Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest budget proposal calls for eliminating the state's main welfare program, making other deep cuts and not raising taxes - ideas that will surely force a showdown between Democrats and Repubilicans over the state's priorities.
After days of promising unpalatable cuts, Schwarzenegger on Friday called for eliminating CalWORKs, a program that provides money to poor families with children. Schwarzenegger said the program must be eliminated because federal judges have prevented the state from making incremental cuts.
"They have prevented us from using a scalpel," he said, "so we now have to use the ax and eliminate some of those programs."
Democrats in the state Legislature were quick to say they would not allow CalWORKs - which stands for California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids - to be scrapped.
"If, God forbid, this budget became a reality, California would be the only state in the union to not have a safety net for children," said state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "It's a non-starter."
In San Bernardino County, about 47,000 families - more than 111,000 people - receive monthly assistance from