nothing. It’s maddening. It’s maddening. And members need to speak up and start putting pressure because as long as the as long as members are sitting back and going,
42:41
well, the leadership must know what it’s doing. This is the world that we’re in and we are sitting on the power to change it right now. We have the power to change this state and we we better use it or we’re going to lose it.
42:57
Okay. Well, thanks for joining us, Mark. What why don’t you say again what the rally is, what time, where, and how people can get in touch to go to it. It’s California United for Single-payer.
43:05
It’s this Friday, March 20th. It’s in Sacramento, on the steps of the State Capital on the West Lawn. We’re starting at 11:00 in the morning. It’s an all day event. If you go to I don’t know if you can post links on this, but um I’ll give you all the information. Um there’s a full day schedule. Come for part of the event, stay for the whole day. Um and um you know promoting our event is very very helpful. Um donating to CUSP if you can joining CUSP if you’re a member of an organization that you think would be make a great addition let us know. We’d love to talk to anybody and everybody and individuals can join can can be on our committees and help with all of the actions that we’re doing. So, um, come one, come all and, um, do what you can to be there and lend your
43:58
And are you going to be streaming the rally live so people can watch it even if they can’t go there?
44:05
Yes, that’s our plan. We’re we’re working on a streaming option and we have a couple um podcasters that we’re hoping will be there interviewing and also streaming. You should come and uh interview people for your show. You’re welcome.
44:12
I’m planning to be there. I’m planning to be there. That’s awesome. Thanks for joining us, Mark. Thank you,
44:18
Steve, so much. Thank you for the opportunity. Really appreciate it. Great.
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