As California's fiscal crisis careened out of control with Thursday's
issuance of IOUs, Democrats and Republicans remained deadlocked,
largely over one of the state's biggest responsibilities: providing a
safety net for poor and sick residents.At the center of the dispute is a question over how deeply the state
should cut spending on health care for poor children, welfare payments
to single mothers and in-home services for the elderly and the disabled.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger initially wanted to eliminate such
programs. But in the past week, the governor softened his stand,
instead demanding deep cuts, the rooting out of fraud in the system and
changes to some welfare programs to save money, such as requiring
recipients to sign up online instead at a government office."We are all committed to getting this done," Schwarzenegger said
Thursday at a news conference in Los Angeles. "I'm more than (willing)
to compromise."But Democratic lawmakers say Schwarzenegger's proposals are still
draconian, would unravel the state's safety net and hurt the ailing
economy."The remaining key issues that we've identified ... (are) issues
relating to the California safety net: how we preserve it and how we
might do some common-sense policy changes ... to be able to do a better
job of keeping costs under control over time," Senate President Pro Tem
Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said Thursday.The challenge is to find savings without destroying programs that so many Californians depend on, he said."I came to public life for one reason. I was taught if you were
given something in life ... you give something back, and stand for
people who do not have a voice," he said.Schwarzenegger continued to criticize state lawmakers Thursday for
their inability to approve a plan to fix the state's budget deficit
that grew by $2 billion to $26.3 billion when the state's 2008-09
fiscal year ended Tuesday night.The governor's reform ideas include restricting eligibility
requirements on health care so that fewer children will qualify,
shortening the eligibility duration in a welfare-to-work program for
single mothers, and requiring recipients of in-home health services to
be fingerprinted to make sure they are not double-dipping.Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County),
said she supports finding ways to reform government and to streamline
programs, but that's a discussion that will take time and shouldn't be
part of urgent budget negotiations."I think you can find savings in every area of government, but if
you think we can do that in the next week, we can't," she said.
"Slashing programs is not a way to finding additional savings. You need
to evaluate the programs, you need to look where there's duplication or
look where a program is not working. Slashing and burning is not a way
to deal with what might be waste." SOURCE:SFGATE.COM



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