PolitiCal Roundup: Social Security is running a surplus, state’s GOP lawmakers stand against Brown budget

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Resentment is at the root of recent controversies over public-employee unions, argues The Times’ George Skelton. Private-sector have-nots are bristling at public-sector haves, and they ‘won’t continue to pop for pension largesse that they themselves are denied,’ he writes.

The Social Security system actually has been running surpluses until recently, but the extra funds will peter out by the time today’s 30-year-olds retire, says The Times’ Doyle McManus.

California’s Republican lawmakers get organized to take a hard-line stance against Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget plan -- and the tax extensions therein.

Meanwhile, cuts to the federal budget approved by Republican lawmakers would hurt the nation’s economy, according to, of all people, the Wall Street analysts at Goldman Sachs.