Saving America's Pension Plans Is A Rare Chance For Bipartisan Accomplishment | Opinion

"There will be riots in the streets."

Probably will. Why do you think the Government wants Citizens disarmed????

As far as the PBGC- last year, the Senate Committee ALMOST agreed to bail out the Guarantee, and raise it to 70% instead of 30%. They couldn't agree, because some wanted FULL Pension Payouts. I expect the PBGC gets funded, if anything does.
 
Looks like I touched a....nerve.....
As I was a Union Steward for 16 years up to my retirement,...I am very familiar with the Ol' Management Tactic of....what to do when someone asks...uncomfortable questions....

First, I congratulate your Alinsky type prose. I actually thought of you as a former Business Agent/ Organizer. That should be taken as a compliment.

Secondly, you've been here long enough to know you cant "touch a nerve". When someone goes far far far off the ranch, I simply ignore them, as I did you last year.
 
Sorry, there, Jimmy G.......I'm in Hale and Hearty Health,......Ain't "dropping dead" anytime soon.....(..barring Lightning from Divine Retribution...).....

I never wished any illness or hurt. I'm glad you're healthy. My question is more of why have you chosen as your username a bird who can only be of use by dropping dead into silence???
 
"There will be riots in the streets."

Probably will. Why do you think the Government wants Citizens disarmed????

As far as the PBGC- last year, the Senate Committee ALMOST agreed to bail out the Guarantee, and raise it to 70% instead of 30%. They couldn't agree, because some wanted FULL Pension Payouts. I expect the PBGC gets funded, if anything does.


Is there something wrong with getting .....full pensions? After all, they were wages contractually negotiated and deferred.....

That’s why there’s a Government insurance program for defined-benefit pensions....

If you got into a car wreck,......and your insurance company only paid you 30%........
.......I think you’d be a little...perturbed.
 
Is there something wrong with getting .....full pensions? After all, they were wages contractually negotiated and deferred.....

That’s why there’s a Government insurance program for defined-benefit pensions....

If you got into a car wreck,......and your insurance company only paid you 30%........
.......I think you’d be a little...perturbed.
I'm in CSPF. It's a private fund. Yes, I want my full pension. That's not the Taxpayer's responsibility. PBGC i(that you and I back) s 30 cents on the dollar, not Full Rste.
 
Since the ERISA Act of 1974,.......where the rules were set to prevent funds from “saving for a rainy day”.....and a government insurance program was put in place with premiums paid by employers......to "replace" that savings...
......the government has intruded in the management of these funds,....whether we like it or not.

My question is,......why does the PBGC fully insure Single-Employer plans,...up to $67,500 per year, per employee,.....yet has an arbitrary and fluctuating rate for MEPFs? It wasn't always..."30 cents on a dollar.."

And,.....for some reason, they do not fully fund the MEPF "program" side,....according to W.Thomas Reeder, Director of the PBGC,....even though there are fewer failing MEPF plans than Single-Employer plans.....

Why the disparity?

In My Opinion,.....the Government has taken responsibility for the viability of these Plans,...way back in 1974,......and they will either pay through fully funding the MEPF program,....removing the discriminatory disparity,....
...or they will pass the Butch Lewis Act long-term loan program......

In 2023,...the projected "failure" date of the MEPF program,....I can see a coalition of company executives and Union Fund trustees,...filing suit to force the Government to...."take ownership" of the MEPF program.
 
canary I hope you are right but I have my doubts. It was posted somewhere on TB back around 2008 when then PBGC chief Joshua Gotbaum asked/pleaded with congress to increase the rate of contributions for the PBGC MEPFs. Congress raised the SEPF rate but kept MEPF rate at either $8 or $12. I can't remember which it was. I have searched the site and can't find the article that was linked to the post. So you'll have to take or dismiss it as just my opinion...............The supposed reason for congress not raising the MEPF PBGC rate was that the MEPFs were in better shape than the SEPFs and less likely to fail.
 
canary I hope you are right but I have my doubts. It was posted somewhere on TB back around 2008 when then PBGC chief Joshua Gotbaum asked/pleaded with congress to increase the rate of contributions for the PBGC MEPFs. Congress raised the SEPF rate but kept MEPF rate at either $8 or $12. I can't remember which it was. I have searched the site and can't find the article that was linked to the post. So you'll have to take or dismiss it as just my opinion...............The supposed reason for congress not raising the MEPF PBGC rate was that the MEPFs were in better shape than the SEPFs and less likely to fail.

