Here's a recent kerfuffle:
Ro Khanna attacked Congressman Honda for taking his earned pension while collecting his congressional salary.
Why should Congressman Honda get a pension? What nerve!
Well, before becoming a Congressman, Honda was a high school science teacher, a principal, a school board member, a Santa Clara County Supervisor and a CA state Assemblyman and his pensions are perfectly legal. In fact, about one in five congresscritters also collects a pension of top of their current salary.
His late wife was also a teacher, and he receives her pension; again, perfectly legal.
After attacking Honda for collecting a pension he rightfully earned, Ro Khanna proceeded to threaten withholding Federal funding from states and cities that may struggle during a down economy. In a move that the Honda campaign compared to a “policy you might expect from the tea party,” Khanna appears to blame public workers for problems that originate more with Wall Street than Main Street.
But Sunnyvale Mayor Jim Griffith, who has endorsed Honda, said that while nobody debates the need to ensure public pensions are fully funded, "this is a proposal coming from someone with no experience at the state and local level" and apparently "pandering to an ultra-conservative crowd."Federal funds support Sunnyvale and cities like it in everything from workforce development to affordable housing, he said. "He's basically holding all of that ransom in order to meet some ideal that, frankly, we're already trying to meet."
California may not be a top state in per-student funding, but we do have highly trained and qualified teachers. We are proud of them. And they had some choice words for Mr. Khanna below the orange squiggle.