The essence of the election was the people saying (1) stop making up for your mistakes by raising my taxes and (2) how about acting like you know what the heck you’re doing for a change. Over the long haul, this simply reflects that we need a smaller and more efficient government with personnel that are reasonably paid, not overpaid. The politicians will not touch some of these hot buttons at the risk of losing the favor of their constituents. For example, too much funding goes to the Child Protective Services. Because of this, they take on too many cases, rather than limiting the cases to the ones that actually have a problem. I know of one family that has had their children taken away. In that family, there has not been a crime committed, neither is there any danger to the children. However, the cost to the state of California for the charade has run into the tens of thousands of dollars over absolutely nothing. Do you think for a minute that the politicians will reduce funding to CPS? Heck no. They want to raise more taxes on your back and mine. CPS, like any other government agency, knows that if they don’t use their funding this year they will possibly lose some of it next year. That is the essence of how government grows. Once it gets a little larger, it thinks the new size is set in concrete. Only during times like these will government cut back. They have no choice, because the populace is broke. Raising taxes will only extend the recession longer, thereby delaying higher tax revenues.

The meaning of the California earthquake is that all across the nation, the people will get the size of government reduced (a Republican platform) due to lack of tax revenues. We should have kept government smaller all along.