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Biss’ legislative history on single-payer is different than his current rhetoric

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* You may recall this response by Sen. Daniel Biss to JB Pritzker’s Medicaid buy-in proposal on Tuesday…

In the language you cite, JB states he supports a “federal” single-payer system. The criticism Daniel made of his plan, is that he doesn’t support a state level single payer system. Indeed, the fact that Trump and Republicans control Congress is all the more reason a single-payer system at the state level, as we’ve seen with efforts in CA, is needed. The larger point is, while it’s nice he supports a federal level system, he’s not running to be governor of Congress. He’s running to be governor of Illinois, and his position on single-payer for the state is what Democratic primary voters want to know.

That’s a critical distinction among Dem primary voters and among the candidates in this race. I’d hate for people to get the impression that he supports single-payer, writ large, as your piece implies. Because he doesn’t.

* Mark Maxwell at WCIA looked at Biss’ history, however, and came up with something entirely different…

In 2011, Biss voted against a single-payer task force. The Health Care Justice Implementation Task Force never came to fruition, in part, because Biss voted against it. The primary goal of the task force would have been to draw up a blueprint for how to implement a statewide single payer healthcare plan. Big businesses successfully lobbied against the measure through the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

In the same year, Biss passed on another chance to demonstrate his support for single-payer. Representative Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) filed the Illinois Universal Health Care Act which called for a statewide single payer healthcare plan. Flowers’ bill gained the support of eight co-sponsors, including some of the most prominent members of the House Democratic Caucus. Biss was not one of them.

Last month, Biss told a group in a church on Chicago’s south side, “There’s not been a vote on a single payer issue, a single-payer piece of legislation in Springfield so I don’t have a voting record on it.”

As a member of the General Assembly, Biss has the power to sponsor bills and file them with the legislature. To date, he has not filed a bill calling for statewide single-payer healthcare.

When asked about these specific votes, the Biss campaign dodged.

Instead, spokeswoman Abby Witt responded with a statement saying, “Daniel has supported single-payer for his entire career and continues to now. He’s been clear that not just nationally, but in Illinois, we need a comprehensive plan that includes universal access to health care, and a truly progressive plan to pay for it that isn’t balanced on the backs of the middle class, but instead by asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.”

That roll call referenced above is here.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:30 am

Comments

2011 Biss is correct; while single-payer is the best, Illinois over the last decade has been in no condition to enact a single-payer system. While Biss is definitely a progressive, he has enough technocratic instincts to recognize this.

His current position is just politics, and while it’s a little silly, it’s probably good politics; it got his name in every story that wrote up Pritzker’s plan and is good base management for the voters he’s building off of right now.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:35 am
“[Rep. Will] Davis, however, told me the 15-day clock doesn’t start until the Senate reconvenes, and there’s no set date when that might occur.”

Constitution: The house to which a bill is returned shall immediately enter the Governor’s objections upon its journal. If within 15 calendar days after such entry that house by a
record vote of three-fifths of the members elected passes the bill, it shall be delivered immediately to the second house.

SB 1 on August 1 in Senate: Placed on Calendar Amendatory Veto

So when does the 15 day limit begin?

Comment by winners and losers Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:35 am
===So when does the 15 day limit begin? ===

Not that it is at all related to this post, but the 15 day clock starts for the House once the Senate has completed its action and transmitted the bill to the other chamber.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:44 am
History on single payer? Having attended a meeting featuring Biss and Nekritz on pension reform several years ago, one could not describe him as progressive on that topic. He was hard right. What gives on these stances of his?

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:49 am
Thanks, Rich, but please look at the Davis quote again. He is talking about when the 15 days begin for the SENATE.

Comment by winners and losers Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:52 am
==What gives on these stances of his?==

The lane for “Progressive Champion” is a lot wider than the lane for “Number-crunching technocrat”.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:55 am
What give is Biss is saying whatever he needs to say to try And win. He has claimed to changed his positions on this, taking pensions away from working people, charter schools, independent maps, oh, and he talks about the need to make full pension payments but just voted for a budget that shortchanged the pension systems and called it “leveling”. He is really duping the scores of millennials who seem to be supporting him. It’s unfortunate.

Comment by Northshore Bluedog Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:56 am
Biss and his people need to put the brakes on the spin. The base he is building will not put up with it; they will drop him like a rock. Be honest with conveying the evolution of the position on the issue. The moment he’s perceived like that spun statement makes him look, he’s toast with the group he’s building.

