Arnold Twitters in that he got “permission” to enact the budget cuts on home health care workers and still qualify for all federal stimulus money in the health care sector.  Cap Weekly has more.

The state of California has received permission from the federal government to cut wages of home healthcare workers without fear of losing federal stimulus dollars.

The ruling comes as a victory for the Schwarzenegger administration, and a defeat for the Service Employees International Union  which had sought federal intervention to stop the cuts.

Cuts in home healthcare worker pay were part of the budget solution passed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders in February. As part of his May budget revision, Schwarzenegger has proposed further cuts for in-home support workers. The Legislature cut IHSS worker pay by $2 per hour, lowering wages from $12.10 to $10.10 per hour. The cuts saved the state an estimated $74 million.

It’s important to note that, while these cuts suck and will really hurt IHSS workers, they are relatively minor compared to the cuts in health care and education Schwarzenegger wants to enact, while still qualifying for stimulus money.  So the Administration can still wield some power here.  But obviously this is a bad sign.  The Governor should not be allowed to essentially reverse the effect of the stimulus on his own.  In fact, he ought to just resign.

…Arnold takes the flawed message from the election that it was a tax revolt.

Schwarzenegger said he received the voters’ message “loud and clear: an overwhelming majority of people told Sacramento, ‘Go and do your work yourself, don’t come to us with your problems….”

“The message was clear from the people, go all out and make those cuts and live within your means,” he said.

Voters were so worked up, in fact, that they turned out in the lowest numbers in state history, and they voted down the same borrowing gimmicks and spending cuts for successful programs that will now compose the Governor’s agenda.  Let me suggest that I don’t believe in his message-taking ability.

Marc Cooper actually has a decent column on Arnold’s total failure.

George Lakoff writes today that this could be a moment of freedom for California Democrats.  Their compromised ballot measured having gone down in flames, they can now focus on the only solution to what ails the state: democracy.  They can include in every public utterance until the moment the 2/3 rule is repealed the theme that California’s democracy is broken, and that we must restore it with a majority vote for budget and revenue matters.  The time for half-steps and non-fixes must be over.

Up to now, Democrats have been acting like sheep being herded by the Republican minority. They need to show courage and stand up for what they believe. That’s what the voters are waiting for […]

Get rid of the 55% proposals. People understand that majority rule means democracy. 55% means nothing.

Even if you don’t address taxes and just address the budget process, the Republicans will still say you’re going to raise taxes. You may as well go for real democracy.

And finally, get a unified message that can be supported by the grassroots. Do grassroots organizing for 2010, starting now. Organize spokespeople to get that message out. Organize bookers to book your spokespeople in the media. You Democrats are a majority. Act like it. The public will respect you for it.

Unfortunately, Darrell Steinberg and Karen Bass failed the first test, stuck in a mindset that will bring the state to ruin.  First, Steinberg.

“The voters have spoken and they are telling us that government should do the best it can with the money it has. We will immediately and responsibly get to work to balance the budget and head off a cash crisis in July. Delay is not an option. The necessary decisions we must make will only get harder with time.”

That is not what voters are telling you. As I said yesterday, you cannot reconcile the supposed anti-tax fervor with the passage of a transient occupancy tax in conservative Palmdale with 64% of the vote.  California is a big state and no one message from a statewide election can predominate, but the mass boycott of the polls certainly suggests that we don’t want to do your job anymore.  I know it’s been so long since Democrats exercised their Democratic muscles and principles in Sacramento, but this election called out the political leadership for failed governance.  And everyone who has studied this for half a second understands that the failure will continue until the structural barriers are removed.  And so making this absurd and vindictive statement about voter intentions both misses an opportunity to refocus the discussion and angers the grassroots further.  

Here’s Bass:

“There are many difficult choices and a lot of hard work ahead of us.  We now have to responsibly fill the budget hole that has been caused by the national recession and deepened by the failure of today’s ballot propositions.  I hope the bipartisan cooperation between the Legislature and the Governor that went into this effort will continue as we move forward – the people of California clearly expect us to work together to get the job done.  And we will.

