The Pension Theft Crime Wave Rages On

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/pension-theft-crime-wave-rages



The nation’s union-haters have a juicy new target, Detroit’s public employees, ever since the city became the largest in history to file for bankruptcy. Detroit unions will wrangle with a bankruptcy judge this fall over how to handle $3.5 billion in pension obligations for 12,000 retirees.

City retirees receive a princely sum of $19,213 per year on average. Pension obligations to these workers account for less than 20 percent of Detroit’s debt. But the facts haven’t kept retirees from bearing the brunt of the bankruptcy fallout.

In fact, politicians across the country are seizing on Detroit’s hard times as an excuse to trim public pensions closer to home. For them—and for bankers angling for a piece of the action—this could be the breakthrough they’ve been waiting for.

Lawmakers from both parties have climbed onto the same noisy bandwagon as right-wingers who complain that public pensions are too fat, ballooning out of control because of unions run amok. They throw in the fact that retirees are living longer, and tout the soon-to-be swollen ranks of retiring baby boomers, to add some statistical cover to their judgments and finger-pointing.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[socialist_n_TN]

2. Laelth, I'll be you get tired of typing that same line.........

ALL OF THE TIME! Kick for exposure.

[Laelth]

5. Sadly, it's one of my stock responses, but yes.

I wish I did not find the news depressing so often.



-Laelth

[leftstreet]

3. They want every last penny in our pockets

DURec

[Enthusiast]

4. All I have ever heard from TV is that pension obligations are responsible for the bankruptcy.

You simply will not hear the contrary argument.

Once again, we are the victims of a one-sided unfair media.

Bring back the fairness doctrine!