The Next Bailout: $165B for Unions

The Next Bailout: $165B for Unions

www.foxbusiness.com

Taxpayers could be on the hook for another $165 billion if a bill to bail out private union pension funds makes it through Congress.

A Democratic senator is introducing legislation for a bailout of troubled union pension funds. If passed, the bill could put another $165 billion in liabilities on the shoulders of American taxpayers.

The bill, which would put the Pension Benefit
Guarantee Corporation behind struggling pensions for union workers, is being introduced by Senator Bob Casey

(visit the link for the full news article)

First, I don't believe this is constitutional as it violates equal treatment under the law as folks who have non-union jobs have also had their pensions hit hard and they are being ignored by the government.

Second, these are not plumbers and iron workers. These are the public employees, e.g. government workers. What this does is essentially nationalize state workers. States that have trimmed their budgets and have been thrifty with respect to hiring and bloating their state employees will now be on the hook to pay for the pensions of folks who work in mis-managed states like California and Illinois.

Third, this will never be a temporary fix and these pensions will become federal liabilities for ever. This is another step in the erosion of state independance. Should any governor accept these funds they should be impeached - of course they won't be impeached because the unions will work to the death to have that governor maintained.

It seems like every day there is another step in the creation of a federal superstate.

www.foxbusiness.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by dolphinfan


It's payment for votes, campaign donations and special favors. Even those who say otherwise know it is while they lie due to Partisanship.

Obama is handing out all he can before it collapses. Not long ago I did not fully grasp that, but now its obvious. The Mid-Terms can't get here fast enough. I think I'll buy a new suit to vote in.

The sooner he pays the Unions, the sooner they can flood the airwaves with campaign ads the DNC does not have to pay for.

This should be among the Front Page threads. Really truly sad. Niburu trumps this?

"When then people realize that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic."

Benjamin Franklin

Need I say more? Honestly!?

Right, so you had your savings guaranteed by the government - but you dont want these guys having their savings guaranteed because they are public servants.

Those with private savings in private banks were offered massive bailouts, those with savings / pensions tied up up in private super funds on wall street were offered trillions.

But again - the average jo worker at the post office can go screw himself because - well - you already got yours.

Nice.

Could they have made it more obvious than "The Troubled Union Pension Funds". I Hope this is heavily advertised by those in opposition. This has to be front news along with those videos of Obumbus denying special interest influence.

[edit on 24-5-2010 by prionace glauca]

reply to post by audas


Apples and oranges. What ever any citizen has in an FDIC insured bank is covered by the government. That has nothing to do with pensions. These are the pension asset of the public employees the corresponding vehicle for an employee of a private would be his defined benefit pension plan which, like the plan of the public employee is a large, pooled investment account managed by outside managers. Many of these plans use the same investment managers, hence what you have here is essentially this:

Two groups of people, one are union employees and the other work for a private company.

Both have defined benefit pension plans.

Those plans are outsourced to the same investment managers and the plans overseen by the pension committees of the two plans respectively.

Both plans have the same investment strategy.

Both plans are underwater relative to their current payment streams.

The public firm either has to make good on the defined benefit plan assumptions by raising money in some fashion or scaling back the defined benefit.

The union folks are just going to get a check from uncle sam.

Get it now?

Hmm, lets see GM's pension fund is underfunded by last I heard about 15Billion dollars. So let's say we fund the PBGC with this 165B and then dump the GM pension into the PBGC. THEN the .gov can claim that the GM bailout didn't cost the government any money.

What people do not want to hear is that promises made that are mathematically impossible to keep won't be kept.

On to public employee unions. Public employee unions and their sweetheart deals in places like Kalifornia and Ill-inois are a major reason that those states have HUGE budget shortfalls.

You know I'd almost feel sorry for the Boomers right now if they weren't so culpable in the economic and political mess our nation finds itself in. The next decade or so is going to be rough. I'd hate to be in my mid-late sixties right now. There is a bit of poetic justice that the most spoiled and entitled generation that has spent not only their parents but theirs, their children's, and now working on grand and great grandchildrens wealth, is hitting the most uncertain and dangerous political and economic times at the same time that their health is starting to fail. Due to the size of this cohort, however they have the numbers and political clout to indebt their descendents for at least a couple of generations before they go.

This is all phony.

Congress calls out FOX news in regards to this very issue... SOO funny:




[edit on 25-5-2010 by CanadianDream420]

reply to post by CanadianDream420


Its not phony, listen to the nonsense the congressman is spewing.

The union pension can not meet its obligations. The government GIVES the union pension fund cash and then lets them restructure that payment scheme over 5 years. How is that any different than throwing a slug of cash at a bank or an auto firm and letting them pay the government back? Its not.

If you can't pay your bills and someone gives you the coin to pay them, they are bailing you out.

There are millions of people who work in non-union jobs that are not getting this treatment. The monthly check of the union gent will remain unaffected if this passes and the gent who is on a non-union pension will see his monthly check cut.

He can call it all the good government crap he wants to call it. The bill is a bailout of union pension funds and Casey, who sponsored the bill called it as such.

This is just another dirtbag looking to hide behind words to play to both the unions who he can claim to support and the anti-bailout crowd. The gent is a coward