The Rest of the Story

GenRolly Speaking:Political insights by columnist Paul Rolly.

Friday, October 20, 2006

The Rest of the Story
I wrote on this blog Wednesday about the lawsuit filed by Republican activists Jim Decker, Ella Duke-Baxter and Maxine Barney, claiming their constitutional rights were violated because another person, not the plaintiffs, was allegedly barred from participating in Republican events.The lawsuit stemmed from the fact that 3rd District Judge Sandra Peuler issued an injunction against Republican activist Mike Ridgway, barring him from having any contact with Republican rival Mark Towner and his family.

It also alleged Republican leaders had stopped Ridgway from participating in certain Republican events.But Ridgway was not a plaintiff in the suit and the plaintiffs showed no damage to themselves as a result of the actions regarding Ridgway.

Federal Judge Ted Stewart dismissed the lawsuit as frivolous. No kidding? Stewart must have drawn the short stick. Before he reviewed the case and issued his order, federal judges Dee Benson, J. Thomas Greene, Bruce Jenkins and David Sam all recused themselves from the case, asking the court clerk to find someone else to hear it.Meanwhile, it appears the defendants Towner, Peuler and a group the lawsuit describes as "Utah State Republican Boss Hogs" were not even notified of the suit that was filed several months ago, nor were they served with any documents, as defendants in a case usually are.It seems Towner and Peuler would have been pretty easy to find for notification, although it is conceded that Republican Party "Boss Hogs" might have been a little difficult to track down.

On another matter: I erred in my blog earlier this week when I said State Reps. Jim Dunnigan of Taylorsville and Wayne Harper of West Jordan were running against each other for House Majority Whip. Dunnigan is running for assistant whip. So he will be vying against current Assistant Whip Ben Ferry of Corinne and Brad Dee of Washington Terrace.Harper is running for majority whip against Becky Lockhart of Provo and Gordon Snow of Roosevelt.I had made the point that if Harper and Dunnigan were running against each other, they would cancel each other out among the Salt Lake County vote and ensure the election of a non-Salt Lake County representative. But they are not running against each other so that argument is moot.I had compared them to Democrats in Salt Lake City who keep running against each other for mayor and cancelling each other out. So, apparently, Salt Lake County Republicans are not as foolish as Salt Lake City Democrats after all.Cheers,Paul Rolly
2:33 PM 0 comments

Panelists clash on the right to health care

By Angie WellingDeseret Morning News

A state senator believes that every Utah resident has a right to basic, affordable health care and would like to see such a right reflected in the Utah Constitution. Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, has written a constitutional amendment making it the "responsibility of the state to ensure that no resident of the state lacks access to basic, affordable health care." "This sets a framework," McCoy said of the proposed amendment, which he plans to introduce in the upcoming legislative session. "This does not define what the system looks like, this just sets out the fundamental principle." The amendment would have to pass both houses of the Legislature by a two-thirds majority and then be approved by voters in November 2008. The measure would force state lawmakers and the governor to work toward a solution to the rising number of uninsured and underinsured Utahns, McCoy said. "What the amendment says is, 'This is something that is so fundamentally important that you have to do it,"' he said. "Right now, we're doing nothing, and we do have a crisis."

Numbers vary by source, but estimates place Utah's uninsured between 300,000 and 400,000 people, with some 300,000 more underinsured. The proposed amendment was met with mixed reviews at a Thursday evening health-care panel discussion at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law. "This is laudable to the extreme," moderator Ted Wilson said of the "brave" proposal. "The question is, how do you do it?" That question, for some panelists, was the problem. Roberta Herzberg, head of Utah State University's political-science department, said it would be "irresponsible" to mandate health care for all without specifying how to fulfill the requirement. "Health care is one of these issues where we have a great deal of consensus at this general level and virtually no consensus when it gets down to the details," said Herzberg, who has done extensive research on health-care policy. "I'm happy to put an amendment into the Constitution if we are able to work out how we intend to achieve that goal as a state." Joe Jarvis, McCoy's Republican challenger in next month's election, also opposes the proposed amendment. It would be, at best, a symbolic gesture, said Jarvis, a physician and chairman of the board of trustees for the Utah Health Policy Project, a health-policy think tank. "The lack of a constitutional right to health care is not the reason Americans are uninsured," Jarvis said. Rather, he said, the problem is a health-care system with high overhead, high administrative costs and bureaucratic waste. In 2006, Americans will spend $2 trillion on health care, with 60 percent of that paid through tax dollars, Jarvis said. This summer, a national working group tasked with suggesting changes to America's health-care system recommended a universal health-care system that makes at least basic medical, mental-health and dental care available to all Americans. One of the recommendations from the Citizens' Health Care Working Group was a public policy that all Americans have affordable health care. Several panelists Thursday night said the problems have become a national crisis. "When one in four people can't afford the health care they need, you have a health-care crisis," said Bill Tibbetts, executive director of the Crossroads Urban Center, which supports McCoy's amendment.
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com