Pensions

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Quinn Pays Off Union for Votes… Again

October 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Association of African American Transporters told Governor Pat Quinn that they’d mount a no-to-Quinn campaign if he didn’t pay the back bills owed them by the state. And now, despite the fact that other vendors are still not getting paid and the State is practically bankrupt, the CAAAT has suddenly found all its past bills paid by Quinn’s government.

It sure is pretty convenient that this union miraculously found its bills paid by Quinn just when they threatened to mount a campaign against his reelection, isn’t it?
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Gov. Quinn Pays Off Union for Votes… Again”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Pensions - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois is in First Place

October 25, 2010 by

From the Palatine Tea Party…

(Palatine, Illinois) – Illinois currently is in first place for state pension funds that will run out of money in 2018. Starting in 2019 the annual shortage in Illinois is projected to be $13.6 billion. That is a projected 32 percent of the state’s revenue going to fill a pension hole.1

Illinois is just 8 years away from exhausting its pension fund and creating a yearly multi billion dollar shortage, according to data from Joshua Ruah an associate professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Illinois is in First Place”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Lies States Peddle on Pension ‘Savings’

October 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pensions are fast becoming the time bomb that will destroy the financial well being of our state budgets. Because public employee unions have been allowed to outrageously grow their retirement benefits by supplying billions in campaign donations to compliant politicians, most state pension plans are deeply in the hole.

Many states have at last begun to realize that the golden goose (or as we call them, the taxpayers) was long ago killed by this self-serving triangle of unions, bought and paid for politicians, and similarly bought and paid for courts that implement union demands.

So states have begun to employ some fancy accounting tricks to fool the voters into thinking they’ve begun to address the problem. One is called an “actuarial trick.” But this head-fake is starting to get real actuaries worried that the sleight-of-hand trick is making matters worse by hiding rather than fixing the mess America’s states are rushing headlong into.
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The Lies States Peddle on Pension ‘Savings’”

AFL-CIO - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems

September 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

When voters are not enthused even unions find it harder to get their supporters to rally to an election and this is one of the worst years for Democrats on record. Unions are finding their efforts hard slogging just like the rest of the Democrat Party is. It’s so bad even The New York Times is reporting the Union’s woes.

As we’ve repeatedly talked about here, The Times reports that Big Labor is pumping millions into the Democrat’s pockets in hopes of fighting off the conservative Tea Party enthusiasm out there this election year. Apparently, though, unions are finding that, like other Democrat constituencies, their members are not “feeling particularly enthusiastic about the party.”

Unions have been bitterly disappointed by Obama. When they voted for him only 2 years ago they thought that they had won the battle for all the freebies and payoffs that they’d ever want. But they’ve been frustrated by key losses — such as an inability to get cap and trade, green initiatives, and their most desired legislation the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA).
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Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Oregon - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Members of Oregon’s State Employee Unions Get 5% Pay Raises… as Taxpayers Lose Jobs!

September 3, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unbelievable. In Oregon the reg’lar folks are losing their jobs right and left. And the bad luck for those actually paying the bills, the taxpayers, gets even worse because Oregon’s politicians have made sure that the state’s public employees unions get an automatic 5% pay raise starting this Wednesday!

5 percent pay increase for state union employees begins Wednesday

SALEM (AP) — A step pay increase of nearly 5 percent for Oregon state workers represented by unions goes into effect Wednesday.
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Members of Oregon’s State Employee Unions Get 5% Pay Raises… as Taxpayers Lose Jobs!”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Arrogance of The Public Employee Union Member

August 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a recent story detailing the efforts of 3,000 postal employee union members marching against USPS management in Detroit, one quote by a union member stuck me as wholly emblematic of the arrogance of government employee union members and it shows the disconnect between the real world and the cushy world of government workers.

As the 3,000 postal workers marched against proposed cuts in the U.S. Post office, tucked at the bottom of the Detroit Free Press piece was a quote by post office employee Kim Sauceda, of Tallevast, Florida.

“People have gone from being very confident and sure that this is a lifetime career to now not being so sure.”

Notice how this government employee imagined that her position with the USPS is supposed to be a never ending, permanent job? This shocking sense of entitlement does not exist outside of public employees unions.
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The Arrogance of The Public Employee Union Member”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

State Pensions are Unsustainable, Taxpayers Left with Huge Bill

August 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again Bill Zettler has a great piece on the mess that is public employee pensions in Illinois. He makes an extremely relevant point asking the question of why the taxpayers are stuck paying off government worker’s pensions to the tune of billions while the employees themselves only have to pay a measly 8% contribution to their own funds?

