Every Twelve Hours

There’s an old saying that even broken clocks are right twice a day. Steve Lopez, a leftist columnist from the L.A. Times, whom I would consider a broken clock, is right in his column today.

Deals So Sweet They'll Kill Us
Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times

...If you hadn't already noticed, while the rest of us watch our retirement benefits shrivel up and blow away, public sector retirement deals are sweeter than ever. And we're footing the bill.

...Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to sound an alert last year. But the big gorilla killed any chance for a serious discussion by bullying cops, teachers and firefighters, making them out to be the bad guys.

Now there's even less of a chance for honest leadership, because it's an election year — a time when no politician dares speak the truth, especially if it means risking donations from public employee unions. Meanwhile, evidence is mounting across the state that we're headed for disaster as the bills come due on all the Cadillac retirement plans out there.

Although Right Twice Per Day, Broken Clocks are Still Broken
Lopez correctly credits the Governor for his effort to reform the public pension system. Where Mr. Lopez goes wrong is in his blaming the failure of that reform on the Governor’s tactics. History tells us that the problem was in a “drafting error” in the pension reform initiative that stripped benefits to widows of firefighters and police officers. When this error was found, the Governor rightly withdrew the initiative and public pension reform died. But, the real story and one that any inquisitive reporter would address, is why did the Governor have to take reform to the initiative process in the first place? Where were the majority Democrats in the legislature? Why did Democrats seek to destroy the public pension reform instead of constructively working on a solution to benefit California?

A Perfect Storm
Eventually, the coming pension crisis is going to hit California like a level 5 hurricane holding hands with a seven point earthquake. When municipalities begin to file bankruptcy the state will have the option of “bailing them out,” but when the state can no longer afford its obligations, where will we turn? Republicans have tried to address the public pension issue, and Democrats will have none of it. But, what can one expect of the majority Democrats when their biggest campaign contributors are public employee unions?