UPDATE 5:00pm: I made an error when I wrote this earlier this morning. I wrote that federal government public service employees were the only ones EXEMPTED from having to pay into the Social Security system and are also EXEMPTED from having to pay into the Medicare system. Well I was wrong, ALL government public service employees are EXEMPTED federal, state and local. This EXEMPTION should have NEVER been allowed and our government should have NEVER allowed the UNIONS to infiltrate government public service jobs. This is what desperately NEEDS to be changed if the federal state and local government wants to get their financial affairs in order. Public services that Americans pay for with our taxes are having to be CUT / ELIMINATED because of the administrative costs derived from these UNIONS! In other words, the public service UNION benefits come first and then whatever is left gets trickled down to cover our public services.
As a TAXPAYER and an American citizen, I am demanding ALL FEDERAL government public service union employees be taken off of their CUSHY PRIVATIZED PENSION PLANS and offered something similar to a 401(k) where each public service employee PAYS INTO their own retirement fund. I also believe every FEDERAL government public service employee from the President all the way down to the janitor should also have to be OBLIGED to pay into the Social Security system by having it automatically deducted from their paychecks like the rest of Americans! FEDERAL government public service employees should have NEVER been exempted from Social Security!!! What's worse is even though FEDERAL government employees don't pay into Social Security, they are still allowed to qualify to receive benefits! All of you are public servants and are payed by the TAXPAYERS not the government. The government is in charge of budgeting (managing) the taxpayer money they take from us. Kind of like being in charge of the taxpayer check book accounting for all taxpayer receipts and government liabilities.
With the federal government hiring new employees at an exponential rate, they are taking people out of the private sector who are MANDATED / FORCED to pay into the Social Security system and moving them into the public service sector that are EXEMPTED / NOT REQUIRED to pay into the Social Security system. Which means there will be less and less Taxpaying Americans paying into the Social Security system. That is why it is IMPERATIVE that we, as taxpayers DEMAND the government change this policy and ALSO MANDATE / FORCE Federal government public service employees to pay into the Social Security system. ALL AMERICANS OR NONE AT ALL. You democrats keep IMPOSING LAWS on Americans and exempt yourselves. That's NOT going to fly anymore! Oh and by the way, this also applies to the Medicare system.
One last thing, I've heard many democratic politicians and commentators state repeatedly that those people who want to PRIVATIZE Social Security are radical. Well frankly I believe it was RADICAL for our federal government to honor the DEMANDS of the public service UNIONS and grant them CUSHY PRIVATIZED PENSION PLANS at the general publics expense and EXCLUDE them from the MANDATED government run retirement plan otherwise known as the Social Security system!!! YEAH THAT'S FRICKEN RADICAL. The reason why they REFUSE to PRIVATIZE Social Security is because our federal government doesn't have this money in a separate protected account. It is one humongous ponze scheme, just like Bernie Madoff's. When you hear another political commentator say, well people who receive Social Security benefits get more than they paid into it, I want you to know that is known as INTEREST PAID on the money the federal government TOOK from your paychecks to pay into the Social Security system. If the money you paid had been invested in a PRIVATE account, believe me, your account would be FAR GREATER than the pittance the federal government is paying you.
This article below is ONLY about Los Angeles County for heaven's sake. Can you imagine how bad it is at the State and Federal level?!?!
As a TAXPAYER and an American citizen, I am demanding ALL FEDERAL government public service union employees be taken off of their CUSHY PRIVATIZED PENSION PLANS and offered something similar to a 401(k) where each public service employee PAYS INTO their own retirement fund. I also believe every FEDERAL government public service employee from the President all the way down to the janitor should also have to be OBLIGED to pay into the Social Security system by having it automatically deducted from their paychecks like the rest of Americans! FEDERAL government public service employees should have NEVER been exempted from Social Security!!! What's worse is even though FEDERAL government employees don't pay into Social Security, they are still allowed to qualify to receive benefits! All of you are public servants and are payed by the TAXPAYERS not the government. The government is in charge of budgeting (managing) the taxpayer money they take from us. Kind of like being in charge of the taxpayer check book accounting for all taxpayer receipts and government liabilities.
With the federal government hiring new employees at an exponential rate, they are taking people out of the private sector who are MANDATED / FORCED to pay into the Social Security system and moving them into the public service sector that are EXEMPTED / NOT REQUIRED to pay into the Social Security system. Which means there will be less and less Taxpaying Americans paying into the Social Security system. That is why it is IMPERATIVE that we, as taxpayers DEMAND the government change this policy and ALSO MANDATE / FORCE Federal government public service employees to pay into the Social Security system. ALL AMERICANS OR NONE AT ALL. You democrats keep IMPOSING LAWS on Americans and exempt yourselves. That's NOT going to fly anymore! Oh and by the way, this also applies to the Medicare system.
