The most important thing about the stalemate was that it failed to accomplish the one thing it should have done, which was to force the governor and legislators of both parties to own up to the state's precarious finances and take some concrete steps to improve them. Although Schwarzenegger has pledged to veto about $700 million in spending to bring the budget into operational balance, it's a fiscal house of cards. The budget itself is based on unrealistic assumptions, especially on the revenue side of the ledger, and much of his supposed spending reduction is just bookkeeping sleight of hand...