Sacramento’s Game of Chicken

In the game of chicken, two drivers steer their cars directly at each other. The first to swerve to avoid a crash loses.

This is how our leaders in Sacramento are playing with the state budget, and the crash date is fast approaching. Today, the state starts a new fiscal year without a budget and will have to go deeper into debt to borrow money to finance its operations. Without a balanced budget, virtually all state spending will cease later this summer when the state’s bridge loan is spent.

Democrats want Republican legislators to swerve by agreeing to a half-cent increase in the sales tax to balance the budget. Republicans want Democrats to swerve by agreeing to deeper spending cuts. As is usual in chicken, both sides vow never to swerve.

The way to win at chicken is to unscrew your steering wheel and throw it out the car window, in full view of the other driver. Knowing that only he can avoid mutual death, the other driver will choose to swerve. The paradox is that by giving up control over your car you gain control over the situation. With one qualification: The other driver has to care more about survival than winning the game.

Republican leaders have vowed to end the careers of any Republican legislators who vote for a tax increase, thus throwing the steering wheel out of the Republican car. Unfortunately for the Democrats, the rules of the budget game mean Democrats still have control over their car and the ability to avoid a crash.

With a majority in both houses and a Democratic governor, the Democrats, unlike the Republicans, can pass a budget without a single vote from the other party -- as long as it does not raise taxes, which requires a two-thirds supermajority.

The Democrats say they will not cut spending further, but they will soon be faced with a choice of enacting a budget with less spending than they would like or shutting down the government and spending nothing. Because reducing education and health care -- which state Controller Steve Westly said last week were among the services that stood to lose about $1.5 billion unless the deadlock was resolved -- is better than cutting them off altogether, the Democrats will swerve. That is, unless they are willing to sacrifice the well-being of Californians rather than lose face.

Californians can disagree on who is to blame for the state’s current fiscal woes. If the government shuts down, and people die without medical care or children go without schools, the Republicans certainly will share the blame. After all, it takes two to play chicken. But if there is a major collision, there should be no mistaking that the Democrats had the last chance to avoid it.

That’s the problem with having control. Sometimes it means that you have no choice.