This week, the state budget impasse took on a poignant dimension with detailed coverage of the human toll of Sacramento's fiscal paralysis. The most alarming stories involve nonprofit health care providers under contract to the state to help tens of thousands of ailing residents. Without a budget, these providers are now being forced en masse to borrow money from any willing party to keep operating and keep their clients healthy. But what these stories often left out is the state's ability to ameliorate this pain even without a budget. If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature were willing, stopgap funding...