Timid Obama Succumbs to Old Politics

by Froma Harrop

This has been a tough week for the hopeful ones who believed President Obama's vow to break with the old politics. Every day, it seems, the president caved in to another Democratic interest group working against the public weal.

Let's start with the mayors' conference just ended in Providence, R.I. One hundred Obama administration officials canceled their plans to attend, rather than cross a firefighters' picket line set up to embarrass the host, Providence Mayor David Cicilline. The mayor was trying to curb the workers' gold-plated benefits in a city reeling under an 11.3 percent unemployment rate. The no-shows included Vice President Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

The mayors were none too happy. Their cities are in economic crisis. They had a lot to discuss with administration officials. And dealing with their own public-employee dramas, they could imagine themselves in Cicilline's shoes.

As Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, put it: "None of us in this room are insulated from the economic challenges faced by the city of Providence. This will not be the last time this administration will be asked to make a similar choice."

A little more background: Providence has among the best-paid firefighters in the country. The union is willing to raise the minimum years of service for getting a pension from 20 to 25, which means someone could still join the force at 19 and retire at 44. It won't negotiate a minimum retirement age or do anything to reduce the exorbitant cost-of-living increases that for some former firefighters double pension payments every 11 years, however.

One firefighter, a former chief, is collecting a disability pension that pays him $13,000 a month, tax-free. The city supports its firefighters with very high property taxes, but only 55 of the 459 live there.

It was over such "grievances" that the Obama administration virtually boycotted a national mayors' conference.

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