Union Ally Denies Pension Crisis!

Steven Greenhut: Here’s the dog-bites-man story of the day: Steve Maviglio claims that the pension crisis isn’t real, apparently something manufactured by greedy private-sector workers who don’t understand why they need to work until they are 90 to pay for the six-figure retirements of California government employees.

Meanwhile, the Obama mortgage deal will help bail out the incompetent and scandal-plagued CalPERS, which invested in absurd housing developments at the height of the real estate boom. It’s ironic that all the self dealing and greed that leftists rail against are most pronounced in the government sector they defend. I’m not saying that there isn’t greed and wrongdoing in the private sector, but there’s far more accountability in that sector than in government, where there’s no competition and unions get to bully legislators.

Public sector unions want to deny any problems because they are set to score big time by enjoying pensions that are typically worth millions of dollars. The taxpayers foot the bill if the numbers don’t add up. Maviglio and Co. claim that the current system is sustainable and reasonable. I’ll take them out their word — provided they leave taxpayers alone. If these plans are so sensible, then taxpayers should not need to be there to pay for losses.

FEB. 10, 2012