It makes no sense to be building on a house that's falling apart.

[karl]

While Democrats in Washington have been rejoicing in victory and Republicans have been predicting Armageddon, California officials have been quietly pondering the numbers.

And it isn't necessarily contradictory to both support a national healthcare overhaul and acknowledge that it's likely to be another hit on California's bleeding budget. That's just intellectually honest.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put it after the U.S. House passed the legislation Sunday night:

"I have always supported the need for comprehensive health reform. However, for healthcare reform to succeed, states must either have the flexibility to live within the revenues that are available to them or the federal resources to fully fund its mandates."

On Wednesday the governor told reporters that Washington has "shifted the funding from the federal government and said, 'Hey, you state, we want to cut down on our deficit. So you pick up the difference. . . .' And it will cost us $3 billion more."

Schwarzenegger has been trying to tread lightly, expressing dissatisfaction with Congress' final product, but not criticizing President Obama, whose goal of reform he strongly supports.

The governor struck out taking a big swing at passing his own healthcare reform for California in 2007, partly because legislators concluded the state couldn't afford it as the economy began tumbling.

Now the burden of implementing the federal healthcare expansion will fall on the states through their various Medicaid programs. In California, it's called Medi-Cal.

"States are in such deep financial straits that not only have we already made [Medicaid] cuts, but we're looking to make even deeper cuts," says Kim Belshe, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

"Now we're being asked to begin planning for the biggest implementation of a social program since Medicaid was created. . . . Medicaid is crumbling. It makes no sense to be building on a house that's falling apart. . . .