Government Spending

Even the entreaties of the three senators running for president weren't enough to persuade their colleagues Thursday to curb their appetite for earmarks -- the practice of designating federal dollars for pet projects. Senators soundly rejected a one-year moratorium backed by the presidential hopefuls -- Republican John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- even though it put senators from both parties at odds with their presidential contenders.

Troubling images flash across the screen, showing black-clad terrorists, tsunami-flooded villages and the Chinese army. "Only the United States Air Force has the speed, power and vision to defend our nation for the century ahead," the announcer intones as an F-22 fighter jet flies over a snowy mountaintop. "U.S. Air Force, above all." There is nothing unusual about seeing military recruiting ads right now.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to slash higher education funding by about 10% would deny education to tens of thousands of qualified students and have a devastating long-term effect on the state's economy, university and college leaders said Wednesday.

Money, money everywhere and not a buck to spend -- at least from the barrels of billions locked up by ballot-box budgeting. That money can only be spent on specific programs previously approved by voters. It can't be used to help balance the books in Sacramento or pay down the state's rising debt or avoid slashing programs for the elderly poor and disabled.

In his broadest, harshest critique of state officials yet, the court- appointed overseer of healthcare in state prisons said Tuesday he would run out of money soon and had begun preparing to seize the funding he needs with an order from a federal judge. Receiver J. Clark Kelso, who had previously directed most of his displeasure at state lawmakers for refusing to approve his $7-billion plan to construct prison healthcare facilities, on Tuesday added Gov.

Republicans holler a lot in the Capitol but aren't heard. They should be. Two examples last week: They complained again about a federal court that is threatening to back a U.S. government truck up to the state vault and haul off $7 billion to build healthcare facilities for California prisoners. This at a time when the Legislature and governor are struggling to resolve a $15-billion state deficit. Minority party leaders offered a starting point for budget negotiations.

State oversight of for-profit trade schools, which enroll 400,000 Californians a year, was set to vanish Monday, leaving students whose schools go out of business without access to state-arranged tuition refunds. Republicans in the Assembly rejected a measure Monday afternoon that would have replaced a law that expired at midnight. Disagreements among lawmakers, the schools and consumer advocates have led to a stalemate in the Capitol on this issue for more than three years.

The top Air Force leadership sought for three years to spend counter-terrorism money on "comfort capsules" for military planes to ease the travel of senior officers and civilian leaders -- with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs -- according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

The Legislature voted Friday to send Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger the final measures needed to resolve the budget deadlock that had dragged on a record 81 days past the start of the fiscal year. The spending plan, with $104.3 billion in the general fund, allots more to education and social services than last year, but not enough to avoid cutbacks in schools, healthcare facilities and payments to the disabled, elderly and blind.

There has been a lot of screaming that Sacramento fails to live within its means, and the howlers are correct. But on Nov. 4, the voters will have their hands on the state checkbook. It's called ballot box budgeting -- when many Californians who normally cry about red ink become hypocrites, voting for nice-sounding proposals that further bloat the overspending. On election day, voters will have an opportunity to jack up annual state spending by at least $1.