And why wouldn’t they? They must assume that 30 million Californians are walking around stoned or else they would notice how the state has been completely hijacked by labor bosses more interested in political power than the fiscal health of our state or the future of our children.
And how about the MSM? Completely checked out. Otherwise, how could they have missed this? Now I spent the last 8 years in Washington and have seen some pretty extraordinary abuses of power, but c’mon, the MSM completely ignores such an outrageous threat to elected officials? In the State Capitol! Can you imagine if the president of the Chamber of Commerce did this? The MSM would have been high alert (no pun intended).
The State of California is facing crippling budget challenges. We barely escaped the last budget process and the next one only promises to be worse. Yet, everyone seems to be oblivious to the necessary changes to rescue the next generations of Californians. The list starts with pension reform.
The idea that government employees are guaranteed 100% of their pension benefits, some of them completely out of whack with other public sector pension plans and ALL OF THEM completely out of whack with private sector plans, while the state hemmorages money, is unconscionable. But why does it occur?
It occurs because the unions’ power over our legislature intimidates even sensible Democrats to keep their traps shut. They depend on “defined benefits,” meaning the benefits they receive from their pensions have little relationship to what they put in. But the rest of us unlucky bastards, well, we have to rely on our “defined contribution,” meaning we actually have some skin in the game. Sure, we’ve taken our lumps over the last two years because of the recession, but we don’t get to rely on the taxpayers (i.e., ourselves) to pick up the slack. That is the exclusive domain of the union members.
But don’t take my word for it, take Democrat State Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s.
Another bong toke, California?