BP finally managed to place a cap on its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Bristol Palin — that other “BP” in the news — is engaged to be married.
And the new iPhone’s antenna problems can be fixed by holding it in a special, dainty way — or by adding on a plastic holder.
So, with popular news stories wrapping up, can we now get back to fixing the political mess we’re in?
With the Republicans now said to be divided on whether to actually produce a game plan to fix up the fix we’re in, you can see how all the old perversities of politics still remain in full play at the federal level.
But look closer to home. There’s a lot to fix there.
Throughout the country, politicians have made all sorts of bad deals with public employee unions regarding pay and pensions. They love to spend our money buying their votes. In cities like San Diego, the invested pension funds’ values have plummeted, making renegotiations necessary, and necessarily painful. Your town may be next.
Simple solution? We need constitutional amendments preventing politicians from promising pension pay-outs of any amount. The only kind of pension governments should be allowed to offer is the placement of a negotiated amount of funds in a retirement account to be managed by the employee or the employee’s assigns.
Taxpayers must not be held in hock to the unfulfillable promises of a previous set of politicians.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.