Two months ago, Beyond Chron wrote that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s legacy as Governor will be driving the state to bankruptcy. At 12:00 a.m. on July 1st, this became a literal fact. Arnold has vetoed the latest budget measure, meaning the state now has no money – and will start issuing I.O.U.’s rather than paying its bills. With a $24 billion deficit, Democrats in the state legislature passed a $7 billion stop-gap measure to keep the state running for a few months – as negotiations with the Republican ideologues were going nowhere. All Arnold had to do to avoid the state going broke was to sign the legislation, thus extending negotiations for a few months – which could buy some time for a long-term solution. But Schwarzenegger vetoed the stop-gap measure, saying we must solve the “whole budget” now. And what exactly is the Governor’s idea of a “whole budget”? Eliminate Cal-WORKS, making us the only place in the industrialized world that would not have a safety net. Even Mississippi has a safety net, but California (a deep blue state) soon might not.