SAVE THE PENSIONS!!!
Posted on 07/21/2019 3:57:54 PM PDT by Freedom56v2
Former House Speaker John Boehner and former Rep. Joe Crowley are joining forces in a bipartisan effort to combat a looming pension crisis affecting nearly 1.3 million American retirees Opens a New Window.
Boehner, the Ohio Republican who retired in 2015, is part of the Retirement Security Coalition, a leading force that is raising awareness to the underfunded multiemployer benefit plans.
“The job Joe and I have taken on is to try to elevate the seriousness of this problem," he told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto Opens a New Window. on Thursday. "And Congress really does in fact need to act."
An estimated 10 million people participate in the multiemployer pension plans and 120 plans that cover 1.3 million workers may go bankrupt. There are 1,400 plans that will be insolvent in 20 years, according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. “These pensions are becoming insolvent,” Crowley, the former congressman from New York who defeated in a major upset by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the 2018 midterms, said. “We have 15 already that have gone south, we have 13 on [their] way.”
Snip
Boehner said the current political climate seems “a little strange” but Congress Opens a New Window. has come together to deal with important issues affecting Americans.
“It’s tough to get anything done in Washington,” he said. “But when you got 10 million retirees whose pensions are on the line, Congress knows this issue is important."
Failure to save the pensions, Crowley said, could have a severe impact on the U.S. economy because it has the potential to leach onto other retirement plans Opens a New Window. .
“A blow to our economy that will mean a lot in terms of loss to the revenue of our country
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Because the politicians make a lot of money from them. Because the lawmakers can force you to. Any taxpayer that thinks their “elected representative” works for them is in for a broken heart. The motto of the politician is: I will do as I damn well please. You will do as I damn well say.
Why is this anything i should dish out my earnings for?
Not my yob to save the world.
“Nice 401k you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.”
Connect the dots...Here is a thread from FR a few days ago...
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3765488/posts
Congress Is Coming for Your IRA
First paragraph from WSJ: Like grave robbers opening King Tut’s tomb, Congress can’t wait to get its hands on America’s retirement-account assets. The House passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, known by the acronym Secure, in May. The vote was 417-3. The Secure Act is widely expected to pass the Senate by unanimous consent. While ostensibly helping Americans save for retirement, the bill would actually reduce the value of all retirement savings plans: individual retirement accounts, 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, the works.
They take the job and know what it involves. My point was that firemen have to make a good wage that society can afford to pay and that taxpayers can afford to fund as a pension when they retire. That is true for every position of employment with a retirement.
Not sure what part of that was difficult to understand and I am in the field. It is not just about salary any more - the smart folks pick a job with an eye towards the financial health of the entity in the future. I could go to California and do my same job and make 80k more a year with more retirement, but I question the sustainability of “the pension fund” I would be relying on based on the spending habits and history of the politicians who control it.
This is true for all government workers and many private company workers with pension plans as well. Why should people in rural America be asked to subsidize patrolmen salaries that are way more than what a Chief of Police makes in their district? Same thing for an auto-worker or utility lineman.
It will be a big problem. People can get mad about it, but it is based on nothing more than a reasonable and logical cost/benefit analysis. Do you want to subsidize janitors in the NYC school system who make 120k a year and have a cadillac retirement plan?
I did not have a vote for that so why should we “bail them out?”
I don't see why it should be ordinary taxpayers, most of whom don't have a pension of their own, to be on the hook for those promises.
Agreed. Why should taxpayers bail out private pension funds? Granted there may have been some manner of criminality on the part of the funds’ managers, but that does nothing to put the onus on the rest of us to make these pensioners whole.
Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it be a problem for these pensioners? Yes.
And, neither of those is a reason to put the strain on taxpayers.
Now, if it’s proven that government failed in required oversight, we may have to rethink this.
If crying Loser Boehner is touting it I’m pretty sure it’s worthless; suspect opposed.
For fire departments, building blazes — catastrophic or not — have become infrequent. Firefighters responded to 487,500 structure fires across the United States in 2013, which means each of the nation’s 30,000 fire departments saw just one every 22 days, on average. And yet, taxpayers are paying more people to staff these departments 24-7. As a result, the amount of money shelled out for local fire services more than doubled from 1987 to 2011, to $44.8 billion, accounting for inflation.
Boner should stop smoking all that free pot he is getting from his sponsors. I rhught we got rid of him.
Your point about counting overtime pay for pensions is an excellent one.
Here is something college professors have been doing for years. Many of their defined benefit pensions work something like this: your pensions is based on the average of your three final years of salary times 2% time the number of years you work.
So you work 30 years for 27 of those years you work 8 months or so a year (two four month semesters). Your final three years you become a department chair or associate dean. Your salary goes up in the form of a raise but more importantly, you are now given a 12 month contract instead of an eight month contract. So a full professor is making $100,000 for eight months. The promotion increases his or her salary to $100,000x12/8 to $150,000 and then increased to say $160,000 for the new job.
Old pension: $100,000x2%x30 = $60,000 ($90,000 if 3%)
New pension: $160,000x2%x30 = $96,000 ($144,000 if 3%)
And that does not count Social Security benefits!
Claiming wrong/bad numbers undermines your case.
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation avg pilot retirement was/is more like $30,000/yr.
Here’s an idea: Save my take-home.
Unfortunately you are correct. Balanced budget talk was never real during the last 15 years.
Just the tip ...
Les Wexner held fundraisers for both Boehner and Romney.
As OSU Board Chairman Lesley Wexner bestowed on Boehner an honorary doctor of public service degree.
Wexner’s Easton Town Center was awarded a $911,356 Stimulus grant.
The pensions wouldn’t be in such a bad state if the Fed didn’t hold interest rates down.
The power-mad politicians use pension perks as vote-getters.
The desperate pols keep upping the ante, throwing tax dollars at the self-absorbed union types.
No concerns about overburdening the taxpayers, natch.
Ok. So your desire is to see everyone at home and called in? That is absurd.
SAVE THE PENSIONS!!!
That’s why I think all states need to do what the post office requires. Pay retirement for 75 years the day the employee starts. I don’t think 75 years is necessary but 40 for sure. It is a definite possibility that in 2069, the only people getting a pension will be the post office retirees. The post office was brilliant to do this. People with 401K will maybe be all right but that depends on the whim of the stakeholders.
Most firefighters here are paramedics and run medical aids. Depending on which city, medical aids will run 70-90% of their calls. Our county firefighters work 48 hour shifts and on a weekend shift can do 20 calls dependent on which station they’re in. I know. I’m married to a firefighter who worked 34 years before retiring. His back was broken twice and he shattered a knee cap while on the job. He also suffered a concussion and almost lost an eye while running a division for BLM in Montana far from home.
Your idea of what firefighters do is way outdated.
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