A dramatic highlight of the 1955 James Dean movie, "Rebel Without a Cause," is a game of "chicken" in which two teenagers drive jalopies toward a cliff. The last one to jump out of his car wins. The James Dean character bails out first and is, therefore, the "chicken," but the "winner" dies as his car plummets over the edge.

Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla was born the year "Rebel Without a Cause" was first shown but, perhaps unconsciously, referred to it Tuesday as he described the increasingly rigid partisan stalemate in the Capitol over the deficit-ridden state budget. Both anti-tax Republicans and pro-spending Democrats, Canciamilla said, have assumed that somehow, the state "will never drive off the cliff."

In fact, it's entirely possible that the stalemate could linger for many weeks, perhaps months, because there are no signs of movement toward a compromise that would both bring closure to the crisis and -- just as importantly -- be rational enough to preclude its reappearing in future years.

While a prolonged stalemate would be inconvenient, and perhaps injurious, to many Californians, the enactment of still another "get out of town alive" budget that continues deficit spending would be just as irresponsible. The Democrats, including Gov. Gray Davis, would enact a budget that makes future deficits a certainty, while the Republicans would have us believe that sweeping across-the-board cuts can handle a deficit that has been estimated as high as $38 billion.

From the onset, it's been apparent to rational observers and analysts that a two-pronged approach to the deficit is needed. The first step would be to isolate the outstanding deficit from the past two unbalanced budgets and deal with it separately through borrowing that would be repaid from a dedicated revenue source. The second would be to bring the 2003-04 and subsequent budgets into balance to prevent future crises.

The only budget approach that meets that test is the one that Canciamilla, a Pittsburg Democrat, and Republican Assemblyman Keith Richman of Northridge unveiled Tuesday. And in doing so, they demonstrated that they are two responsible adults surrounded by squabbling, chicken-playing adolescents.

Richman and Canciamilla had led a bipartisan group of Assembly centrists in exploring a budget compromise. Eventually, however, the others succumbed to party pressures and dropped out and the two were left to propose their alternative alone. It would entail an $11 billion bond issue to cover the accumulated deficit, repaid through a five-year, half-cent boost in the sales tax, and major, specific reductions in spending for 2003-04 and beyond to bring income and outgo into balance.

Their goal, clearly, was to unring the bell and return California's budget to where it would have been by now before Davis and lawmakers squandered a one-time surge in state revenues from income taxes on high-tech workers in an orgy of spending and tax cutting. It would eliminate the largest of the Republican-backed tax cuts -- the sharp reduction in annual fees on cars -- and roll back much of the health, welfare and education spending that Davis and Democrats championed. Neither party likes it, nor do the dozens of outside interest groups that resist cutbacks in their flow of state money or tax boosts.

"We've done our best," Richman told reporters as he and Canciamilla -- a physician and a funeral home owner, respectively -- unveiled the alternative budget. "The Legislature is not really equipped to put a budget together," Canciamilla added, alluding to the triumph of ideological and interest group pressure over rational fiscal planning. He and Richman, he said, strove to "put aside the suspension of reality."

The Canciamilla-Richman plan relied on advice from the Legislature's oft-ignored budget analyst's office. Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill confirmed in a separate letter that it would have the desired effect of bringing the budget into balance and rolling back spending and state payrolls to below 1998-99 levels after adjustment for inflation and population growth.

And what are the alternatives to taking the Richman-Canciamilla approach? A longer stalemate or another unbalanced budget. Either should be shameful to Californians.