Imagine figuring out your check book balance and suddenly realizing you are a little short, like about a billion bucks. So much for buying beer and pizza Friday night.

Now imagine what to chop out of your life to balance your budget. The gym is first because everyone really hates exercise, and pizza tastes the same with good beer or cheap swill. After that it starts getting really hard.

Really hard is the problem the members of the state Legislature faced Saturday during a special session called by Gov. Chris Gregoire to fill a $1.1 billion deficit for this biennium. That is government talk for right now.

Wrapping my brain around a billion dollar hole is bad enough, but the next two year state budget is projected to be nearly $6 billion short.

And the federal deficit is climbing a $14 trillion mountain. I’m not sure my Quicken software has that many zeros.

The State House members found a way to whack off nearly $590 million by about 1 p.m. Saturday, but that left a very big hole to fill the first days of January when the new and re-elected legislators drive to Olympia. You have to give the re-elected politicians credit; doesn’t seem like a fun job to win back, particularly for the majority Democrats. You have to wonder if a few of them didn’t secretly wish the Republicans would have gotten stuck with this math problem.

One of those incumbents is 47th District Rep. Pat Sullivan, newly elected majority leader for the House Democratic Caucus, Covington resident, former city mayor and known by all as one of the good guys in the rough and tumble world of Olympia politics.

Sullivan called the special session cooperative among the parties, but “very painful.”

What we discussed after the session was the real-world effects on residents in this area.

Sullivan said the cuts made by the Legislature will be felt by constituents. The first example was the $40 million cut in K-4 class reduction funds. The money was meant to lower sizes in kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms.

“It will impact our local school districts,” Sullivan said.

The representative stated the Legislature used $208 million of the federal education jobs funding to close part of the gap.

Sullivan said it was money the school districts hoped to get at some point, but it will now be used to patch the holes in the leaking bucket.

Another budget cut Sullivan said will reverberate on the ground was the $20 million drop for federally funded health clinics. The cut is actually about $50 million with the loss in federal matching funds.

The clinics provide health services to the uninsured and underinsured and Sullivan said it could mean more visits to the emergency room for those without adequate or any insurance.

This issue came up at the Dec. 13 Valley Medical Center Board of Commissioners meeting. Finance Director Larry Smith discussed the challenge hospitals are facing if more uninsured people are funneled to the facilities.

The cuts made during the Saturday special session will look like peppermint candy compared to the $6 billion black hole in 2011 and 2012.

Sullivan said the fall in state revenues “is downright scary.”

The representative said he is hoping for a true bipartisan game plan to face the numbers in the happy New Year.

On the other side of the aisle Rep. Glenn Anderson, 5th District Republican, has consistently said it is time for the state and country to begin acting like economic adults.

Anderson voted against the special session fun calling it a “jam job” by the leadership.

“Everybody knew this day of reckoning was coming. It’s not exactly a surprise,” Anderson said.

He was adamant the course the state Legislature has taken is “not the way to do things.”

The representative called the $208 million used from the federal education jobs funds a “gimmick.”

Anderson aimed his shots at the Republicans and the Democrats. He described the Rs as rolling over to get their “tummy tickled” and he criticized the governor’s negotiation with public employees over health care benefits.

“We cut K-4 class size but we can’t get a deal with public employees to do a modest increase in health care benefit (payments),” Anderson said.

It is Anderson’s belief the state has a “horrible job environment and unless we start creating private sector jobs we will never get out of this.”

Anderson may be in the minority, but he refuses to go quietly into the night.

Stay tuned. The fireworks set to go off in the January have not been seen in Olympia for a very long time.

Sullivan said one member made a comment during the Saturday session he liked.

“This is our Washington and we have to be different from the other Washington.”