STATE CAPITOL - Former state Senate President Pro Tem and U.S. Rep. John Burton (D-San Francisco) hovered about swearing-in activities Monday, with plenty of thoughts on the ugly fiscal situation newly appointed lawmakers will face.

"They're coming into a very bad situation," said Burton, who was termed out in 2004 and is planning a run for California Democratic Party chair next year. "But I think it's unfair to lay the responsibility for a solution totally on Speaker Bass and Senator Steinberg."

Burton said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's apparent inability to get any members of his own GOP to cross sides and vote for Democratic proposals that include both cuts and new revenues should bear some of the blame.

He was even more curt about Republican proposals to fix the problem: "The Republicans are full of crap."

That party's proposals to reduce government oversight on businesses and eliminate an eight-hour workday, he said, might be ideologically important to their supporters, but they have nothing to do with the state budget.

"They're trying to enact their political agenda to get a deal, and I find that abhorrent," he said.

He was also critical of any proposal that relied exclusively on cuts to state spending. "You can never cut your way out of the problem," he said. "Cuts just create more problems."

Burton also said he's investigating a run for the state Board of Equalization in 2014, after filing an intention to do so last week for the board's 1st District.

Any such run would presumably come after a possible Democratic party chairmanship.

"It's something we're looking at," said Burton. "Nothing is promised to no one in 2014."

ELSEWHERE on PolitickerCA.com:

• Golden State Democratic legend John Burton may run for state party chair in 2009