Jerry Brown calls pension changes not enough but 'most that could be gotten'

SacBee: Capitol Alert ^ | 9/11/12 | David Siders

[SmithL]

Gov. Jerry Brown, who will travel to Los Angles on Wednesday to sign legislation reducing public employee pension benefits, said today that the measure, though less sweeping than he proposed, is "the most that could be gotten" through his negotiations in Sacramento.

"What I got was the most that could be gotten," the Democratic governor said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group's editorial boards. "Is it enough? No."

The pension changes, approved by the Legislature despite opposition from labor unions and Republicans, will reduce benefits for future hires and require increased retirement contributions from current employees.

[omega4412]

The most that could be gotten, given that Brown and the CA legislature are wholly owned subsidiaries of the public employee unions.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SmithL.

[CdMGuy]

Jerry Brown admits defeat. He admits he has absolutely no control or influence over his own party which is in complete control of both houses of the legislature. What Jerry also is telling Californians is that the changes being made to the public employees pension system will FAIL. Hey Jerry, why don’t you resign like any honorable elected official would do.

[GeronL]

Let it go. Wall it off. Let them bankrupt themselves and become a fourth world nation. Get all those empty COSCO shipping containers and see if China needs any Napa Valley dirt or... um... Hollyweird memorabilia?

[Sivad]

...”despite opposition from labor unions and Republicans...”

As if the unions and Republicans were coming from the same
POV.

SacBee....another waste of cyber ink.

[vette6387]

Hey GeronL, Piss off! What a moronic statement! I thought you had more between the ears. Just a shameful way to comment!

[GeronL]

I am just trying to figure out if there is anything Kalpornia could sell that China might want, to help close that budget gap.

*I wasn’t being very serious*

[Fightin Whitey]

I’m surprised you don’t understand how many people feel similarly.

It’s not that anyone hates all Californians.

But the state and various local governments are well on their well to transforming the place into a failed leftist hell that they plainly expect the rest of us to help pay for one day.

We already pay now for the impact of California emission standards and other product regulations that make their way into the U.S. economy as a whole.

How do you think we are going to react to news like this?

[vette6387]

The kind of nonsensical commentary you engaged in is not helpful. If you can’t offer constructive commentary, it would seem better to be silent! Offering a flip comment is unworthy of the forum FR offers. I am 72 years old and have lived here in CA all my life. While there is no question that we are in a very difficult place, it is partially so by reason of our size, since most of the rest of the country is in similar shape, or will be in a few short years. Sure, there are places where you can still live somewhat insulated from the kinds of things that are happening in CA ( actually there are even places within CA that you could probably have that kind of lifestyle), but when the Federal Government goes under, there will be no place left untouched and it is doing exactly what is being done here. You had better hope that somehow we are able to fix our mess (or go bankrupt. which is actually my preference ) because as we go, so goes the rest of the country.

[Fightin Whitey]

Your size?

You mean like Alaska? Like Texas? Like Montana?

There are many states in the nation that aren’t governed anything like California is, and the people in those states don’t want to live like so many Californians do.

Your problem is in thinking that “as goes California so goes the rest of the country” means that you are in some way leading the rest of us.

No—you are sucking us down the drain with you and we are damned good and tired of it.

[vette6387]

I don't trash talk any other state, although I have a list of states where I have been and would not choose to make them my home for a variety of reasons. The idea that you advance that somehow California is responsible for the emission standards where you are is ridiculous! Your state had to pass laws to implement any such standards. The fact that you don't like them has no bearing on what was done here. Sure the RATS in Sacramento are nuts, but the idea that this state is a "leftist hell," is BS. and I don't expect anyone to "help" pay for anything that has been done here. And by the way, California, with all its problems, is stiil the economic engine that drives this country. Our economy, as bad as it is today, is still something like the seventh largest economy in the world. Just where do you think much of what you eat comes from? Texas, Illinois, The Carolinas, The Dakotas? How's that Texas wine? You know, the stuff that tastes like cow piss. What will you do if FR decides to go out of business because California is such a lousy place. If you don't live here, you have no room to talk. If you've left here, same story. You know, one of my kids went to school in Boston. I hate MA politics, but the people there seem to go about their daily lives in spite of a political system I abhor, and it's the same here.

[vette6387]

No—you are sucking us down the drain with you and we are damned good and tired of it.

What a load of crap! Hope you are enjoying your day wherever it is that you live. I have been in every state in the union with the exception of Alaska. Lot of nice places, but none as good as it is here. Everyone ballyhoo’s Texas. I wouldn’t live there for all the tea in China. Hot, humid, flat, more Illegals that we have here, and they “gave” us that worthless GWB (and the equally worthless Texas Republicans) who are the main reason we have Obama today.

[Fightin Whitey]

Yes, I’ll have a hell of a time making it without that California wine.

You have it all figured out, just like Jerry Brown, Pelosi, Boxer and the rest of your compatriots.

So sit in your own s—t and leave the rest of us to our business.

[vette6387]

“You have it all figured out, just like Jerry Brown, Pelosi, Boxer and the rest of your compatriots.”

The words “mindless jerk” come to mind with respect to your “insightful” commentary on California. To equate my feelings for California to the people you mention is disgraceful! And by the way, both Pelosi and Boxer are liberal termites who “invaded” California many years ago from the East Coast, so it may well be that they are really your “compatriots,” because they certainly aren’t mine. BTW, just what is a “fightin Whitey?” Just what do you fight with, your mouth? You offer no solutions, only stupid invective!

[Fightin Whitey]

Look at you. You have nothing but insult and invective—”piss off,” “load of crap,” “mindless jerk”—and you’re getting more livid by the moment.

My daddy was stationed at Mather and my sister was born in Sacramento and I now look at your once-beautiful state with fondness, disappointment, sorrow—and some cold clear anger at what these animals have done to it.

Nothing like you though. You’re so defensive you sound like you’ve come to hate the place and the fact that you live there.

Truth is, I kind of admire your loyalty. But you should realize that it’s not people like me that you’re mad at.

[vette6387]

“Truth is, I kind of admire your loyalty. But you should realize that it’s not people like me that you’re mad at.”

What makes me mad at people like you is that you are quite willing to write off 10% of your own country because of the moronic actions of a few people. Never mind that the vast majority of California’s “real citizens” are victims. So all the adjectives I used still fit. California is still a wonderful place in most ways, and the profligate spending will be coming to a screeching halt here soon because, like the federal government, there just isn’t any more money to “spread around.”
I just hope that Romney wins because I don’t want to see Obama try to bail out any state, least of all, California.