One last thing, I've heard many democratic politicians and commentators state repeatedly that those people who want to PRIVATIZE Social Security are radical. Well frankly I believe it was RADICAL for our federal government to honor the DEMANDS of the public service UNIONS and grant them CUSHY PRIVATIZED PENSION PLANS at the general publics expense and EXCLUDE them from the MANDATED government run retirement plan otherwise known as the Social Security system!!! YEAH THAT'S FRICKEN RADICAL. The reason why they REFUSE to PRIVATIZE Social Security is because our federal government doesn't have this money in a separate protected account. It is one humongous ponze scheme, just like Bernie Madoff's. When you hear another political commentator say, well people who receive Social Security benefits get more than they paid into it, I want you to know that is known as INTEREST PAID on the money the federal government TOOK from your paychecks to pay into the Social Security system. If the money you paid had been invested in a PRIVATE account, believe me, your account would be FAR GREATER than the pittance the federal government is paying you.
This article below is ONLY about Los Angeles County for heaven's sake. Can you imagine how bad it is at the State and Federal level?!?!
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The Daily News
written by Troy Anderson, Staff Writer
Tuesday October 19, 2010
COSTS: $26 billion retirement tab looms but supervisors balk at making immediate reforms.
Despite learning Tuesday that Los Angeles County faces a $26 billion tab over coming decades to cover (PRIVATIZED) pension and RETIREE health care costs, the Board of Supervisors delayed pursuing reforms to the retirement system after unions threatened legal action.
The supervisors were preparing to consider a series of reforms that included raising the county's minimum retirement age and asking employees to contribute more to their plans.
But unions hinted at legal action to stop the reforms and said the political process would be more difficult than the supervisors expected.
"You might want to check with your counsel on your legal position in voting on this motion because, in our view, it's an unfair labor practice," said Blaine Meek, chairman of the Coalition of County Unions. "Second, you have many hurdles to go through in getting pension reform. It's not just about negotiating with the unions. You have to get legislation passed."
After the supervisors retreated to closed session for several hours, they emerged to announce a 4-0 vote to delay any possible reforms until the next contract talks, expected in mid-2012. They asked county CEO Bill Fujioka to prepare a series of options to help guide what reforms would be pursued at that time.
The decision came after County Employees Retirement Association Chief Executive Officer Gregg Rademacher told supervisors that the pension system has $5 billion in unfunded liabilities, and taxpayers are also on the hook for $21 billion to cover health care for retired county employees.
The board members appeared shocked by the numbers and questioned why more steps hadn't been taken earlier to curb costs.
"I don't understand why LACERA wasn't aggressive in attempting to initiate various reforms to reduce this liability," said Supervisor Michael Antonovich. "This ($26) billion liability is much greater than our county's entire budget that serves 88 cities and 1.5 million people in unincorporated communities."
The county has an annual budget of approximately $23 billion.
Previous estimates for the county's retiree health care liability have ranged in size from $9 billion estimated by a private health care foundation in a 2006 study, to anywhere between $13 billion to $20 billion estimated by some county officials in 2007.
Antonovich had called for the CEO report in June after the supervisors voted to boost annual taxpayer contributions to LACERA by $200 million to $987 million this year. Without reforms, Rademacher warned that amount could reach up to $2 billion by 2015.
Antonovich then proposed a series of reforms to the pension system that were expected to save the county $200 million in annual pension costs.
Changes to save money
His original motion, based on recommendations from Fujioka, called for increasing the minimum retirement age for county employees and the amount of money current and new employees contribute to their pension plans. It also called for pensions to be based on the highest consecutive three-year average salary as opposed to a single-highest year salary.
The decision not to proceed with the reforms now came after board chairwoman Gloria Molina said the county doesn't need pension reform and the unions threatened legal action. Molina was absent from the closed session portion of the meeting and did not vote.
The unions recently reached a tentative agreement that allows the county to reduce its contribution to employees' deferred compensation - or 401(k)-type plans.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said he wasn't surprised the supervisors balked at making the reforms immediately.
"Much like GM stopped becoming a car company and really became an employee benefits company that built cars on the side, government agencies in California are becoming entities whose primary purpose is to provide benefits to employees, not provide public services," Coupal said. "They will be providing public services as only a tangent to their primary responsibility of keeping bureaucrats and elected officials well-fed and financially secure."
The closed-session vote comes as rapidly rising pension costs are consuming ever-larger shares of government budgets and threatening public services throughout the nation.
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