[Leaning Right]

"effective retirement nest egg"

What does that mean? It means that the author is probably cooking the numbers to try to make his point.

As an example, suppose you get a pension of $50,000. That implies you have an “effective retirement nest egg” of one million dollars. That's because someone without a pension would need one million dollars earning 5% annual interest to match your pension.

Notice that you aren't actually a millionaire.

I point this out not to defend Sanders. I just dislike authors who try to mislead.

[Vigilanteman]

Spot on. Plus congress has voted themselves pensions worth way more than $50K annually. As mentioned in my previous example, most people who don't live high on the hog can make it to age 90 on a $300K nest egg.

I've also heard that nearly half (47%) of retirees live on social security alone.

[Night Hides Not]

You beat me to it. The author is projecting the value of his Senate pension over another 20 years.

Using that logic, I suppose one could say the same about any civil servant who retires as a GS-12+. Social Security payments fall under the same discussion.