Arnold Schwarzenegger has released what is, mercifully, his final budget. It is a shocking “fuck you” to the people of California, a brazen hostage taking that proposes to eliminate basic social services unless the feds pony up $7 billion dollars. Even if they do so, Arnold plans to propose the same cuts that were rejected by the voters and the courts in 2009. This budget, more than any other proposal he has offered since he became governor in late 2003, shows the massive contempt Arnold Schwarzenegger has for his fellow Californians.

Although we may seem used to this kind of thing, the full details show just how horrifying and thuggish this governor and his budget are. It is a budget designed to protect the wealthy by making everyone else suffer, by driving the economy deeper into recession and strangling what little economic recovery we have witnessed.

• Massive cuts to (and essentially, the elimination of): CalWORKS, IHSS, Healthy Families. The IHSS cuts were done last year and have been blocked by the courts; Arnold’s contempt for the law continues to know no bounds

• However, if the feds come through with $7 billion, the above can be spared. The other cuts described below, however, would happen anyway

• Changing gas tax to an “excise tax” to enable state to make further cuts to public transportation, part of Arnold’s war on public transportation and his desire to shackle Californians to their cars, to rising oil prices, and to his oil company buddies – and would force $2 billion in further cuts to schools under Prop 98

• Raiding Prop 10 and Prop 63 funds even though voters rejected this in May 2009

• Approving the Tranquillon Ridge offshore oil drilling project and giving the funds to state parks, partly to block the ballot initiative to raise the VLF to fund parks

• $1.2 billion cut to school administrators. Before you say “but admin is bloated” – most school administrators are making $50K-$60K if that, and are basically solidly middle-class folks looking to make ends meet

• 14% pay cut to 200,000 state workers, though their furloughs would end

• $1.2 billion cut to prison medical care, even though the federal courts have said this is not possible

• No Medi-Cal benefits to legal immigrants who have been in the US less than 5 years, Healthy Families eligibility slashed to 200% FPL, elimination of adult health daycare

• No new taxes, and preservation of the indefensible corporate tax cuts made in the 2008 and 2009 budget deals

And a host of other things that have likely not yet come to light.

This budget is Arnold’s parting shot – literally – to the people of California, his effort to prove that he really is, as David Dayen put it yesterday, “the worst, absolute worst chief executive in national history.”

In the wake of Arnold’s State of the State address, most legislators made silly and obsequious statements to the effect of “we like what Arnold had to say, we can work with him!” One of the only legislators to give a proper response was Ted Lieu, who equated the prison privatization plan to Blackwater and pointed out that many groups, including religious groups, are vehemently opposed to private prisons.

Will Sacramento Democrats fold in the face of this crappy budget? Or will they follow Ted Lieu’s lead, and House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s lead from the 1980s, and declare Arnold’s budget DOA? Refuse to even consider it?

There may be signs that the Sacramento Democrats have found their spines. According to Capitol Weekly Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s response was “you have got to be kidding” and “we are going to take a different approach.” That’s a start, but Steinberg needs to reject this out of hand.

Progressives and Democrats across the state will be watching their legislators very closely and carefully in the coming weeks and months to ensure they take a strong, firm stand against this reckless and insane budget. California Democrats will have a very, very difficult time motivating their base to show up in November if they yet again give in to Arnold’s thuggery. It’s time they stood up and said “no” in a firm, loud, and collective voice.