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What do you think of the GOP budget plan? Bad idea. The proposed cuts are too severe and the recession's not over. Good plan. We need to cut spending and the deficit now, not later. Not sure. I'd like to see some compromise, with much of the GOP plan in the new budget. Other (post a comment).

One of House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan’s favorite phrases is “adult conversation.” As in, we need to have an adult conversation about the nation’s fiscal challenges. With the release of his budget resolution, Ryan is beginning the discussion even if his purported conversational partners on the other side of the aisle insist on banging their cups on their highchairs and wailing. Three inescapable realities drive the federal budget: We spend too much on health care, we are growing older, and we face an alarming federal debt. Ryan is daring to tell the country how he’d react to this in...

SACRAMENTO — For the sixth time in seven years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will unveil a budget plan that promises pain for Californians. Lawmakers and the governor are facing a $20 billion deficit, and officials familiar with the governor's strategy warn that health and social services programs for the state's neediest residents once again may take the brunt of the slashing. After a year that saw legislators close deficits amounting to $60 billion — through accounting tricks and modest tax hikes, but mostly through deep spending cuts — many expect a plan that feels numbingly familiar. "There are going to...

Just last week, we were told by the Obama Administration and the Democrats in the Congress that we needed lots of government spending in order to stimulate the economy. So the liberals in Congress passed the largest spending bill in US history and it was signed by President Obama. This week, President Obama is now telling us that the government needs to cut spending in order to reduce the deficit. In order to cut spending, the government will reduce our military and reduce government spending on health care for the elderly via Medicare and Medicaid. Essentially, what the liberal Democrats...

Almost as soon as Republicans unveiled their $22 billion budget proposal – with more than $15.6 billion in budget cuts, and about $6.5 billion in new revenues – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders blasted its details. “It was not a solution. It was simply a rehash of all of the cuts that have been on the table for months,” said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear. The Republican plan – unveiled Monday in a press conference that included both Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill, R-Fresno, and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, -- relies on more than $10.5 billion in cuts...

SACRAMENTO -- More than $828 million in gas tax money that is supposed to go to public transportation projects would be diverted to help bail the state out of its financial problems ... --snip-- His revised budget would: * Restrict full in-home supportive services for seniors and people with disabilities, and cut the pay of the service workers to the minimum wage. Only the most severely impaired would get aides for household tasks, although in-home medical assistance would continue. * Eliminate California's $111-million program of healthcare for legal immigrants, and pare back the healthcare provided to impoverished people who have...

The Republicans will present their proposed state budget before the full Senate today. It would cut numerous programs Democrats hold dear, including the elimination of an institute for labor studies at the University of California. The budget plan includes nearly $1 billion in spending reductions beyond those in the bipartisan plan approved by the Assembly on Friday. Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine) made public only a few of the cuts his caucus would propose. The linchpin of the plan, Ackerman said, is a $324-million cut in the state's welfare program. The cut was initially proposed by the governor in...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose a revised state budget Friday that uses most of a $4.5 billion windfall in unexpected tax revenue to pay down debt and build a larger budget reserve, rather than pay off a disputed “loan” to schools, administration officials said yesterday. Schools will get their regular share of the new revenue as required by the Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee, the officials told reporters in a briefing. The Schwarzenegger aides would discuss the budget only on condition of anonymity. But they refused to discuss the governor's plans, if any, to deal with a $3.2 billion...

Sacramento -- After touting his budget plan to increase funding for education and transportation, the governor sounded a cautionary note. "It's important to remember, however, that our great good fortune is the result of a strong economy and a surging stock market. And anybody who follows the Dow, and particularly the Nasdaq, realizes how volatile these sources of funds are." The governor was not Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Gray Davis as he released his budget six years ago when state coffers were brimming with $12.3 billion in extra cash. But the money -- based on such volatile revenue sources as capital...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Democratic Assembly and Senate leaders announced Friday they have reached an agreement on a state budget, delaying a debate on the thorniest spending issue - public education. The spending plan approved Friday by the conference committee doesn't raise taxes and is balanced, according to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. However, not all legislators agreed that it is, indeed, balanced. "When you have a budget and the largest part is education, to suggest that you've balanced this budget is absurd," said Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin. "This is about narrowing the differences that...

The state budget impasse has taken a toll on support for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $103 billion spending plan, with Democrats and Republicans rethinking their approval of his strategy for erasing a $15 billion deficit without raising taxes. After struggling to reach agreements with Democrats, who hold overwhelming majorities in both the Senate and Assembly, the rookie governor now faces a full-blown mutiny from within the ranks of his fellow Republicans as well as opposition among Democrats. "I was prepared to vote for the governor's budget as modified by his May revision," said Sen. Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, vice chairman of the...

As he considered running for governor last summer, it was clear in conversations with me that Arnold Schwarzenegger was motivated at least in part by the drama of parachuting into the midst of the state's crisis and not only bringing order from chaos but also moving California forward on a great new agenda. What exactly that agenda might be was a little unclear, not surprisingly, since he had been focused last year on the global launch of one of the biggest action movies in history and had been intending to run in 2006, not 2003. His quickly cobbled together campaign...

<p>BURLINGAME – The state Republican Party gave its approval Sunday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion plan to rescue the state budget after a personal appeal from the governor and behind- the-scenes lobbying by supporters.</p> <p>The endorsement, on a voice vote on the final day of a three-day GOP convention, was eagerly sought by Schwarzenegger, who has been selling the plan in a string of TV ads and speeches. To take effect, the twin proposals - Proposition 57 and Proposition 58 - must be approved by voters March 2.</p>

Bush to Back Off Some Initiatives for Budget PlanBy ROBERT PEAR and EDMUND L. ANDREWS ASHINGTON, Jan. 31 — President Bush will propose a $2.3 trillion budget on Monday that backs away from some of the major spending and tax initiatives he supported in prior years, administration officials say.Constrained by big budget deficits and political realities, the officials said they would retreat on some of their own ideas and oppose others favored by Republicans in Congress.Mr. Bush will try instead to lock in some of his prior victories, by pressing Congress for a permanent extension of most of the tax...

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal is a realistic first step toward solvency, but leaves a $6 billion hole in the following fiscal year and relies on several billion dollars of shaky assumptions, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said Tuesday.</p> <p>Hill said that the Legislature should consider tax increases to help bridge the remaining gap -- a move that the Republican governor has said he will not make.</p>

<p>Senate President Pro Tem John Burton promised Monday to fight the governor's new budget plan, arguing it provides a big tax break to car owners paid for by service cuts to the poor and disabled.</p> <p>The San Francisco Democrat, who holds status as perhaps the Capitol's most influential lawmaker given his tenure and his party's majority hold on the Legislature, drew a bright line between himself and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on what might be considered the first day of budget negotiations.</p>

<p>Lawmakers milled about, dozed off at their desks on the Assembly floor and scoured the Internet to read morning headlines about their own antics, as the Democratic leader met with lawmakers throughout the pre-dawn hours to try to pry loose the needed votes to end the month-long standoff.</p>