TAKE CARE OF CALIFORNIA …

A couple hours from now, Gloria and I will board a plane (one of four in a multi-transfer flight) to Michigan to help pass Proposal 2, (see "Miracle in Michigan ").

And as we get to the white-knuckle takeoff. part of me will wonder: what if the plane crashes?

What would be the last unasked advice I would want to leave?

That's easy. Take care of California : specifically, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, our beloved CIRM.

The world depends on it.

The global economy is crashing because of the very problem the CIRM is fighting.

Chronic disease, not just Wall Street greed, is bringing us down.

America (and the world) is going broke paying for the chronically ill.

Let me prove that, by asking one simple question:

Can you subtract two trillion from one trillion?

Subtract $2 trillion, the total cost of American medical care, from $1.2 trillion, all our nation's income taxes, corporate and individual combined. Can you do it?

Not without going into debt.

This is plain common sense, so obvious, a lot of leaders overlook it, because they are working to exhaustion trying to deal with a million other problems.

It is like the old joke: "When you are up to your (censored) in alligators, it is hard to remember the original objective was to drain the swamp."

Right now, millions of people are desperately ill with conditions that cannot be cured by traditional medicine. Because they are our loved ones, obviously we are not going to abandon them, and that means we are all paying their medical expenses. People are going bankrupt as individuals; economies all over the world are going broke.

Medical debt: how do we pay for it? For most of us, the one piece of real property we own (if we are lucky) is a house. People borrow on their houses, borrow on their credit cards, borrow, borrow, borrow—and we still can't afford to pay for all those incredible medical expenses—and the debt piles up, higher and higher.

Even people with the best insurance find they are not covered for long-term chronic illnesses. You know this is true. When Barack Obama's mother was dying for cancer, and from her hospital bed, she was still having to fight the insurance people—that is wrong.

And when people who have no insurance go to the emergency room for medical care, who pays for it?

And three-fourths of all medical expenses come from the diseases which are incurable—except, perhaps, by stem cell research.

Don't take my word for it. Google the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention (a U.S. government program) and read the overview. It will tell you that 75% of all medical costs come from chronic (incurable) disease and conditions: like cancer, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, on and on.

Chronic disease is why our country's economy is going down, and with it the world.

By curing the incurable, we also cure the economy. That is what stem cell research is all about—and what is the very best organization to advance stem cell research?

That's right. Not (unfortunately) the National Institutes of Health, which is far too small and (to my mind too politicized) to take on the job in the way it should be done.

Their whole budget is only $28 billion a year for an entire nation—hasn't increased for five years, although the cost of everything else has risen-- think of that.

Embryonic stem cell research? The entire budget for that was roughly $30 million.

California 's stem cell program is ten times that, $300 million a year. That is why we must defend it.

In the whole world, the best way to fight for our loved ones-- and defend the nation's economy—is the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, our beloved CIRM.

The CIRM is led by 29 men and women, on the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee ( ICOC ). I know, too many acronyms—the CIRM is led by the ICOC —seems like alphabet soup sometimes.

Protecting the independence of that committee was why we had to fight Senate Bill 1565, courageously vetoed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California.

But even though that bill was defeated, one of its main goals is going forward.

An "efficiency" program called the "Little Hoover" program-- apparently after the President who began the great Depression—will be studying our program.

Right now, the California stem cell program is run by 29 supporters of stem cell research.

Their stated goal? To offer political ways to "improve" the stem cell program, by studying the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, to try and remove the "conflicts of interest, real or perceived". 

Conflicts of interest... if somebody votes on something to increase their own salary, that is a conflict of interest. If somebody owns a company, and they vote to send a big money contract to themselves, that is conflict of interest.

That is corruption. To prevent that, the ICOC goes to enormous lengths to keep individuals from voting on grants that could benefit the organizations they worked for before they joined the ICOC .

But a "perceived" conflict of interest? Perceived means an opinion. How do you defend against an opinion?

One way is to make the ICOC be run by government officials: who may have no knowledge of stem cell research. They might be "pure"—but they could also be purely ignorant.

They might be opposed to stem cell research, or opposed to large government programs—or they might just want to spend the money somewhere else.

In case you have not been following California 's economic drama, Sacramento is having trouble paying for the economic programs we support.

Due to a political weapon called Proposition 13, new tax increases are only possible if approved by a 2/3 majority of the legislature—and since all Republicans take a no-new-tax pledge— California 's hands are legislatively tied.

So there is our beautiful program, which has its own funding source—is it not possible some well-meaning politicos might want to shift that money to another program?

Here is the nuts and bolts of how the LHC will work, based on my limited understanding. I called up the Executive Director, a cheerful person named Stuart Drown, and he said probably what will happen is this:

There will be a citizen committee, to be chosen from members of the public. They will have input on the deliberations and decisions of the Little Hoover Commission.

That's key. Right there, is how you and I have a chance to protect our beautiful stem cell program.

The decisions will be made by the 9 members (if my math is correct) of the LHC, but the public has a chance to offer input, both at the public meetings, and as members of a committee.

So. November 20^th, the first public meeting of the Little Hoover Commission (LHC)—one of perhaps two—would you consider going to that meeting?

It will be in Sacramento next month, November 20th. I don't know time or place yet.

To find out, here is an email: littlehoover@..., and a copy to stuart.drown@..., the Executive Director.

Send them an email, and ask to be notified about meetings.

Here is more contact information: Little Hoover Commission, 925 L Street, Suite 805 , Sacramento , CA 95814   phone: 916-445-2125,  fax 916-322-7709

Take care of California 's stem cell program. The world is counting on us.

P.S. I made a mistake in the Michigan article I just ran. I got the penalty wrong. Under current Michigan law, it is not ten years in jail for "destroying an embryo"—it is only five years in the slammer.  The error is mine.