But -- hard as it is to believe -- there's reason to hope that the message about how government employees are driving fiscal crisis has sunk in even in California.
There, citizens of San Jose passed some serious pension reform, which among other improvements requires city workers either to contribute up to 16% more of their salary to continue with their current pension plan or else choose a more affordable plan; requires voter approval for future pension increases; and limits disability retirement to those who disabilities actually prevent them from working.
Predictably, the government union -- subsidized by our tax money and supposedly created to "serve us" -- threatens to sue the city.
The best news? These results signal that voters have absorbed the message that small government advocates have been trying to spread: There is no reason that government workers should have the "right" to a lifestyle that completely insulates them from the impact of government overspending and imprudence -- an impact that affects all other Americans. Enough with the calls for "sacrifice" from everyone else in order to subsidize an entitled class.