Pefley: The courage to shut down it down
Carol Pefley, candidate for CA Assembly District 28, says real financial accountability starts when leaders have the guts to pull the plug on failed gov't programs.
Anybody who runs a business knows this phrase: sunk costs--which is money that’s already gone and can’t be recovered.
Strong leaders understand that when a product line fails or a policy collapses under its own weight, the answer isn’t to double down or hire more consultants. The answer is to acknowledge the mistake, learn from it, and shut it down.
Yet in California, we see the opposite. Programs that are clearly broken are protected, defended, and endlessly funded and not because they work, but because politicians are afraid to admit they were wrong.
Look at the $125 billion high‑speed rail, a project so mismanaged that even 60 Minutes called it a disaster. Instead of ending a program that has no realistic path to completion, Sacramento keeps pouring billions more into a train that still doesn’t exist.
Or the explosion of DEI bureaucracies across state agencies and schools where layers of administrators, consultants, and compliance officers drain resources without improving outcomes. California students are falling behind in reading and math, yet the state keeps expanding programs that have no measurable academic benefit.
These are all examples of the same mindset: Protect the program at all costs , even when the program is failing and when public support is not on their side..
Real leadership starts with the courage to say: This isn’t working. It’s time to stop. California deserves leaders who can make that call.--Carol Pefley, candidate CA Assembly 28
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