Pensions

Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Police - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Cops/Firemen Retire as Millionaires

December 3, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

There really is no excuse for any public servant to retire with a pension worth $1.3 million dollars of the people’s tax money. None. But that is precisely what happens in the City of Chicago according to Chicago’s Civic Committee.

Crain’s Greg Hinz reports that the Civic Commission sent an email blast out to its members late last week reporting that the typical Chicago Fireman who retires after 20 years of service will make $1.3 million in pension benefits. Cops make a bit less at $1.2 million.

These public servants can also retire at age 50, almost two decades earlier than the rest of us. This means that these retired city officers can potentially live one third of their lives or more on the public dime. After 20 measly years’ service.

Now, I certainly realize that cops have a high stress job. I also realize that both policemen and firemen can be called upon to put their personal safety, even their lives, on the line (though by no means do all of them do so). But these pensions are an impossible corruption of our system. No one deserves such luxury on the backs of the poor taxpayer.
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Chicago Cops/Firemen Retire as Millionaires”

Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Pensions - President - Public Employees Unions - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Lame Duck Threat to Bailout Union Pensions

December 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Connie Hair has an informative piece at Human Events about what Democrats are hoping to do in the next few weeks in this lame duck session by pushing another big union bailout.

In October, Sen. Tom Harkin (D, Iowa) heard witnesses advancing the “Guaranteed Retirement Account” (GRA) idea authored by left-wing activist and purported “labor economist” Theresa Guilarducci.

As an aside, Guilarducci being called an “economist” is an hilarious conceit. She is nothing of the kind but is merely a big labor activist disguising herself as an “economist.”

Anyway, the Democrats would love to slip this budget busting nonsense past the American people in this zombie congress. Here is how Hair defines the policy:
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Lame Duck Threat to Bailout Union Pensions”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chris Christie - Conservatives - Elections - GOP - Government - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

GOP Guvs Ready to Take on Greedy Public Employee Unions

November 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is a story that warms the anti-union cockles of my free-market heart. At the recent meeting of the Republican Governors Association in San Diego those governors gathered made a point to discuss angles of attack to take down the budget-busting, anti-democratic public employees unions.

In attendance was the ever present former Speaker of the House of Representative, Newt Gingrich, and he whipped up the crowd with the policy goal of taking down those Public Employee Unions with ideas centered on limiting union gains and cutting benefits to bring them more into line with reality.

Newly elected Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had a great quote: “We cannot and should not maintain a system where public employees are the haves and the taxpayers footing the bill are the have-nots.”

I love it.
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GOP Guvs Ready to Take on Greedy Public Employee Unions”

Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

New GOP State Rep. Turns Down Gov’t Pension

November 19, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I’ll avoid any “the only good politician is a…” jokes here, but one thing is certain, newly elected State Representative Tom Morrison (R, 54th District) has taken the first step on the road to being a good politician. Or at least a good steward of the people’s tax dollars.

Mr. Morrison of Palatine has decided to forego the state pension benefits that he is legally eligible for because of his electoral success. According to the Daily Herald, Morrison was asked “are you sure you want to do that?” by an administrator when he turned down joining the pension plan this week at the state capitol in Springfield.

“I want to demonstrate to voters and taxpayers that since cuts have to be made, I’m willing to step forward and make a personal cut,” Morrison told the press.
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New GOP State Rep. Turns Down Gov’t Pension”

AFSCME - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pennsylvania - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

We Need More of This: County May Break Union Picket Line

November 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Officials of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania may be about to indulge some union busting. A proposed strike by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 86, Local 2016, prompted officials to seek bids from private companies to replace the recalcitrant public employees union members threatening a walkout.

County Chief Commissioner Vinny Clausi is unrepentant about pushing the plan to bust the union.

“If they go on strike, we want to make sure we have service,” he said. “The union will not put the government out of business.”

