States haven't been living within their means either, they remained bloated through stimulous money, but that money doesn't last forever.In the last monthly employment report, states laid off 25,000 people. There was a report this morning in the WSJ that St Louis is going to close half its schools. California has been furloughing its employees.
It might be that government employees haven't felt as much pain, but to say no pain isn't correct.
Now many states must actually balance a budget, their first reaction is to fire people.
Most of our stimulus money went to cleaning up one of the most polluted sites in America, what a waste of money.