Bro. Crystal........if I remember correctly, the Single Employer Pension Relief Bill of 2006, passed because the argument was that SEPFs were in much worse shape than MEPFs because of the financial collapse of 2001.
MEPF Trustees nationwide complained that the same rules to amortize investments should apply to MEPFs too ,.....to prevent a funding problem with defined-benefit MEPFs.
That was widely pooh-poohed at the time by Wall Street investors, claiming that Union-held pension funds were......"stable".....and didn't need any regulatory help.

And then 2008 occurred........Was it "engineered"? No one on Wall Street was convicted of malfeasance,.......one minor executive served a small sentence.....
......and Wall Street got a massive influx of Public Tax money.
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Bro. Crystal........if I remember correctly, the Single Employer Pension Relief Bill of 2006, passed because the argument was that SEPFs were in much worse shape than MEPFs because of the financial collapse of 2001.
MEPF Trustees nationwide complained that the same rules to amortize investments should apply to MEPFs too ,.....to prevent a funding problem with defined-benefit MEPFs.
That was widely pooh-poohed at the time by Wall Street investors, claiming that Union-held pension funds were......"stable".....and didn't need any regulatory help.

And then 2008 occurred........Was it "engineered"? No one on Wall Street was convicted of malfeasance,.......one minor executive served a small sentence.....
......and Wall Street got a massive influx of Public Tax money.
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Well said! Let's hope Us working folks get treated as well as the Wall street bankers!
 
Well said! Let's hope Us working folks get treated as well as the Wall street bankers!


Wishful thinking, Brother...........Working people no longer have the Financial clout to get heard on Capitol Hill........

Sen. Mitch McConnell said ; "Spending is Free Speech..."....which belies the question: "How much Free Speech can you afford?......And how much can your Employer afford?..."

And in the age of SuperPacs and anonymous Donor Classes......(Thank you Citizen's United vs. FEC ruling...)....who do you think will get.....heard?

Only hope we got is when we get close to Election season,....and politicians start counting demographics,......and realize there's a helluva lot more working people than there are Wall Street billionaires.....Then they try to....throw a few bones....

And it's also then,....that billionaires spend a lot of their money....trying to "trick" enough working people to....vote their way,...for the politicians THEY want.......

"Pogo Principle" applies in politics........"We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is ...Us."
 
Wishful thinking, Brother...........Working people no longer have the Financial clout to get heard on Capitol Hill........

Sen. Mitch McConnell said ; "Spending is Free Speech..."....which belies the question: "How much Free Speech can you afford?......And how much can your Employer afford?..."

And in the age of SuperPacs and anonymous Donor Classes......(Thank you Citizen's United vs. FEC ruling...)....who do you think will get.....heard?

Only hope we got is when we get close to Election season,....and politicians start counting demographics,......and realize there's a helluva lot more working people than there are Wall Street billionaires.....Then they try to....throw a few bones....

And it's also then,....that billionaires spend a lot of their money....trying to "trick" enough working people to....vote their way,...for the politicians THEY want.......

"Pogo Principle" applies in politics........"We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is ...Us."
Envy is a Sin. One of the Top Ten.

Just saying.....
 
Is there something wrong with getting .....full pensions? After all, they were wages contractually negotiated and deferred.....

That’s why there’s a Government insurance program for defined-benefit pensions....

If you got into a car wreck,......and your insurance company only paid you 30%........
.......I think you’d be a little...perturbed.

The union agreed to the Government Program and its rules. Now members want the taxpayers to bail them out because the union sat and did nothing as it hemorrhaged members??? I do not want to pay for peoples pensions in industries I was never in.

You need to insure union Boss's are not collecting multiple pensions..

Oops they already are...….
 
The union agreed to the Government Program and its rules. Now members want the taxpayers to bail them out because the union sat and did nothing as it hemorrhaged members??? I do not want to pay for peoples pensions in industries I was never in.

You need to insure union Boss's are not collecting multiple pensions..

Oops they already are...….
Are you for real? Your paying for farmers subsidies aren't you? You bailed out Wall St. didn't you? You don't decide what congress or the great deal maker does with your tax dollars........................You never miss an opportunity to attack the Teamsters. How did you make out with your TENJ lawsuit that you lied about filing some years back? Did you actually pay a lawyer for doing nothing?
 
Are you for real? Your paying for farmers subsidies aren't you? You bailed out Wall St. didn't you? You don't decide what congress or the great deal maker does with your tax dollars........................You never miss an opportunity to attack the Teamsters. How did you make out with your TENJ lawsuit that you lied about filing some years back? Did you actually pay a lawyer for doing nothing?
Amen!
 
