No cuts-only pension deal - Page 2

Pension reform has to be linked to tax reform -- or else it won't work

04.12.11 - 3:22 pm | Guardian Editorial |

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Robert Reich, the former labor secretary who now teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, has an interesting essay on his blog April 9 that discusses Obama's budget capitulations. The president, he notes, "is losing the war of ideas because he won't tell the American public the truth: that we need more government spending now — not less — in order to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. That we got into the Great Recession because Wall Street went bonkers and government failed to do its job at regulating financial markets ... That the only ways to deal with the long-term budget problem is to demand that the rich pay their fair share of taxes.

"And that, at a deeper level, the increasingly lopsided distribution of income and wealth has robbed the vast working middle class of the purchasing power they need to keep the economy going at full capacity."

That's as true here as it is in Washington. And if city officials want progressive support for pension reform, they need to acknowledge it.

Comments

Uh huh, Instead of

Uh huh,

Instead of 'Thelma and Louise' driving off the cliff alone we get Timid and Gabriel driving off the cliff with the whole City in the back seat. By this time next year we could well have several hundred cops making combined yearly incomes of over $400,000 a year and you aren't ready for reform?

At least the Giants won.

Posey got 3 hits, drove in a couple of runs and threw out Kemp.

Wilson struck out the side in the 9th.

Stay out of the convertible, campers!

Posted by Guest h. brown on Apr. 12, 2011 @ 10:36 pm

Another day, another downgrade of the City's debt rating...

This is as good a time as any to thank the City workforce for tipping our City to bankruptcy - special shout out to the Police and Fire Departments, specifically O'Connor and Delagnes. Your greed has no bounds.

Posted by Guest on Apr. 13, 2011 @ 9:24 am

All Elsbernd does is smile at

All Elsbernd does is smile at the fact that after seven years on the Board of Supervisors, he and his mayors have seen the City's economic standing tank as a result of their stewardship.

-marc

Posted by marcos on Apr. 13, 2011 @ 9:37 am

the progressives had the

the progressives had the majority on the Board the last several years. Under your reasoning, Daly, Peskin, et al. are more to blame. Daly was on the Board 10 years.

Posted by The Commish on Apr. 13, 2011 @ 5:22 pm

Raise taxes to pay bloated pensions? Sorry, no thank you

City policemen and firemen retire at age 55 on 80% pay of current peers with seniority for the rest of their lives.

They need these $140,000+ pension payments to maintain their second homes and boat houses in Nevada.

Sorry, but we'll have to keep cutting services at SF General, street cleaning, summer school, library hours, etc., because public-sector retirees need their dosh.

Posted by Barton on Apr. 22, 2011 @ 7:53 am