Republican Party-endorsed Congressional candidate Carl DeMaio was announced as one of Institutional Investor magazine’s “Pension Reform Top 40”. The article praised DeMaio not only for past work, as author of San Diego’s pension reform initiative but for his proposed federal regulatory reform plan to enable more states and municipalities to reform their pensions.
Two important things should be noted:
DeMaio actually proposes a solution to the ticking time bombs in public sector pensions. He identified a real problem, donned a green eye shade, and is bringing a real plan. Republicans are often criticized for pointing out the follies of the statists, without presenting freedom-rooted alternative plans. DeMaio is clearly a candidate who changes that paradigm.
Pension reform should more accurately be called pension protection. II’s Top 40 is hardly some “right-wing love list”. The list includes prominent Democrats and union leaders. DeMaio was one of the pioneers in the pension protection movement, recognizing that, if we fail to address this problem today, we’ll be bouncing checks to our police officers, firefighters, and teachers when they retire. This problem is the product of bi-partisan collusion with union bosses. It took decades to create this problem and bold but competent leadership to solve it.
The public sector pension crisis has not gone unnoticed in the investment community. I want to make a distinction between “Wall Street” and institutional investors. While institutional investors do a lot of business with Wall Street bankers, traders, and investment managers, most are not part of the “welfare crowd” which was bailed out by the Bush Administration in 2008. II’s readers are trust officers of community banks, investment managers in cities far from Wall Street, and even state pension fund managers. Many are “heartland” firms which are much more Main Street than Wall Street.
DeMaio’s prominent placement on this list will not go unnoticed. It qualifies him as a leader of the fiscal reform movement and will bring national attention to his Congressional campaign. Institutional investors are sober, flinty-eyed professionals who look for mature political solutions to political problems. DeMaio clearly fits that bill