The E.C. From D.C. newsletter update offers footage of this week's Kansas City protest to fight for pensions . . .
Congressman Cleaver: The Pension Crisis
This week, I joined a group of retirees on the picket line in my district. They were fighting for something that should have been their basic right – money that they’ve earned. For years, these retirees had some of their earnings set aside for their pensions. Money that could have been used to maintain a working family household, but instead, they put it aside for a rainy day. Now, they are finding out that there is not enough money to fund their pensions.
ver 400,000 people from across several states, who have vested millions of dollars into their pension funds, have been told that their benefits from the Central States Pension Fund would be drastically cut, some as much as by 60 percent. While most multiemployer plans are adequately funded, according to the Pension Rights Center, 150 to 200 plans are projected to run out of money within 10-20 years. This is due to many factors, including changes in the economy that have resulted in many plans having more retirees than active workers, company bankruptcies and withdrawals from plans, and investment losses stemming from the 2001 and 2008 stock market downturns.
I’ve been working with the hundreds of Central States retirees who have written to my office seeking assistance. They don’t know what they are going to do. How they are going to continue to pay their mortgages, buy medications, or feed their families?
During a town hall visit in which Treasury’s Kenneth Feinberg answered questions to over 2000 who attended, I promised them that I would stick with them. After all, it was Congress who passed legislation that allowed this to happen.
I haven’t stopped. Since then, Mr. Feinberg has denied the Central States Pension Plan application to cut benefits for retirees. I’ve called on the Department of Justice to investigate the management of the pension plan – and I‘ve asked for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look in to this as well.
This pension crisis has been looming for years, and all the stakeholders must now come together to find a responsible solution. We bailed out Wall Street, it's time to bail out the retirees. We cannot give up and I won’t.
Warmly,
Emanuel Cleaver, II
Member of Congress
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Good luck to them. But it is not the taxpayers' problem.
ReplyDeleteDemocrat greedy union slobs looking to scam the taxpayers
ReplyDeleteThese pensions should not be paid by tax payers any more than everyone else who had investments, retirement savings and 401K and got waxed in 2008. Suck it up boys and girls. In American when the banks bend you over the government comes to the aid of the banks. We don't learn from our mistakes either. Right now we have Wells Fargo with over 5000 employees fired for fraud and theft and not one fucking Federal prosecutor with the balls to put anyone in prison over it.
ReplyDeleteCleaver is the only person speaking up for the Teamsters. Good job Cleaver. I don't agree with everything you stand for but your doing good on supporting the Teamster Pension.
ReplyDeleteCongressman Carwash's solution to this problem is to declare that "somebody needs to do something!"
ReplyDeleteCLEAVER DEMOCRAT Killa city douchebag has got to be getting some skim Cash Flow for his own greedy ass or he wouldn't give a shit ! That's why he does anything , to grease his own greedy ass palm at the expenses of the working dedicated professional !
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree with my Congressman! Thank you for protecting unions and their workers!
ReplyDeleteCleaver fighting for Teamsters? They're fucked.
ReplyDeleteHaving a Congressman involved isn't going to help the fact that defined benefit pensions in an era of low interest rates and declining union member employment (and the subsequent decline in pension contributions) are no longer mathematically viable.
ReplyDeleteIf you think that this is bad, have a look at public employee pensions. They operate under a different set of rules that allow them to post financial reports that are more optimistic than those posted by privet pensions such as Central States.
There will be a lot of tears before this is done.
Do ghetto business owners with car washes ever unionize?
ReplyDeleteHaving the mob keep your cookie jar was a bad idea? Who knew? Not a taxpayer problem. None of them worked until the age the rest of us have to in order to get social security. Many of them benefited from the artificially high "prevailing wage" scam. Amazon needs fufillment associates.
ReplyDelete