AFSCME union members recently rejected the County’s contract offer of a three-year contract. Naturally, the reason these greedy union thugs wanted to strike is because the county offered a smaller package rather than all the perks and raises the unionistas wanted.
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We Need More of This: County May Break Union Picket Line”

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

The Best and Worst State Debt Disasters

October 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Forbes created an interactive map where Americans can find out what sort of mess their state is in. All you need do is roll your mouse cursor over your state and get the good … or horrible… news.

Forbes finds that the best state is Utah. The debt per capita in the Beehive State is just $447 with an unfunded pension cost of $7,272. Utah is rated by Moody’s at Aaa and has an S&P rating of AAA.

Unsurprisingly the worst state is Illinois. Illinois is a disaster for sure. Illinois’s debt per capita is $1,877 and it’s unfunded pension obligations stands at $17,230. Moody’s rates the state an A1 and its S&P rating is AA-.
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The Best and Worst State Debt Disasters”

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

Union Paid for By YOUR Tax Dollars Calls YOU a ‘Tea Bagger’

October 13, 2010 by

A government employees union just released a very hackneyed and amateurish video attack ad against all you “Tea Baggers” out there. Joe Schoffstall has the story today at Eyeblast.TV.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has released its new cartoon-styled ad showing a cheering section of Republicans marked as “Tea Baggers Section.”

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’”

AFSCME - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Michigan - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Taxes - UAW - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Michigan Home Healthcare Workers Sue State Over Forced Unionization

September 16, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

So imagine that you are working out of your home or the home of a friend. Say you are helping care for your own developmentally disabled relative or that of another. You are working for a family, not a company, and you are not employed by the state. Then one day you get a letter in the mail that says you have been forced by the state to join a union and henceforth you will be paying dues by having some of your salary removed by the state and given to the union. Does this sound like you are living and working in America? It is if you are a home healthcare worker in the State of Michigan.

Because of a special deal made behind the scenes between Mich. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and two unions, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Michigan’s 40,000 in-home healthcare workers were unionized by a shady “vote” of less than 20% of these workers in 2006 via a mail-in ballot that most workers had no idea even existed.

The forced unionization has been in and out of courts since 2006 and now it is about to go back in again as a group of in-home healthcare workers is suing the state for driving them into a union against their will.
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Michigan Home Healthcare Workers Sue State Over Forced Unionization”

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!”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Policy - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unemployment - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tell Obama and Congress to Halt The Assault on Small Business

September 3, 2010 by

From the folks at the Free Enterprise Alliance, a group of free market advocates backed by the construction industry.

Appearing on televisions in places near and far, ABC’s Free Enterprise Alliance this week will launch a new ad asking travelers to look around, find a representative, and tell them to Halt The Assault on free enterprise, small business, and jobs.

The FEA says they’ve booked time at on CNN’s Airport network, so this ad will appear right where our Congressmen are going to be as they make their way home for the holiday!

From the group’s About Us page:

At the heart of the Free Enterprise Alliance’s mission is the belief that while we need government for common sense regulations, the scales have tipped too far in favor of government intrusion and its advocates. The Free Enterprise Alliance believes small business and entrepreneurs grow jobs and our economy, not union bosses and federal bureaucrats.

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”

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”

Barack Obama - Budget - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - DOL - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

For the Third Time Obama Gives Unions A Break From Transparency Rules

August 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Obama administration and the Democrat Party has yet again instituted new rules to allow unions to get out of having to report their financial doings to the federal government by again rolling back reporting requirements.

Obviously as far as Obama is concerned “transparency” is one of those things that only enemies should be forced to observe. If you are an Obama friend, no transparency is required.

It is interesting to note the language that Democrats used to excuse their newest roll back of transparency requirements, too (my bold).
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For the Third Time Obama Gives Unions A Break From Transparency Rules”

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”

California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif. Teachers Unions Endangering Kid’s Lives

August 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Reason Magazine explores the appalling situation in California where teachers unions were able to strongarm the legislature to deny teacher training for the use of Diastat, an anti-seizure drug meant to keep kids afflicted with epileptic conditions from dying in school.

