Crowd Chanting: "We're here to fight day and night for our basic human rights!"

Governor Jerry Brown's January budget proposal includes a half-billion-dollar cut to subsidized child care.  It's part of his plan to restructure California's welfare-to-work program known as CalWORKs.  Beckie Moralez of Butte County was a CalWORKs recipient, but now she says she's been self-sufficient for two years.

Moralez: "With child care, I was able to go to school, heal myself from an addiction, and without child care, I would never have had the life that I get to enjoy today.  And I believe that every parent and every child has the right to quality child care and a future for their children."

Steinberg: "I say to them that we're going do the very best we can to fight on your behalf, but we make no promises."

Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg says Democrats won't shy away from making the necessary cuts to balance the state budget - but they'll try to do as little harm as possible.

Steinberg: "We're going to have to pick and choose - and our mode of analysis has to be life, death and homelessness."

The state's estimated $9 billion deficit will almost certainly go up when the governor releases his updated budget proposal later this month.