The people of California could give a rat’s ass who works together with who.  They don’t want to see this level of dysfunction anymore.  Bipartisan cooperation was clearly rejected last night, because inevitably that gives leverage to the minority and provides unworkable non-solutions.

Where is the argument for DEMOCRACY in these statements?  Since 1978 that democracy has crumbled and needs to be completely rebuilt.  Everyone knows this but refuses to say it out loud.  This is why the legislature and the Governor have historically low approval ratings.  People are starved for actual leadership and see none.  Only democracy will save us.  This failed experiment with conservative Two Santa Claus Theories has now become deeply destructive.  Because the democrats have provided no leadership and ceded the rhetorical ground, California public opinion holds the contradictory beliefs that the state should not raise taxes and also not cut spending.  And if it persists without leadership and advocacy to the contrary, nothing will change.

Well, this is it.  After three months of argument, threats, projections, facts and figures, the special election on the budget has finally arrived.  Voters now get to decide the fate of six ballot measures that will impact the near-term budget deficit and the long-term manner of budgeting in the state.  Well, a FEW of the voters get to decide.  I popped by my local polling place just to see the crowd size – I already voted absentee – and let’s just say that the traffic was, er, light.  

So here are a few lessons as we watch the results tonight:

• Money Isn’t Everything – This race may finally put to rest that axiom of California politics about cash being king.  The No side – and mind you, groups only raised money opposing for certain ballot measures – raised about $4.5 million dollars, all told.  The Yes side raised over $26 million.  Despite this 6.5:1 advantage, most polls show the first five measures on the ballot, the ones that actually affect the budget, going down to defeat.  Prop. 1C, which had NO money against it and the state Democratic Party along with millions from G Tech (the makers of lottery machines) behind it, has consistently polled the worst among all measures.  The No on 1A folks used a strategy that conserved dollars but did get out the message, in particular through Web and Google ads.  But they were obliterated on the air and through mailers, and based on the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger skipped town and Budget Reform Now doesn’t even have a headquarters tonight, it appeared not to matter.

• No Credible Messengers – The main reason these ballot measures are poised to fail is that, in general terms, absolutely no politician in this state has the trust of the people.  Nobody could sell the message on the Yes side because nobody could even sell themselves.  I’ve heard about internal polls with the legislature in single digits and the Governor below 30%.  We have a crisis of confidence in California, and that stands to reason, considering the extent to which process has overwhelmed personality, making the state largely ungovernable without major revisions to that process.

• Take The Message You Want – The Yacht Party will certainly try to paint this as a victory for their anti-tax jihad, and it’s highly likely that the dwindling state political media, and even possibly the Democratic leadership, will believe them.  However, regardless of conservatives being “emboldened,” the fact is that progressives opposed the special election for very specific reasons, and Democratic leaders must reconcile with that as well.  The constraints on governance here in California are undeniable.  And yet the time has come to stop finding ways around the mountain of structural problems and pick up the shovel and start digging through the mountain.  It won’t take overnight, and in the meantime there are solutions – some painful, some creative – that the leadership will have to take.  But the message from the electorate, including those that sat this race out in anger or frustration, is that people don’t want gimmicks and spending caps and service cuts.  They want a functioning government and they don’t see one, and they will continue to punish these people who call themselves leaders until they start acting like it.

• Musical Chairs – Curren Price will win election to SD-26 today, shrinking the need for Republican votes to reach the 2/3 threshold in the Senate to 2.  At the same time, this will increase the need for Republican votes to reach the 2/3 threshold in the Assembly to 4.  There are more targeted seats in the Assembly, so in the short term this is a slight net win.  But it’s obviously not optimal, and that Assembly seat may not get filled, if the SD-26 odyssey is any guide, until late fall.

The Obama Administration is poised to announce a major deal on tailpipe emissions standards, bringing the whole country under one federal standard that fairly closely appropriates what California passed in 2002 and has been trying to get a waiver from the feds about ever since.

President Obama will announce as early as Tuesday that he will combine California’s tough new auto-emissions rules with the existing corporate average fuel economy standard to create a single new national standard, the officials said. As a result, cars and light trucks sold in the United States will be roughly 30 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016.