Are you for real? Your paying for farmers subsidies aren't you? You bailed out Wall St. didn't you? You don't decide what congress or the great deal maker does with your tax dollars......................

None of us do. That’s why I see all of this pouting and spouting as nothing more than jealousy and wasted posting.
 
None of us do. That’s why I see all of this pouting and spouting as nothing more than jealousy and wasted posting.
You're entitled to your opinion just like the rest of us. The title of this thread is saving America's pension plans is a rare chance for bipartisan accomplishment. Most of us on this thread have hope for the Butch Lewis Act. I don't agree that we are jealous or wasting posts.

Your opinions are usually with the majority on many political threads. Some of those with your political opinions constantly gang up and attack anyone who disagrees with them. I may have missed it but I haven't seen you referring to the trumpster mob opinions as being jealousy and wasted posting. What's the difference?
 
You're entitled to your opinion just like the rest of us. The title of this thread is saving America's pension plans is a rare chance for bipartisan accomplishment. Most of us on this thread have hope for the Butch Lewis Act. I don't agree that we are jealous or wasting posts.

Your opinions are usually with the majority on many political threads. Some of those with your political opinions constantly gang up and attack anyone who disagrees with them. I may have missed it but I haven't seen you referring to the trumpster mob opinions as being jealousy and wasted posting. What's the difference?
I am probably the most consistent poster on politics. I stand by and with the Constitution in all things. I am not a fan of Trump’s personality, or his tweeting. In the Primaries I posted against him as the candidate every day, because I see him as a Big Government Democrat in the Republican Party. However, since his Inauguration, he has pleasantly surprised me and governed within the Constitution. The “trumpster mob” that you refer to isn’t/hasn’t suggested anywhere that money or power be taken away from others to provide for their well-being, as you do constantly when you venture there, or when you bring up that the farmers and Wall St were/are bailed out. If you read ANY of my posts, you know that I was and am against Bailouts of Any kind (even when this Butch Lewis Act bails ME out). I just see that you want Big Government becoming god in your life, and are jealous that you can’t debate that point in a room of people who believe individualism is the Constitutional way.
 
In the end, Congress will spend to bail out Something. (I expect to bail out the PBGC). Since the 17th Amendment, Congress has done nothing BUT spend. The 17th Amendment changed us from Senators Representing the State, and not allowing big spending, such as SSI, MediCare/MedicAid, and TARP/ Bailouts ObamaCare, etc. to , basically becoming a Quasi-Marxist type Governance. Had Agencies, Funds, and the like, not had Congress backing them up, spending money they never will have, these Funds would have watched their money better or simply not existed. I blame the US Government and CSPF equally. Let both die off, and start over...
 
I am probably the most consistent poster on politics. I stand by and with the Constitution in all things. I am not a fan of Trump’s personality, or his tweeting. In the Primaries I posted against him as the candidate every day, because I see him as a Big Government Democrat in the Republican Party. However, since his Inauguration, he has pleasantly surprised me and governed within the Constitution.

I'm not at all ashamed to say that I haven't even read the constitution or for that matter the bible. And to go even further I don't give 2 ***** about them. What I see is what I got. I've earned everything I've got. I've paid my dues and taxes. I answered the call and served my country in a needless war. I have the scars and agent orange illnesses to show for it.

Anything any of us post on the internet isn't gonna change a thing. You're not going to change my mind and I'm certainly not going to change yours. I read them but I very rarely post on political threads. I offered my opinions in this thread that is titled opinion. You called it jealousy and wasted posting. Maybe I feel that yours are the same because you can't change my mind.


The “trumpster mob” that you refer to isn’t/hasn’t suggested anywhere that money or power be taken away from others to provide for their well-being, as you do constantly when you venture there, or when you bring up that the farmers and Wall St were/are bailed out. If you read ANY of my posts, you know that I was and am against Bailouts of Any kind (even when this Butch Lewis Act bails ME out). I just see that you want Big Government becoming god in your life, and are jealous that you can’t debate that point in a room of people who believe individualism is the Constitutional way.

Big government is what you refer to as god if there is such a thing. Nothing is gonna change that. Not you, Trump, Levin, Limbaugh, or FOX. I didn't want to make this political. I just referred to the fact that TB is mainly a right wing website from the owner on down. Some of those posters have a habit of ganging up and attacking those that don't march in lock step with them. You give likes to many of those posts. My intent was only to ask what makes those posts any less jealous or a waste than ours in this thread?
 
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