Budget in Maryland

So I was just watching glimpsing at the local FOX 5 News channel when I heard about the new budget cuts in Maryland. Apparently,I guess they're taking cues from California, but they're reducing pay, laying off others, and talking about eliminating pay too, maybe. They had the Democratic leaders on there saying these reductions were made because of the recession.

...Then they had the Republicans on there saying they need to stop funding so much in education and raise tuition on colleges. Big differences between them, huh? But hey, we can continue to fight in Iraq and threaten to go into Yemen.

Why are we paying for their screw-ups?