The White House would not divulge details, but environmental advocates and industry officials briefed on the program said that the president would grant California’s longstanding request that its tailpipe emissions standards be imposed nationally. That request was denied by the Bush administration but has been under review by top Obama administration officials since January.

But Mr. Obama is planning to go further, putting in place new mileage requirements to be administered by the Department of Transportation that would match the stringency of the California program.

Under the new standard, the national fleet mileage rule for cars would be roughly 42 miles a gallon in 2016. Light trucks would have to meet a fleet average of slightly more than 26.2 miles a gallon by 2016.

This is a major victory for California, as well as a step forward for all sides of this debate.  Auto companies, who apparently signed off on the deal, can now have certainty about their future production needs.  The states can get out of court and provide a better environment for their constituents.  And we all can breathe cleaner air while using less oil.

But the hilarious postscript must be highlighted.  Politico reports that this deal will be announced tomorrow, with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in attendance.  As CapAlert notes, there’s just one problem: California has a statewide election tomorrow, and Arnold is not an absentee voter.  Yes, the Governor, the head cheerleader and supporter of the special election, might miss out on voting in it (although, if the announcement takes place early enough, he could be reasonably expected to make it home before the polls close at 8pm).

You know Arnold can’t resist the lure of the spotlight.  And better for him to stand at the side of a popular President than try in vain to rescue a flawed set of ballot measures which have probably already failed, given the 2 million vote-by-mail ballots already cast.  It probably appeals to him to leave town on Election Day and hide out in Washington.  That’s par for the course for him, failing to ever accept responsibility for the damage he’s caused.

…in fact, Arnold will get an emergency absentee ballot and miss his own special election.  Too perfect.

When you go beyond the headlines, there are several interesting elements of the Governor’s May Revise – which by the way, was illegally delivered, under the February budget agreement, but hey, what’s the law, right?

We know some of the major portions of the Governor’s plan – cutting education, thousands of state employee layoffs, lots of borrowing (something like 40% of the gap through revenue anticipation warrants), selling public landmarks, etc.  First of all, with respect to selling off public property, easier said than done.  

Case in point: the governor’s plan a while back to sell EdFund, the state’s student loan guarantee fund. It was projected to bring in $1 billion, but still hasn’t been sold (and was last valued at 50% of its original estimate). I mention that because in this proposal, the governor suggests $1 billion for selling off part of the State Compensation Insurance Fund. Maybe it’s an easier deal than EdFund (and others in the past), but…

Some other interesting pieces:

• Despite the fact that Schwarzenegger adamantly insisted there will be not tax or fee increases as part of any solution, there in fact are new fee increases included.  The Governor seeks higher fees, but significantly, those fees would hit some of the most vulnerable citizens in the state.  For example, he raises fees for residents living in veterans homes throughout the state, adding $2.8 million dollars.  What’s important here is that he betrays his own rhetoric by raising some fees inside his own revised plan.

• While the budget deficit exists because of an historic drop in revenue during this Great Recession, instead of temporarily cutting various services, the Governor’s revised budget would cut them permanently, particularly in programs like Medi-Cal, In-Home Supportive Services, SSI/SSP, regional centers, Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants.  This despite, once again, the Governor reconciled his raid of local governments by saying that “hopefully the economy comes back.”  But even if it did, the permanent cuts to programs serving the most vulnerable elements of society would remain.  The vast majority of those cuts would be implemented regardless of the outcome of the May 19 ballot measures.

• Never one to let an opportunity in crisis to slip by, the Governor would also allow the first new offshore drilling off the California coastline in 40 years, putting a major dent in any possible depiction of Schwarzenegger as some kind of environmentalist.  Despite not being able to tax the severance of oil from California land, the Governor would lease new offshore drilling sites to bring in $100 million from the state.  And this would nullify a ruling by the State Lands Commission that denied further oil leases.  As recently as last summer, Schwarzenegger vowed not to allow new drilling off the California shore.

You won’t read much of this fine print in the discussion of the budget, or the glorifying media profiles of the “Governator.”  But it’s important, because every aspect of this reveals him as a cheap fraud.