Public Pensions (Debt Cancer)

[dellinger63]

It’s a problem in every State and nationally. The sad fact simply is very little money was put away. There is no lockbox, no vault, no stocks and very little cash saved. The cozy relationship between public union leaders, politicians (mainly Dems) and pension fund managers and have schemed, skimmed, bilked, and wasted funds that were to be set-aside for workers’ pensions.

For instance in Illinois, the IL Public Teachers’ Union, to pick one, is loved and adored by long time IL Senate Furor Mike Madigan. Meanwhile Madigan is close to the Daleys of Da Mayor fame and low and behold out of all the pension fund managers in the State not to mention the nation the Teachers’ Union picked a young 30-year old to manage the fund. The young man happens to be the nephew of the mayor. Before that Blago’s former Chief of Staff, Stuart Levine ‘shopped’ prospective fund managers to see how much they could be shaken down for. Should you want an investigation or prosecution started? No problem all you have to do is go to the IL Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, who happens to be Mike’s DAUGHTER. If their last name was Rizzo or Calabrese they’d be in jail under RICO but they’re all above that.

I’m sure every State in the union is experiencing the same scenario to some extent. We can no longer afford to put our collective heads in the sand pretending the vault is full and pensions and for that matter Social Security are safe. They are not. In fact a good portion of the money is gone and will never be returned. The average taxpayer is the victim in addition to the union worker whose pension money was fleeced however unlike the union worker the average taxpayer bore no responsibility verifying his/her pension funds.

All public pension funds need to immediately be audited and determine what shortfalls there are comparing available funds to future obligations. Then depending on said shortfalls benefits have to be tweaked and unfortunately in some cases likely eliminated all together.

The taxpayer has already in good faith paid for the salaries and pension contributions of public sector workers. They should not be asked to pay twice and furthermore the pensioners need to look to their own unions for justice and leave the innocent taxpayer out of it.

To prevent any future sweetheart deals the relationship between public union leaders, politicians and pension fund managers needs to be severed. The public pension system as well as Social Security needs to be exposed for what they are; pillaged at best and Ponzi Schemes at the worse. The truth sometimes hurts but usually hurts less than anticipated. Let’s rip off the bandage and let our wounds finally get some air. Let's get some control over how public pension funds are invested and SS is funded in anything but IOU's.

Or should Public Unions and their members be forced to pay for the losses incurred in the private sector's 401K's and IRA's?

[jms62]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

It’s a problem in every State and nationally. The sad fact simply is very little money was put away. There is no lockbox, no vault, no stocks and very little cash saved. The cozy relationship between public union leaders, politicians (mainly Dems) and pension fund managers and have schemed, skimmed, bilked, and wasted funds that were to be set-aside for workers’ pensions.

For instance in Illinois, the IL Public Teachers’ Union, to pick one, is loved and adored by long time IL Senate Furor Mike Madigan. Meanwhile Madigan is close to the Daleys of Da Mayor fame and low and behold out of all the pension fund managers in the State not to mention the nation the Teachers’ Union picked a young 30-year old to manage the fund. The young man happens to be the nephew of the mayor. Before that Blago’s former Chief of Staff, Stuart Levine ‘shopped’ prospective fund managers to see how much they could be shaken down for. Should you want an investigation or prosecution started? No problem all you have to do is go to the IL Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, who happens to be Mike’s DAUGHTER. If their last name was Rizzo or Calabrese they’d be in jail under RICO but they’re all above that.

I’m sure every State in the union is experiencing the same scenario to some extent. We can no longer afford to put our collective heads in the sand pretending the vault is full and pensions and for that matter Social Security are safe. They are not. In fact a good portion of the money is gone and will never be returned. The average taxpayer is the victim in addition to the union worker whose pension money was fleeced however unlike the union worker the average taxpayer bore no responsibility verifying his/her pension funds.

All public pension funds need to immediately be audited and determine what shortfalls there are comparing available funds to future obligations. Then depending on said shortfalls benefits have to be tweaked and unfortunately in some cases likely eliminated all together.

The taxpayer has already in good faith paid for the salaries and pension contributions of public sector workers. They should not be asked to pay twice and furthermore the pensioners need to look to their own unions for justice and leave the innocent taxpayer out of it.

To prevent any future sweetheart deals the relationship between public union leaders, politicians and pension fund managers needs to be severed. The public pension system as well as Social Security needs to be exposed for what they are; pillaged at best and Ponzi Schemes at the worse. The truth sometimes hurts but usually hurts less than anticipated. Let’s rip off the bandage and let our wounds finally get some air. Let's get some control over how public pension funds are invested and SS is funded in anything but IOU's.

Or should Public Unions and their members be forced to pay for the losses incurred in the private sector's 401K's and IRA's?

What really pisses me off is they get all these sick days that they bank for years and years and then are allowed to cash them in.

[ArlJim78]

but since the private sector is "doing fine" we can bail out these plans right?
and it shouldn't bother us that these are defined benefit plans, which were all but eliminated from private firms 20 years ago.