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As entertainment goes, the final regular-season episode of the Budget Show in the Capitol was shoddy. The actors – the Assembly members and senators – are B-rate. The speeches, despite their strained attempts to sound Kennedy-esque, were pretentious. Those of us in the audience sometimes rolled our eyes at the predictable plot. Plus, we knew the ending in advance.

The Democrats rolled out their budget, which would require about $4.4 billion in tax increases – on top of the record $12 billion-plus in tax increases that were approved last year. The Republicans presented their budget, which would eliminate the CalWORKS welfare program and cut other programs to bring the state's spending in line with its revenue ...