In the private sector, Zettler points out, pension contributions by the workers rarely dip below 11% but these government workers are asked to contribute a scant 8% for theirs leaving the taxpayers on the hook for most of the rest of the payouts.

Why is that? Well it’s because pliant politicians that have pockets full of public employee union members donations have fixed the contributions at the low 8% level.

This needs to change.
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State Pensions are Unsustainable, Taxpayers Left with Huge Bill”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill

August 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like most bills, the legislation meant to reform California’s failing public pension system started out stronger than it ended up. But unlike most bills the final bill has been so gutted, so defanged, that it leaves the pension system in a worse mess than it was when the bill was introduced. Not surprisingly unions are the culprits.

One of the things that the bill was supposed to stop was the practice of “pension spiking.” This is the practice of government workers getting a sudden raise in position, salary and benefits just as they are about to retire. This sudden raise, often instituted only weeks or months before retirement, allows the employee to retire at a higher pension rate than they would have with their last, normal salary.
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Unions Destroy Calif. Pension Reform Bill”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now Democrats Want Another $34 Billion to Bailout Teamsters Pension

August 21, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

When will Obama’s gifts to unions (at the expense of the taxpayers) ever end? On the heels of a $26.1 billion teacher union bailout, now Democrats are attempting to get Congress to give $34 billion of the taxpayer’s money to the Teamsters because that union has mishandled its pension funds.

Senators Robert Casey (D., Pa.) and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D., N.D.) are now pushing the bill that will bailout the Teamsters pension fund by altering the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. which currently charges insurance rates to the funds it helps to solvency. Under new rules the help the PBGC offers troubled pension funds will now just end up coming out of federal funds.

As Kevin D. Williamson of National Review informs us, as the PBGC law stands now the obligations that PBGC takes on to help “orphan pensions” are not obligations of the U.S. government. “Casey-Pomeroy would reverse that,” Williamson tells us, “mandating that “‘obligations of the corporation that are financed by the [fifth fund] shall be obligations of the United States.'” Yep, another gigantic bailout.
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Now Democrats Want Another $34 Billion to Bailout Teamsters Pension”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Children - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Nancy Pelosi - Pensions - Politicians - Public Employees Unions - Stimulus - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Union Bailout: A Good Crisis Going to Waste

August 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even the New York Times can’t ignore the fact that Obama’s latest union bailout cash isn’t going to help anyone keep their jobs, and The New York Times is really good at ignoring things that make Democrats look bad.

A few weeks ago Nancy Pelosi called the House of Representatives back into a special session because there was a crisis in education, don’t you know. It was a crisis that she didn’t want to go to waste, naturally. As Speaker of the House she had the power — one likely to evaporate with the 2010 elections — to help Barack Obama give his union pals another $26.1 billion of the taxpayer’s money and she couldn’t resist the urge to fill pockets with other’s people’s money at least one more time.

Early in August, Pelosi triumphantly announced on her Twitter feed, “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors & children.”

We’re helping old people, it’s for the children, we are saving teacher’s jobs. It’s a crisis that we can’t ignore, darn it! Yes, Rahm, it’s also a crisis that we can’t let go to waste.
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Obama’s Union Bailout: A Good Crisis Going to Waste”

Britain - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Europe - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Even The Brits Realize Pensions Are Too High

August 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Long ago the British stopped being a capitalist country and adopted instead a quasi-socialist system. But even they are beginning to realize that people cannot retire at 65 (or even younger) and live in luxury for another 20 or so years afterward all on the public dime. This month the Cameron government took another small and politically difficult step toward addressing the mounting pension crisis in England.

News of the newest fix to the British pension system is being sold to the public by the media as an alarming “25% cut in benefits” for pensioners. But the fact is that these pensions were too high for a long time and this new scheme was inevitable due to the falling number of workers, the rising number of retirees, and the longer life spans that retirees now enjoy — a situation nearly every western nation is confronting.
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Even The Brits Realize Pensions Are Too High”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Pensions That Exceed Base Pay, Blame Unions

August 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the New York Daily News Eileen Norcross and Todd Zywicki penned a piece taking public employees pensions to task for being “too rich for America’s blood.” Of course, they rightly blame unions and compliant politicians for the disaster.

The do, however, give the actual public employees a pass. On one hand you might think that the employees are practically innocent, but you can;t avoid the simple truth that they allowed their unions to run amuck. In fact, the members insisted that the unions grab all they could whether it was good for the nation or not.

