It's the Pensions, Stupid

When are we going to stop public employees from ripping us off?

O never mind that the average public employee earns about 50 percent more than the average private sector employee.

No, never mind about that. It's not the salaries. It's the pensions, stupid.

If you want the policy analysis, go to this briefing from the National Center for Policy Analysis.

If you just want the News at Eleven tidbits, Mark Hemingway is your man. He suggests you pop over to californiapensionreform.com. to check out the pensions in the great state of California. Warning: Not for the faint of heart.

[The site] provides a searchable database of all 12,201 public employees in that state earning six-figure pensions.

In case you were wondering, Bruce Malkenhorst, former city administrator from Vernon, Calif., earns a pension of $509,664 a year. Yes, you read that right.

Let's head for New York. Even The New York Times is getting into the act--actually reporting news that reflects badly on Big Government. Hemingway again.

The Times reported "13 New York City police officers recently retired at age 40 with pensions above $100,000 a year; nine did so in their 30s."

Well, isn't that nice.

Some day soon, some politician is going to ride the public pension scandal into national office.

Now I wonder who that would be? It would have to be a politician expert at framing an issue into a sound bite. It would have to be someone with some street cred as a common-sense conservative. And it would have to be someone with exquisite timing.

You'd almost think it would have to be a woman. Now, let me think...