California's working class families depend on child care subsidies that have been held up for 91 days now waiting on a state budget that may still be another week away.

The governor and the legislature can't agree to fund these services, but they're still getting regular paychecks. The same can't be said for the low-income child care providers being asked to keep working through open-ended 'delays' to their reimbursements. From the article:

"It's not a cut in services. It's a delay in provider payments," [Eloisa Mercado of Solano Family & Children's Services agency] said. "We really appreciate them to continue the services for the children."

... [Child care provider Susan] O'Mara is not sure how long she can go without getting paid. About half of the nine or 10 children she cares for daily are in the subsidized program, she said.

How many people get asked to keep doing their job on a volunteer basis when their paychecks stop coming?

If the government doesn't come through, providers are likely to go out of business. That's hard on the providers, hard on families who won't be able to find day care, hard on California families who can't afford day care:

Child care generally costs $150 to $250 per week for children under age 3. That's a steep bill for parents working at or slightly above minimum wage. For Bartels, paying out of pocket for just one baby's child care would eat nearly half of her income at her $8 per hour job, or $320 a week.

That's hard on children whose parents are already having a hard time coming up with both rent and grocery money.

Republicans in Sacramento continue to insist that cutting social spending such as child care supports for low income families is important for the state's budget. Which means that there also won't be much in the way of help if parents lose their jobs because they can't get stable child care.

California's unemployment is now the third highest in the nation. It would be hard to pick a worse time to worry more about economic abstractions