The writers focus on cops and firemen and still deny that these workers had any part in the mess. But as public servants, cops and firemen especially should have realized that they were going badly off track and were not serving the public but raping them.
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Pensions That Exceed Base Pay, Blame Unions”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires

August 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at Champion News Bill Zettler has been doing a fantastic job of following and chronicling the completely out of control pensions of Illinois public employees and this week he asks why Governor Quinn wants to raise taxes just to make millionaires of retiring teachers.

Zettler found two teachers that will be making in excess of a million dollars in pension payouts.

Check out this obscene total:
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Outrageous Pensions Turning Ill. Teachers into Millionaires”

Fox News - Media - Pensions - Warner Todd Huston

Looks Like I’ll Be on Fox Business Channel at 3PM Central Today

August 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As of right now I’ll be live on FoxNews Business Channel’s “Money Rocks” today at 3pm CT. We’re talking the Illinois pension mess.

Of course, you know how TV is. I may get down there and get all ready and they may bump my segment. So, we can only cross our fingers and hope it all goes according to plan.

**UPDATE**

Well, I just got back from the studio and the Show went well. Live video to New York for about three minutes duration.

I have to say that TV always makes me laugh.

Here is how it goes: I get contacted anywhere from 9AM to 11AM. I call back. They tell me what the show is and the topic and maybe ask for a few facts to be emailed back to them. They send a limo. I get in for the 1 hour trip to Chicago. I get makeup and wait for my spot. I get on the air for two to five minutes. I get back in the limo for another hour or so trip back home.

Yep, all that for about two to five minutes of live video. All that expense for two to five minutes.

What a racket, eh?

But I always enjoy it, anyway.

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - New York - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Bought and Paid For Gov. Finds Doing Right Thing Hard

July 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The unions in New York have the idea that they own state government. It’s not too easy to deny their claim seeing as how unions (all of them) have been paying the bills and filling the pockets of ruling Democrats for decades now.

But Accidental Governor of New York David Paterson is finding himself in a quandary, one that more and more politicians are finding themselves in these days. These pols are finding that doing the right thing is hard when all your financial backers don’t want you to do the right thing at all.

Like most deep blue states, New York is about bankrupt without having to say it out loud. Its financial responsibilities far out pace its treasury. From state pensions, welfare, Medicaid and healthcare, to the simple day-to-day operations of operating a government, New York State is unable to pay its way.
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Bought and Paid For Gov. Finds Doing Right Thing Hard”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Pension Problems and What to Do About Them, By Bill Zetter

July 15, 2010 by

The folks at ChampionNews.net have a series of articles about the mess that Illinois public employees pensions is in that is must reading. The articles are penned by expert Bill Zetter.

Of course, the pension mess is the single biggest trouble that Illinois (and most other states) face today. It is a ticking time bomb…. heck its a bomb exploding already, albeit in slow motion.

Here is what they’ve posted thus far:

Back To the Pension Future: What Did We Actually Guarantee?

Illinois Pensions: Rob the Poor and Give It to the Rich
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Illinois Pension Problems and What to Do About Them, By Bill Zetter”

AFSCME - Budget - Campaign Finance - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Government, Ill. County - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Says Ill. is Broke, but His Staffers/State Workers Get Big Raises

July 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many businesses across Illinois are trying to stave off closing their doors by cutting salaries and hours for employees. Some aren’t so luck and are laying off thousands of workers. Add to that dismal outlook that the state’s budget is billions in the red and politicians are so at loggerheads on how to solve the crisis that no budget can be agreed upon.

Cue accidental Governor Pat Quinn whose job, as he sees it, has been to warn Illinois that we are broke, that we can’t afford the many programs we have, that the poorest of us are at risk and that taxes will have to be raised to “fix” it all.

It’s a very bleak picture, indeed. Bleak, that is, unless you are one of Quinn’s staffers. In that case you are living high off the hog and getting an up to 20 percent raise in salary thanks to the Governor’s generosity… oh, and at the taxpayers expense, of course.
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Gov. Says Ill. is Broke, but His Staffers/State Workers Get Big Raises”

Budget - Chris Christie - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - New Jersey - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Christie Issues ‘Judgment Day’ To Destructive Unions

June 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

New Jersey Governor Christ Christie is still holding the path in his battle against the budget killing unions in the state of New Jersey.

“We have to hold each other accountable… You don’t get something for nothing in this world, ever… yet, government has been trying to sell you over the course of time this idea that… we are gonna give you something and someone else is gonna pay for it. Those chickens have come home to roost.”