The drug has been approved by the federal government to be administered by non-medical personnel through the delivery system approved and widely distributed, but teachers unions opposed this safe delivery system and the brief teacher training program. The unions claimed it was because they were trying to make sure that kids were “safe,” but the real reason is that the unions were just trying to increase the number of union member’s jobs in schools. Far from helping save kid’s live, the unions were trying to create jobs for themselves.

You see, the unions feared that if this drug were approved to be administered to afflicted kids by non-medical personnel then schools might fire school nurses. It isn’t about kid’s health. It’s about union jobs.


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Calif. Teachers Unions Endangering Kid’s Lives”

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

Win The Lottery, Work for the Government

August 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s settled. People that play the lottery should lay down their scratchoff coins and take up an employment application to work for the government. After all, winning the lottery is a one-in-a-million proposition but if you get a job with the government your hitting the lottery seems to be a sure thing.

USA Today is reporting that federal workers are earning double their private sector counterparts these days. So, you see, all you have to do to get rich, apparently, is to go to work for government.

The reports tells us that federal workers have been the lucky recipients of bigger than average pay and benefit increases than those of the private sector for the last nine years in a row. It also finds that “the compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.”
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Win The Lottery, Work for the Government”

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”

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

Even the NYT Noticing that Unions Losing Friends and Allies

July 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know its bad for unions when even the New York Times publishes a story reporting that Big Labor is losing friends and allies in formerly well controlled political spheres. But such is the times in which we live where fiscal disaster is highlighting the illicitness that is unions in general, but public employees unions in particular. (You know our mantra here: Unions are antithetical to good government)

For the Times Steven Greenhouse writes that Big Labor is finding new critics among “old allies in elected office.”

Greenhouse reports the words of former union member turned New Jersey State Senator Stephen M. Sweeney who has turned against his former compatriots in Big Labor and its unnecessarily high compensation packages. “At some point, you reach the limit of your ability to pay,” he told the Times.

One State Senator in Jersey isn’t the only apostate against unions.
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Even the NYT Noticing that Unions Losing Friends and Allies”

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

Illinois Has Stopped Paying Its Bills

July 5, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois is broke. So broke it can’t pay its bills. Yet on it goes stiffing its creditors and it’s making me wonder why I bother to pay my bills at all. If the state can get away with thumbing its nose at its bill collectors, why can’t I? Oh, yeah. I’m not a Democrat. Unlike them, I’m expected to pay my bills. I forgot for a moment there. Oh, and I’m not a union member, either.

According to the Times story Illinois owes its schools, rehab centers, and childcare obligations $5.01 billion. And there’s no payment in sight.

Then there is the state employees pension plan that is underfunded by 50 percent.

Also, as the state legislature left the Capitol last month for its summer break there was no budget settled upon.
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Illinois Has Stopped Paying Its Bills”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Democrats Continue to Use Tax $ to Pay Union Members to do Union Business

July 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again Democrats decided that it was a good idea to pay workers of federal employee unions 100% of their salary to do union business during work hours instead of doing the job they were hired for. That’s right, instead of paying these federal employees to do the job we the people hired them to do, Democrats are paying these workers to do union business during the workday. It’s on YOUR dime, folks.

The bill was HR 3251, The Federal Employee Accountability Act of 2009, and it would have stopped this practice of paying off union thugs to do nothing on our dime. Gingrey claimed that it would have saved the federal government $1.2 billion in wasted wages that are now given as a gift to union members. This bill was introduced by the Congressional Republicans to get rid of the union sop, but Democrats with their majority pushed this illicit union payoff through to a win for continued graft on a federal level.

The GOP leadership featured this bill on its YouCut.com website. A video featuring Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey explained what it was all about.
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Democrats Continue to Use Tax $ to Pay Union Members to do Union Business”

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”