Comment by Markus Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 9:56 am
===He is talking about when the 15 days begin for the SENATE===

Again, this is unrelated to the post. But as I told everyone on Tuesday afternoon, the Senate journalized the AV that day, so the clock started that day in the Senate.

Keep up.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 10:00 am
It’s probably good Biss doesn’t actually support single payer because it’s terrible policy. The real question is why does he insist on ripping off Bernie talking points without any substance? Biss has always been about raising money. He saw the Bernie campaign raise a ton of dough, now he’s trying to be the knockoff. If the Biss campaign was serious about winning, he wouldn’t be modeling his strategy off a candidate who lost in Illinois.

Comment by Mugsy Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 10:07 am
=Having attended a meeting featuring Biss and Nekritz on pension reform several years ago, one could not describe him as progressive on that topic. He was hard right. What gives on these stances of his?=
Agreed. When Biss supported clearly illegal pension diminishment he Biss went so far right as to set-aside his oath to support the Illinois Constitution.

Comment by Squeezy Lives Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 10:21 am
I was against it before I was for it. Sounds a lot like former Presidential candidates from a few cycles ago who used to be against equal marriage then became for it.

Comment by DuPage Bard Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 10:28 am
Biss’ campaign is talking out of both sides of its mouth.

The reality is that Biss the mathematician is also a calculating politician.

In 2011, as a state rep, he was a target in a battleground district who opposed Single Payer and a lot of other progressive economic policies due to political calculations.

When he became a state senator in a safe democratic seat, the math changed slightly. For example, he started voting for a progressive income tax.

Now that he is running in a statewide Democratic primary, the math has changed again.

The problem or concern voters have is that there is really no sense of what Biss’ calculations would be if by some fluke he weee in the General Election or elected governor.

He really seems to shift with the tides. Base voters want a lighthouse, not a bouy.

Comment by Free Set of Steak Knives Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 10:31 am
Shocking! A politician changes his tune when it serves him well when running for a new office? Biss has changed his position on other policies to make himself seem more “progressive” than he has been in the past. So this isn’t too surprising.

Comment by Shytown Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 11:07 am
Sometimes I think too many of the politicians and commentors here are smoking something. Single Payer in Il? From the state that doesn’t pay pension payments, that can’t fund schools, that has let our roads crumble away, that can’t keep rest areas open on the interstates, that keeps thousands of disabled people on a waiting list for services-for years! Really, this is the state we want to organize single payer. Good luck with that.

Comment by NeverPoliticallyCorrect Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 11:14 am
Biss is a poor state senator and would make an even worse state governor. The only comparison that makes Biss look good is Biss versus Rauner, not Biss versus his primary opponents.

He was probably better suited to his classroom where he didn’t have to spin the facts to provide math education. Or maybe he did in an attempt to be popular with his students.

Comment by former southerner Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 11:35 am
The biggest problem the new and improved Bernie-Bro Biss has is his hypocrisy. He has a record and this is one of many, many examples of where the old Daniel and the new Daniel could have a pretty robust argument with themselves (I really liked the smary, wonky, technocrat old Daniel).

As Maxwell pointed out, he was against single-payer. He never voted for single-payer. He never introduced a single-payer plan. And yet he and his spokespeople thought they could get away with pretending he’s been the greatest champion of single payer this side of Bernie.

Same with his pretending to be a Bernie supporter in an attempt to appeal to frustrated progressives. I’ve been told he passed petitions for Hillary. He was a strong Hillary person. But now he talks about the problems with millionaires and billionaires like he’s channeling either Bernie or Larry David.

And then there’s the whole condemning money in politics. So, I could be mistaken, but didn’t he run a superpac that raised ten million from the people he’s now condemning.

Daniel Biss, Pick a Lane.

Comment by Anon0091 Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 12:07 pm
Single-payer is a pipe dream right now and Biss knows it. But politically it’s a smart position for the base and it’s an admirable and not inconceivable long-term goal we could start laying the groundwork for, especially considering how much attitudes towards health care have changed since Biss’s last encounter with this issue in 2011.

If you’re looking for an experienced politician with zero contradictions in his record…good luck.

Comment by Teddy Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 1:56 pm
I bet all of the Dem candidates for Governor have more progressive positions than they did 6 years ago!

Biss should just own it, because as the ‘progressive candidate’ I bet he’s going to get this a lot, and he certainly is going to have to answer for the pension stuff. He clearly has the most progressive platform, so rather than turn every point on his agenda into a debate about his legislative history, just hallelujah I’ve seen the light and let’s march together towards this progressive paradise.

Comment by Century Club Friday, Aug 4, 17 @ 2:36 pm