This guy is the stuff, man!

Naturally, the putrid unions are so incensed that they have announced that they are going to raise union dues fees so that they have more money to attack Governor Chris Christie in the upcoming elections.

They just don’t get it, do they. THEY are the problem, not the solution. Unions are the single most destructive force in American politics today.
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Gov. Christie Issues ‘Judgment Day’ To Destructive Unions”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Labor Law - Law - Liberals - Pensions - President - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Healthcare Give Away to Union Special Interests

June 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of Obamacare’s new rules states that if your employer finds it necessary to change healthcare providers to a more cost effective plan they will lose their federal health plan exemptions. This will cause employers to drop employees from health plans forcing workers onto government sponsored plans. So much for Obama’s hoary idea that you can “keep your doctor if you like him.”

Of course, this harmful new rule only applies to 80 percent of America’s workforce because the other 20 percent, those that are union members, are getting a special deal from their pal Barack Obama.

At issue is the definition of the “grandfathered” health plan which is different for those plans initiated by collective bargaining and those simply instituted by an employer. The requirements for unions have been made far less stringent than those of non-union employers.
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Obama’s Healthcare Give Away to Union Special Interests”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Our ‘Unions are Bad for America’ Theme is Resonating

June 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For those of you that have come to the blog often, there is a constant theme: unions are antithetical to good government. We’ve been saying this here for years, of course, but over this campaign season I think that meme is beginning to gain real traction because stories echoing this sentiment are everywhere these days.

Jay Ambrose has another such piece at Real Clear Politics this weekend.

Ambrose says that public employee unions are bankrupting both the state treasuries and the federal government so that their “members can live much better on average than those of us in the private sector.”

Spot on.
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Our ‘Unions are Bad for America’ Theme is Resonating”

Budget - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

ILL. GOP Demotes Two That Voted for Giant Pensions Loan

June 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two of the three Republicans that broke with party leadership and voted in favor of the Democrats idea to take out a massive loan to shore up the union pensions of state employees have been demoted from their party positions.

Danville area Representative Bill Black had his role as deputy minority leader taken from him by GOP leader Tom Cross over the “yes” vote on the pension bailout loan. Similarly, Representative Bob Biggins of Chicago-area Elmhurt was removed as minority spokesman for the House appropriations committee.

Both Republican representatives thumbed their nose at the party establishment and voted for the bailout supported by Democrats. curiously enough, before their Democrat supporting votes both had also announced that they are retiring from state government this year.

What this shows is that neither of these two were ever solid Republicans that always voted their conscience. Only when they’d decided to hang up their career did they all of a sudden start voting against Republican interests. Only now that they don’t have to stand for election does their true, liberal selves come out.

It would not be surprising if Black and Biggins start voting for all sort of left-wing garbage as their last days in office draws neigh.

Sad to see long Republican careers end in such hypocrisy, isn’t it?
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ILL. GOP Demotes Two That Voted for Giant Pensions Loan”

AFL-CIO - Arkansas - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Pensions - SEIU - Senate - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions ‘Flushed $10 Million Down the Toilet’ in June Primary

June 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ben Smith of Politico is reporting that an administration insider told him that unions just wasted millions of dollars on a forlorn hope in the Arkansas primary in an attempt to beat Democrat Blanche Lincoln.

“Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

Big Labor — like the SEIU and the AFL-CIO — threw millions of dollars into the Arkansas campaign of Bill Halter in an attempt to chastise Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln because she had yet to vote “yes” on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a union friendly bill they’ve been panting after for several years.
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Unions ‘Flushed $10 Million Down the Toilet’ in June Primary”

Children - Chris Christie - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - New Jersey - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Gov. Christie Knows Teachers Unions are the Schoolyard Bullies

June 4, 2010 by

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided that to protect our children’s futures beating the schoolyard bully is the way to go. But who is the bully? Is it the sign carrying, whiney teachers? No, it’s their powermongering, kid unfriendly unions pushing teachers to act like bullies.

The unions are the bullies and THAT is who Christie is staring down!

So far THIS governor is the real deal.

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Pat Quinn - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Rep. Biggins Votes for Illinois Pension Bailout, Should he be Thrown out of GOP Caucus?

May 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

State Representative Bob Biggins (R, Elmhurst) was one of two Republicans to vote yes on a bill to borrow $3.7 billion to shore up state pension funds this week. The vote caused tongues to wag that the retiring representative was offered a job or some other goodies by the Illinois Democrats through Governor Quinn’s offices to change his previous vote to side with Quinn.

