Bomb Throwing on Budget Moves to Press

Earlier this week, much of the verbal bomb throwing on the budget was taking place online. It has now progressed into the media. The sharp retorts are a sign of deteriorating talks. SacBee:

With state budget talks at a standstill, party leaders in the Assembly are upping the rhetoric, trading verbal jabs over who is to blame.

In separate interviews this week, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez accused Republicans of having a "lackadaisical attitude" about reaching a deal while Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines shot back that "Fabian is frustrated he can't get everything he wants."

Deals can come together relatively quickly in the Legislature, and both sides are still talking. But at this point -- nearly two weeks past the start of the fiscal year -- there are few signs of a breakthrough as the two parties fight over about $2 billion in spending that Republicans want cut.

Things took a turn for the worse Monday when, by most accounts, a meeting among legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went very badly.

It is increasingly looking like the budget will not be done by the 20th, when legislators are scheduled to go on their monthlong summer recess. Legislators may just have to stick around.

The Republicans are still holding firm on their demands for more cuts, but refuse to lay out exactly what they want to ax out of the budget. Republicans simply say that they could trim social service broadly, aka death by a thousand paper cuts to the Democrats.

This thing is not going to be resolved any time soon.