- Credits
- 530
Pensions targeted
As the sun set on Dec. 16, 2014, Americans went to bed with the assurance that their retirement income was protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. At the dawn of the following day, they were no longer guaranteed the promised pensions they had worked so hard to earn.
Few knew that at the stroke of midnight the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 attached to the Omnibus Spending Bill became the law of the land. Fewer still understood that this 11th-hour attachment will affect no fewer than 1.5 million workers, possibly reducing monthly benefits by as much as 65 percent.
It sets the stage for future attacks on benefits for millions of others. Who will be next in the never-ending attempt to take us back to a pre-Roosevelt era?
This rush to grab retirement income of troubled multiemployer plans is just the beginning of what may be the newest craze on Wall Street. The fast-track nature of this pension heist hopes to get the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service approval while Americans sleep.
After this initial group is fleeced, hedge-fund managers and the derivative traders will not stop there. Their resounding cry will be, “Next?”
Michael A Savwoir
Kansas City
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article51159105.html#storylink=cpy
As the sun set on Dec. 16, 2014, Americans went to bed with the assurance that their retirement income was protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. At the dawn of the following day, they were no longer guaranteed the promised pensions they had worked so hard to earn.
Few knew that at the stroke of midnight the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 attached to the Omnibus Spending Bill became the law of the land. Fewer still understood that this 11th-hour attachment will affect no fewer than 1.5 million workers, possibly reducing monthly benefits by as much as 65 percent.
It sets the stage for future attacks on benefits for millions of others. Who will be next in the never-ending attempt to take us back to a pre-Roosevelt era?
This rush to grab retirement income of troubled multiemployer plans is just the beginning of what may be the newest craze on Wall Street. The fast-track nature of this pension heist hopes to get the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service approval while Americans sleep.
After this initial group is fleeced, hedge-fund managers and the derivative traders will not stop there. Their resounding cry will be, “Next?”
Michael A Savwoir
Kansas City
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article51159105.html#storylink=cpy