It isn’t that Biggins sided with Democrats and against the Republican leadership, but that he ducked a meeting with his own caucus in order to hide away in Governor Quinn’s office with chief of staff Jerry Stemer raises eyebrows.

For his part Biggins claims he was offered no incentive to change his “no” vote to a “yes.”
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Rep. Biggins Votes for Illinois Pension Bailout, Should he be Thrown out of GOP Caucus?”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Peter Roskam - President - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Shame: Nine GOP Reps Supporting Union Bailout

May 27, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

For decades unions have mishandled their pension funds. These funds have been embezzled into the pockets of union chiefs, they have been wasted on needless expenses, and have been spent away on left-wing political causes not to mention simple mismanagement and bad investing. It has gotten so bad that few union pension funds for the rank and file members are adequately funded and retirement money for millions of union member’s is now at risk — naturally the separate pension funds for union bosses are almost universally in the black.

So, what’s the solution? What will befall the retirement funds of these poor rank and file union schlubs? As far as Illinois Representatives Aaron Schock and Peter Roskam and seven other Republicans are concerned you and I should bailout out these union thugs that have filled their pockets with their member’s retirement funds by giving them our tax dollars in a bailout plan supported by the Obama administration.

Apparently union crooks and neer-do-wells are too big to fail and Reps. Schock and Roskam think that our taxes should go to reward the criminal behavior and neglect by union bosses.
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Shame: Nine GOP Reps Supporting Union Bailout”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Thugs at Capitol Demand Illinois Gov’t ‘Raise Our Taxes’

April 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the late morning hours of April 21 dozens of rented buses streamed into Springfield, the Illinois capitol, and began spewing out hundreds of tax-gorged union thugs. It was as if the Illinois Hog Producers association had pulled up to the capitol and thrown wide the doors to their livestock carriers.

Some estimates say the unionists mounted some 15,000 participants all there to wave their professionally printed signs and wear their gang colors… er, I mean wearing their T-Shirts bearing their union’s signature colors.

And what did they want? They wanted the Illinois legislature to raise taxes on everyone in the state so that those few union members could get even more undeserved bennies, richer pay scales and even higher pensions than anyone in the private sector could ever expect — all things they already enjoy.

But, a protest is all American, right? These guys are just like the tea partiers, aren’t they?

Not so much.
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Union Thugs at Capitol Demand Illinois Gov’t ‘Raise Our Taxes’”

Britain - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Brit Union Strike Over Severance Pay Might Soon Hit in U.S.

April 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few weeks ago several British civil service unions launched a two-day strike over cuts in severance pay that the government authorized for workers that were let go because of reductions in the government work force (called a “redundancy cut”).

The cap in “redundancy pay,” said British government unions, could see workers losing a third of their “entitlement.”

Government officials said that the new pay scheme could save the government £500 million. Starting in April “anyone earning £30,000 or less will be entitled to a maximum of three years’ pay or £60,000, whichever is lower.”
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Brit Union Strike Over Severance Pay Might Soon Hit in U.S.”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Killing U.S. Post Office

April 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union contracts are killing the U.S. Post Office, making it uncompetitive and driving costs through the roof according to the Government Accountability Office.

The U.S. Post Office lost $12 billion between 2007 and 2009 and has reached its borrowing limit of $15 billion already. On top of that the union pension fund is underfunded. Even as Congress cut benefits by $4 billion the agency faces a $3.8 billion loss.

The GAO report also states that one of the reasons why the Post Office has lost so much cash is because it doesn’t have the freedom to close fiscally inefficient offices. Politicians have stepped in and prevented a logical, financial sensible reassessment of the Post Office’s operations.
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Unions Killing U.S. Post Office”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions’ Big Shift to Government

April 13, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unionism is failing miserably in this age of a greater world market and an increase in competition for business across the globe. More nations than ever have left behind the 18th century and are taking bold steps into a world made smaller by technology. No longer is but a handful of nations leading the world in manufacturing while the rest wallow in abject poverty. This greater competition is increasing the standard of living in nearly every corner of the earth but because there is so much competition, unions in the U.S. are dying out.

American unions are not conducive to the 21st century and companies shackled by them are finding that either unions have to lose their once overpowering control over production or the businesses simply have to shut their doors as foreign competitors beat them up in the world market place.

But these antiquated, jobs killing unions won’t go quietly into the night and they’ve found their path to existence: government. Unions are growing wildly in the public sector because there are no market forces to curb their excesses.
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Unions’ Big Shift to Government”