Jerry Brown Rejects Universal Health Care for California

California Governor Jerry Brown blasted President Donald Trump and House Republicans on Wednesday for their proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare. But he also rejected the idea of California providing a single-payer, universal health care system on its own.

State Democrats introduced legislation to create a single-payer system last month, and Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom endorsed a similar proposal earlier this month as part of his campaign to replace Brown in the 2018 elections.

But Brown is throwing cold water on the idea.

First, on Wednesday, the Golden State governor stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and challenged the president to “come down from Trump Tower.”

“Mr. Trump, come down from Trump Tower and walk among the people and see the damage that this latest exercise in raw political power will wreck among the women, the men and the children of this country,” he said, according to the Sacramento Bee.

He said that the American Health Care Act, which is slated for a vote on Thursday, was “written by people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.” And he warned: “This is not about health care reform, this is about disease, death and suffering”

But speaking to reporters later about what California might do if Obamacare were in fact repealed, Brown rejected the single-payer alternative preferred by many of his state’s Democrats.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

“I don’t even get it,” said the governor. “How do you do that?”

He pointed out that the overall cost of medical care in California is equal to 18% of the state’s gross domestic product, which would be about $450 billion.

“You take a problem and say I’m going to solve it by something that’s even a bigger problem, which makes no sense,” he said.

Brown, who has often acted as a brake on Democrats’ plans for additional government spending, stressed the daunting cost of paying for health care for everyone: “Where do you get the extra money? This is the whole question.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.