The Senate and Assembly are in session and are now taking up the first of about 30 bills intended to address the budget crisis. It is unusally quiet in the Capitol tonight and there are far fewer lobbyists roaming the halls than one normally sees at budget votes. There is a distinct feeling that the deal is done and members can't wait to leave town. But this budget also feels like a capitulation in which one side gets everything and the other side leaves town with its tail between its legs.

We are posting a section of the Assembly floor analysis for AB 4X 8, the one with the devastating CalWORKs cuts, one of two social service trailer bills. Notice anything missing? Reading it one who think it doesn't include any cuts to the Safety Net or Child Only programs. But you would be wrong. WCLP has confirmed from 3 highly reliable sources that AB 4X 8 will cut the grant of Safety Net and Child Only cases by 25% for families that have been on aid for 60 months and who are not meeting work participation. The fact that most Child Only cases are by definition not able to legally work and thus unable to prevent the cut did not seem to occur to the negotiators. Given that this is a major change in the core of the CalWORKs program, one would think that the official public record of the bill would disclose it.

It is obvious that the Democratic leadership is ashamed of what they have done. They are hiding what they have done because they know that despite their positive public statements they have gutted the safety net. The very thing that Pro Tem Steinberg and Speaker Bass said they were fighting for all along. The claims to have "saved" CalWORKs sound particularly hollow.

But there are rumors the last 24 hours that behind the scenes Democrats have been entertaining even more cuts to CalWORKs. These cuts would be to the mostly positive conference committee report (AB 3X 43) and would limit the exemptions to work while further cutting county funds to help families go to work. We can not confirm if Dems agreed or not but since language is not available we can not say with any assurance that more changes are not afoot.

Wish we had something good to report but to steal a phrase "That's the Way it is."