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According to Sperling's Best Places, Costa Mesa is 50.19% republican, 47.67% democrat. It is very middle class but has been steadily losing ground economically over the years. Liberals are good at assigning blame and horrible at finding solutions, but other than keep borrowing and never pay back, what else is there? That's been done and it doesn't work.
So Sperling's Best Places is the authority on the political makeup of Costa Mesa now? Let's see. . .
Mayor, Gary Monahan - Republican
Jim Righeimer, Councilmember - Republican
Eric Bever, Councilmembe - Republican
Wendy Leece, Councilmember - Republican
Stephen Mensinger, Councilmember - Republican
Allan Mansoor, Assemblymember, District 68 - Republican
Tom Harman, State Senator, District 35 - Republican
Dan Rohrabacher, U.S. Representative - Republican
Costa Mesa is a Republican stronghold. It is decidedly conservative. You can't deflect the subject of this thread by pointing to irrelevant sources.
But I thought we were told that if we privatize everything and let the "market" wave it's magic wand we'd all prosper and Jesus would descend from the clouds with Ronald Reagan at his side and give his blessing. After all the "free market" is cure for all societal ills.
Thats not at all the lesson being taught.. Its the left that said if we let the government do everything, then we will be better.. The result = massive layoffs, complete closures, and governments needing to outsource the newly acquired responsibilities back to the private sector. Maybe you missed the part that those being laid off were GOVERNMENT workers..
Take from and spend other people's money? It was their money. They paid into their pension funds. They negotiated pension benefits in lieu of larger salary increases. IOW, deferred "salary" until after retirement. It was their money.
And they should suffer because the city mismanaged it? Outrageous! Lessons the left can pull out of this? LMAO! You seem to have missed the point of the thread, too. It's the Right who are learning the lessons from this.
And they are Not. Happy.
And stop with the tired canard that this is redistributing other people's wealth. That's just absurd on its face.
I think the left can pull a very serious lesson from this. That is that Republicans are all for the rule of law and for fulfilling your contract obligations until it becomes inconvenient or expensive to do so. Then they want to back out of their agreed-to terms and blame the other parties in the contract as being greedy for wanting what they were legally promised.
"Nearly half of this city’s workers were told late last week that, come September, they would probably be out of a job. Nearly every city department will be eliminated. More than a dozen tasks will be outsourced, including graffiti removal, firefighting, building maintenance and street cleaning.
. . .
"The layoffs have deeply divided this small city, just a few miles inland from Newport Beach. While Costa Mesa has long been a politically conservative enclave, much like the other wealthy suburbs that surround it, the move to privatize city services strikes many residents as a harsh political tactic that is meant to remake their town into a national model in the battle over public employee unions."
I'd lay odds that a huge majority of the "whiners" in Costa Mesa, were nastily calling the public employees in Wisconsin, "thugs", "lazy slugs", "cockroaches", and every other despicable name that's been thrown out there.
Because it was happening to other people.
We on the left keep trying to tell all the screamers that it's dangerous to keep supporting policies that are against your own self-interest. Well, here's the proof in the pudding.
Sadly, this time it cost one young man his life.
"Emotions in Costa Mesa, already running high, grew more intense after one city worker, summoned to receive his pink slip, instead climbed five stories to the roof of City Hall and jumped to his death."
Read the whole article. Read about how they're now considering "outsourcing" the friggin Police. Read how it's not the City Council recommending these drastic moves, but a consultant. A consultant, btw, who was not elected by the people to make decisions that affect their community. Read what the sole 'No' voter on the City Council had to say about this (and pay close attention to what political party she represents).
Sorry about this, Costa Mesa. We tried to warn you.
Excluding key services such as police and the fire department (which I think are put up for cuts purely for shock value half the time), how many of these departments were redundant, inefficient, unnecessary, or some combination of the three?
The money was lost in the stock market. Too bad, sucks to be them. They aren't owed anything, that's the chances you take playing with the exchange.
Excuse me? Are you serious? Who invested the employees' money in the stock market? Not the employees, the city! The city lost the money that belongs to the employees, so "it sucks to be them"? Uhm, no. The city shouldn't be allowed to steal other people's money, then fire them so they can get out of paying their legal obligation. That's just plain absurd!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pghquest
Thats not at all the lesson being taught.. Its the left that said if we let the government do everything, then we will be better.. The result = massive layoffs, complete closures, and governments needing to outsource the newly acquired responsibilities back to the private sector. Maybe you missed the part that those being laid off were GOVERNMENT workers..
You funny. Missed this, did you?
Mayor, Gary Monahan - Republican
Jim Righeimer, Councilmember - Republican
Eric Bever, Councilmembe - Republican
Wendy Leece, Councilmember - Republican
Stephen Mensinger, Councilmember - Republican
Allan Mansoor, Assemblymember, District 68 - Republican
Tom Harman, State Senator, District 35 - Republican
Dan Rohrabacher, U.S. Representative - Republican
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emeraldmaiden
I think the left can pull a very serious lesson from this. That is that Republicans are all for the rule of law and for fulfilling your contract obligations until it becomes inconvenient or expensive to do so. Then they want to back out of their agreed-to terms and blame the other parties in the contract as being greedy for wanting what they were legally promised.
Contractual obligations are proving to mean absolutely nothing to the rightwingers.
Well, except when it comes to monstrous CEO and Executive bonuses that they claim can't be avoided because they were "contractually obligated" to them, even though the money that paid those bonuses was TAXPAYER MONEY WE BAILED THEIR SORRY ASSES OUT WITH.
The bottom line - public section unions suck the resources dry, so they can keep their lavish pensions, HC and other goodies the average worker is not privy to.
Quote:
“At some point we don’t have money for anything else except for labor,” Mr. Mensinger said. “That can’t go on. We’re not a poor town, but we’ve been spending money without regard to whether it’s for the best possible services at the lowest possible price.”
Quote:
Excuse me? Are you serious? Who invested the employees' money in the stock market? Not the employees, the city! The city lost the money that belongs to the employees, so "it sucks to be them"? Uhm, no. The city shouldn't be allowed to steal other people's money, then fire them so they can get out of paying their legal obligation. That's just plain absurd!
I guess you're unaware of how pensions work. See, the employee makes a contribution (in the case of most public workers, the employee contribute almost NOTHING to their OWN pension), opting for the state investment plans offered. If the market goes belly up, if the vehicles the employee contributes to go belly up. See, they didn't steal anyone's money. Just like every other state, they have various investment vehicles that are offered to employees.
I haven't seen any comments from residents of the city to back up the claims that folks are unhappy, outside of some union members losing their jobs.
What is the alternative? Oh, I know, the go to play for liberals - raise TAXES to fund the unsustainable forever.
Hey, we have all been sold a bill of goods regarding our retirements. Do you think I like the fact that my retirement is based solely on how well the stock market does? Not one bit, but that's how we are told to save for retirement.
Most of our retirements would have been fine, as they had been for years, before someone decided to go playing a nasty shell game with bad mortgages. We all lost on that.
Exactly! Speculators and fund managers played casino with the people's money and lost big time. Now instead of them seeing the inside of a prison cell they're getting more government money and the victims of all of this are getting the shaft. It's like punishing a rape victim giving a rapist a promotion! Yet partisan and corporate hacks are celebrating this policy!
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Thats not at all the lesson being taught.. Its the left that said if we let the government do everything, then we will be better.. The result = massive layoffs, complete closures, and governments needing to outsource the newly acquired responsibilities back to the private sector. Maybe you missed the part that those being laid off were GOVERNMENT workers..
