Recent attempts at reforming California's dysfunctional, deficit-ridden budget, including the initiatives on Tuesdays' ballot, tried to achieve the impossible: reforming a dysfunctional budget process without touching any sacred cows. The basic rule of thumb is if the state's ravenous public-sector unions aren't howling in agony, then the proposed reform has little if any chance of actually fixing the current problems. California runs an enormous deficit because legislators can't stop expanding government, and the main beneficiaries are government employees and retirees.