A right wing conspiracy or a corruption of the attitude of public service

President Obama says that the private sector is doing fine and that we should send more money to state and local governments, say, to San Jose, California, to hire and retain more policemen. A portion of the wages of these policemen will be handed over to the police union in the form of compulsorily deducted dues. The union will use these dues to fund litigation to thwart the will of the 70% majority of San Jose voters who voted to approve Measure B to reform the pensions and health care benefits policemen receive.

We have had the idea inculcated in us that being a policeman is an honorable profession. Policemen place themselves at risk of grave personal injury to protect the rest of us. Republicans should honor policemen, we hear Democratic talking heads say, not demonize them.

Is the movement to reform police pensions nothing more than a part of a vast right-wing Republican conspiracy?

Well, San Jose is one of the most Democratic cities in the United States, having voted 69% for Obama in 2008, nearly identical to the 70% majority that voted for Measure B. Chuck Reed is the Democratic mayor of San Jose. In his book, Boomerang, Travels in the New Third World, Michael Lewis quotes Reed on the police and their pensions:

"Our police and firefighters will earn more in retirement than they did when they were working. ... When did we go from giving people sick leave to letting them accumulate it and cash it in for hundreds of thousands of dollars when they are done working? There's a corruption here. It's not just a financial corruption. It's a corruption of the attitude of public service." ... The problem was going to grow worse until, as [Mayor Reed] put it, "you get to one." A single employee to service the entire city, presumably with a focus on paying pensions. ... "I don't know how far out you have to go until you get to one," said Reed, "but it isn't all that far." ... This wasn't a hypothetical scary situation, said Reed. "It's a mathematical inevitability."

Mayor Reed provides more information about the excessive costs of police and firefighter compensation and benefits and how these costs are crippling the City of San Jose on the website of the Office of the Mayor.