Clash of Ideas

Fifths
San Jose now spends one-fifth of its $1.1 billion general fund on pensions and retiree health care, and the amount keeps rising. To free up the money, services have been cut, libraries and community centers closed, the number of city workers trimmed, salaries reduced, and new facilities left unused for lack of staff. From potholes to home burglaries, the city’s problems are growing. 
....
“I think it needs to be led by Democrats,” Mr. Reed said. “It can’t become something Republicans are doing to unions.” (San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed-Democrat) (NYT, 9/23/2013)

Reed is correct that only Democrat governors and mayors can forestall the financial Armageddon that will come from public employee benefits. Then again, turnaround is fair play as it was Democrats who created the problem.


Refusnik
House Speaker John Boehner is chiding President Obama for negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin while refusing to negotiate with House Republicans. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 9/23/2013)

Actually a pretty good line from Boehner.

To which we would add the following: Wasn't it Nobel Prize winner Barack Obama who said "No blue states, no red states?" Whatever happened to that guy?