SACRAMENTO — In an interview with the Mercury News this morning, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger challenged legislative Republicans to say how they would close the state's enormous budget deficit, and suggested the reason they haven't done so yet is because they know the public would turn against them.
"I'm calling on Republicans to show me your plan,'' the GOP governor said during a half-hour session in his office. "You know, if you believe in what you're doing, you can take the heat. They obviously are worried about putting theirs out because they know it would not be good. They know."
... At least six GOP Assembly members and two senators are needed to reach the two-thirds threshold required to pass a budget. The state is heading into the third month of the fiscal year with no spending plan, threatening funding for schools, nursing homes, and hospitals, among others.
Responding to the remarks of one Republican legislative leader that releasing an alternative budget proposal would unleash a media spectacle and set back negotiations, the governor said, "I think it's very clear why it will be a media circus: Because what they recommend is something that will be quite shocking."
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