In contrast to his main rivals in the mayor’s race, Rahm Emanuel has told labor leaders that he favors reducing pension benefits for the city’s existing work force and not just for new hires.
Although Mr. Emanuel has not yet publicly detailed his plan to confront the city’s perennial budget deficits and the severely underfinanced employee pension funds, he told union officials in a private meeting on Dec. 15 that he thought it could be necessary to cut the pensions of all employees, said people who attended the meeting.
Mr. Emanuel made the comments while he was being interviewed by leaders of the Chicago Federation of Labor. That umbrella group for 300 unions has not yet endorsed any of the candidates who will be running in the Feb. 22 election to succeed Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is retiring.
“The sticking issue for all of us is the pension issue,” said a labor activist who attended the meeting with Mr. Emanuel. “I can’t tell my members we are going to support a guy who is going to cut your pensions.”
The labor leader and others who attended the meeting said they did not want to be identified for fear that Mr. Emanuel would retaliate if he were elected.
Mr. Emanuel plans to disclose his position on city finances in a speech sometime in February, said Ben LaBolt, his spokesman. Told of the union officials’ accounts of the endorsement session, Mr. LaBolt said, “Rahm told the truth about the financial conditions of the pension system and the crisis that it faces.”
Rahmbo told the truth all right - his hedge fund overlords don't want to pay more than the 15% capital gains tax they have on their income, his Wall Street CEO overlords don't want to pay the tax levels that their counterparts paid from the 50's through the 70's when this country was an economic powerhouse and many economic boats were lifted across economic classes - so middle and working class people must have their pensions reduced.
Here is a question I have. Is he going to try and reduce current retiree benefits too?
Because if he does, I can see a scenario where he and any other politician who engages in that kind of policy is going to need 24/7 protection and a bulletproof glass bubble around them.
We have already seen political violence with the shooting of that Arizona Congresswoman yesterday.
Just imagine what will happen when the politicians start slashing retiree pensions by 25%, capping Social Security COLA's and forcing retired people out into the streets in desperation because they can't make their mortgages or bills.
I'm not in any way suggesting that political violence should happen, but when you ruin the economic lives of people who have played by the rules, the way Rahmbo is proposing to do, you are playing with fire in a country that is already a tinderbox of discord, hostility and rage.
Public employee pension money has already been raided in Ireland to insure that bondholders don't lose a nickel of interest on the fraudulent securities they bought.
ReplyDeleteWe're next.
Link below on how some European govts are trying to seize private retirement funds similar to our TDA and 401k funds and force people to invest the money in inferior govt. securities...Our Senate and Congress have already had hearings on doing just that. Imagine if Uncle Sam forced you to hand over your entire TDA and convert it into their bad paper T-bills, bonds and other crap? And you had no say over it? People, it's time to consider draining those accounts, paying the penalty, and putting the dollars into gold,silver, or real estate...
ReplyDeleteEurope starts confiscating private pension funds
TAGS: europefiscal austerityHungarypension funds
Comments (22) Share Print By: Mark Hemingway 01/03/11 2:22 PM
.The U.S. isn't the only place that's facing a major pension fund crisis. The Christian Science Monitor has this alarming report:
"People’s retirement savings are a convenient source of revenue for governments that don’t want to reduce spending or make privatizations. As most pension schemes in Europe are organised by the state, European ministers of finance have a facilitated access to the savings accumulated there, and it is only logical that they try to get a hold of this money for their own ends. In recent weeks I have noted five such attempts: Three situations concern private personal savings; two others refer to national funds.
The most striking example is Hungary, where last month the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse. They could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings.
The article goes on to detail other pension grabs in Bulgaria, Poland, France and Ireland. Obviously, this is a cautionary tale for America. If fiscal austerity becomes a real issue in the U.S. the way that it's been reaching critical mass in Europe -- don't think that U.S. lawmakers regard your either your personal wealth or money they might owe you as sacrosanct. Government has a habit of looking out for itself..."
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http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/01/europe-starts-confiscating-private-pension-funds