Feinstein, Boxer lash out at governor's demands

Feinstein, Boxer lash out at governor's demands

(01-09) 04:00 PST Washington - -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's demand Friday that the federal government plug a $6.9 billion hole in the state budget, two days after he charged that the federal health care bill is unfair to the state, struck a nerve with California's Washington delegation.

Schwarzenegger is demanding that the administration fix what he calls flawed federal formulas and unfunded federal mandates that short-change the state on Medicaid, foster care, special education and the incarceration of illegal immigrants.



With his demand for federal money to patch nearly one-third of the state's $20 billion budget deficit, the governor "found a soft, sensitive spot" among the state's leaders in Washington, said Joe Mathews, a senior fellow in Los Angeles for the New America Foundation, a center-left think tank.
The office of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the governor's budget assumes, for example, that California would get 92 percent of all federal funds for jailing illegal immigrants and that the program will be fully funded, a highly unlikely outcome.
At the same time, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer held a conference call with reporters


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