While not trying to be political here,.....every politician,....of a certain persuasion,.......rails against government bailouts of privately owned companies and pensions,.....while turning a blind eye to the fact that,....almost to a man,.....they voted to bail out the privately-owned banks and investment firms affected by the 2008 financial meltdown,.............CAUSED by the VERY PEOPLE they bailed out!
Since all defined-benefit pension plans are backed by government-owned Pension Benefit Guarantee Insurance,......the government has a vested interest,............same as their "interest" in bank deposits backed by Federal Deposit Insurance,.....which was the "argument" used by legislators to justify their government bailout of banks,...........to make sure defined-pension funds survive.
There was only one Senator that had proposed a bill to provide pension relief to funds similarly affected by the meltdown, and the banker's irresponsible behavior,.........and that was Senator Bob Casey (D) of Pennsylvania. His bill languishes in committee due to lack of sponsors. S. 3157 "Create Jobs And Save Benefits Act."
Senator Casey is up for re-election this year. If he goes out,....there goes the last voice for pension relief in the Senate. He introduced his bill in 2010. 5 other Senators co-sponsored this bill, but no one else has come up with anything similar. Bill needs at least 21 other co-sponsors to come out of committee.
Sen. Casey is the only Senator I know of , to say on the floor of the Senate: "People who perform physical labor should, by the very nature of the phyiscality of that work,.....be able to retire by age 55."
Everyone else seems to want to push Social Security back to age 70.........