From coast to coast the gears of Government starting to grind to a halt...

As if they could grind any slower...

From the Sunshine State: The State of Florida has not been able to borrow money for three weeks.

The nation's credit crunch has frozen Florida's ability to borrow money, but that isn't yet causing problems for the state, a top state money manager said Tuesday. Florida has been unable to borrow money for nearly three weeks, said Ben Watkins, director of the division of the state's Division of Bond Finance. As such, the state cannot issue bonds for schools, roads or programs to purchase environmentally sensitive land, Watkins said.

Florida, which works on bonds months in advance, is not in a dire need for extra cash, he said. (yet)

"It's not creating a problem for us currently," Watkins told Gov. Charlie Crist and members of the Florida Cabinet. "But if this goes on for an extended period of time we will be challenged to have access to the credit markets."

(To tell you the truth, I'm not sure that purchasing environmentally sensitive land would be one of my top three priorities given the situation we're finding ourselves in.)

To the Golden State: Schwarzenegger warns that California may need federal loan. (another bailout of sorts)

California Gov.warned U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in a letter emailed Thursday that the state might need an emergency federal loan of up to $7 billion within weeks, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday, citing a copy of the letter that the newspaper obtained. California, among several states frozen out of the bond market by the credit crunch, is nearly out of cash to fund day-to-day government operations and can’t access routine short-term loans it relies on to remain solvent. If the state’s inability to access cash continues, Schwarzenegger aides say, payments to schools and other government entities in California could be suspended and state employees laid off