"Government doesn't provide services to rich people"

The cuts [to state programs] Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed to make up the [budget] difference, if enacted by the Legislature, would turn California into a place that in some ways would be unrecognizable in modern America: poor children would have no health insurance, prisoners would be released by the thousands and state parks would be closed.

Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians, although prisons and schools would take hits, as well.

“Government doesn’t provide services to rich people,” Mike Genest, the state’s finance director, said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t even really provide services to the middle class.” He added: “You have to cut where the money is.”

[From Political Memo - Deep Cuts Threaten to Reshape California - NYTimes.com]

Roads, waterways, bridges, airports, police, motor vehicle registration, drivers licensing, professional licensing, universities, vital records, drinking water programs, forestry services and - oh yeah, how could I forget? - forest fire protection. Among other things.