EDITORIAL CALIFORNIA GIVEAWAY FEDS KEEP TAKING MORE MONEY OUT OF CALIFORNIA AND RETURNING LESS.

A recent study by the California Institute - ironically based in Washington, D.C. - detailed exactly how the Golden State gets ripped off of billions in federal taxes year after year.

For 18 years in a row, California has sent billions more in taxes to Washington than it gets back in services ($50 billion more in 2003, according to the think tank).

The study's findings were no surprise, considering how the federal government has historically shortchanged the West Coast from Homeland Security funds to the recent delay in getting federal disaster aid from the rainstorms that began in late December through January.

While some of the imbalance is due to payments to retirees and disabled people, which aren't doled out uniformly, but relative to the state in which they reside, there's still a clear inequity. Washington seems to view California as little more than a piggy bank. And that's a sad commentary on our congressional delegation - the nation's largest.

With the state so in debt that education is being hacked, that hospitals are closing and that road construction programs are being slashed, California can no longer afford to support the rest of the country. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must use his influence in Washington to remove the federal hands from our state's pockets.