In the wake of numerous post-election/post-Thanksgiving news reports about the pending agenda of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, this morning the governor's communications team laid out an overview for Capitol reporters.

And as the above quote from that briefing points out, the game plan is a big one.

The single largest policy debate on Schwaarzenegger's 'to-do' list-- reform of the state's health care system-- has been on the agenda for months. In fact, the governor first started promising to tackle the subject in an interview less than 24 hours after the June primary.

Add to that the following issues, according to gubernatorial communications director Adam Mendelsohn: additional infrastructure issues/proposals, education issues, prison reform, political redistricting, campaign finance reform, and proposals to implement 2006's landmark global warming legislation.

For many chief executives who, like Schwarzenegger, are often stuck in the middle between two camps of highly partisan legislators, that might be a blueprint for an entire second term-- and even then, more of a 'wish list' than a 'to do' list.

But not Governor Schwarzenegger, whose often-stated desire for immediate "action" appears to have not subsided.

"They are goals for 2007," Mendelsohn told reporters.

Attempting to counter the notion that the list is too ambitious, Mendelsohn pointed to last year's achievements-- on everything from infrastructure bonds to a minimum wage hike, cheaper prescription drugs, and more-- as proof that multiple tough issues can be resolved in one year.

In fairness, though, several of those issues (such as minimum wage and prescription drugs) actually endured several years of debate and disagreement... and were occasionally declared dead... before being signed into law.

Meantime, the following points were made on the specific subject of health care reform:

Schwarzenegger's core philosophy is "shared responsibility" for the costs-- including citizens, employers, and insurers... covering all of the estimated 6 million Californians without insurance is a "goal" and not necessarily a requirement (a point on which the governor has made somewhat conflicting public statements)... administration officials are now meeting with "hundreds" of stakeholders to solicit input... and no decision has been made as to whether the governor will actually push a specific plan, or rather task legislators with the overall goal of expanding health coverage.

That last point is worth noting. Mendelsohn, the governor's communications director, said that Schwarzenegger sees this year's negotiations on infrastructure bonds as a "model" that can be used in the 2007 health care debate. Of course, much of the bond deal was struck by Democratic and Republican legislative leaders on their own, sans the governor. It's unclear whether the two sides can do the same on an issue like health care, one that has bedeviled lawmakers on both the state and federal level for decades.