[Onkel Neal]

California moves a life-saving step away from the edge.

To close a $26 billion budget gap, the deal reduces spending by $15 billion, including in previously untouchable though bloated education and health-care programs. Democrats were even forced to implement welfare reforms that most of the rest of America put in place 15 years ago: a work requirement and a four-year limit. The agreement eliminates about $2 billion a year in automatic benefit increases and saves another $1 billion by auditing in-home health-care payments that are notorious for fraud. “Only in California,” says Mr. Schwarzenegger, “is welfare still a way of life.”

Score one for the Governator.