Posted on 10/21/2010 3:33:11 PM PDT by Lorianne
don’t think there is anyone who looks at the issue of entitlements in the US who is not gravely concerned about the direction we are on. Economists of all stripes, damn near everyone in D.C. and a long list of academics have all highlighted the problems. But the same groups that are raising red flags are misleading us on when and how this problem will affect us. They say/think it is a tomorrow problem. Actually it is hitting us today.
I want to focus on the Federal Employees Retirement System (“FERS”). This is a retirement program for federal workers. The program is similar to Social Security in a number of ways.
-FERS collects money from government workers and their employer.
-The program pays benefits to eligible workers and their families.
-FERS has a trust fund. Currently there is $775b of Special Issue Treasury securities in the fund. This is equivalent to 6% of our total debt and is therefore a very big deal. FERS holds as much of our paper as do the Chinese and the Federal Reserve.
-FERS is running a cash flow deficit. This is a new phenomenon. FERS is converting itself into a defined contribution plan that will address some of the problems. However the cash drain experienced in 2010 will not be reversed in the foreseeable future. It will increase.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
This house of cards really cannot stand much longer.
Hmmm...
http://www.grandpappy.info/honehour.htm
Thanks for posting & answering a question I had when I saw SS was in trouble.
I wonder if they are going to cut the benes of GOV employees.
“I wonder if they are going to cut the benes of GOV employees?”
Probably President Romney. (runs away)
Let the Govt employees eat cake.
So, you want to take their stuff?
Ugh!
And people receiving SS Retirement Didn’t????
Tell ya what. They keep theirs, I keep mine. If theirs is gone it’s not my problem.
That’s why Obama and his henchmen are looking at confiscating YOUR and MY retirement accounts.
It is just like the Social Security “stuff” I have been paying into that I will never see?
They will end up handing us scrip like California - worthless IOUs backed by nothing. It is called Hope & Change.
Don’t blame me. Blame Democrats and idiots who watch TV for what happened to America.
Participants in Ponzi schemes lose their money, as all of us participating in Social Security will, too. The system cannot support the promised benefits, therefore the benefits will be modestly reduced and the system can return to balance.
“So, you want to take their stuff?”
I think the problem is that they want to take our stuff.
“The deal is people took jobs with the federal government given a certain deal. “
No the deal is that they made a deal and the deal cannot be paid for. So, like private sector workers, the deal is that they (you) are likely to take a haircut.
Those federal workers chose to enter a system that any sane person can see is unsustainable, gambling that they will get theirs before it all collapses. They made a deal with the devil and with any justice will lose their ill gotten spoils.
That means my retirement is self-financed.
What ill-gotten gains? You'd better be able to back that up before you engage in further slander.
The argument the writer is making is that to make the current FERS retirement payments the government incurs debt elsewhere, so that debt should be attributed to the FERS retirement costs.
I earlier pointed out (every time this approach is used in fact) that if the US government got rid of every employee and quit paying federal retirements, the US government would still incur new debt!
The federal employee part of the total cost equation is MINOR. You will get your big bucks out of all the other nonsense the federales do ~ renting range land to cattle ranchers, purchasing property for national parks, regulating drugs, grants to universities, grants to hospitals, grants to grant granting organizations, and so forth.
Seems to me that it should be pretty simple to cut federal costs ~ eliminate every expenditure except those related directly to national defense, and sell the postal service.
I fear you are right.
Your logic is correct; however, you have the wrong terminology. FERS (Federal Employee Retirement System) is the current system that you describe. The pre-1984 system was CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System).
No, this is wrong. The original system was called the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), which was a defined benefits program, which was replaced by FERS, a defined contribution plan. What the hell is FSPS?
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