Wisconsin Workers Pensions Plans are NOT extravagant Gifts.
Wisconsin Workers Pensions Plans are NOT Welfare.
Their Pensions are NOT something that everyone else pays for.
NO, their Pension Plans are something they previously negotiated, IN EXCHANGE FOR a portion of their Salary.
Wisconsin Workers Pensions are simply 'Deferred Wages'.
A portion of every Paycheck, goes into the Pension, an Investment to be collected at some Future Date.
Just Like a 401-k.
Public Workers' Pension Plans belongs to them -- NOT to Scott Walker and his Band of Budgeteers.
Public Workers have paid into them; Public Workers have earned them.
Randi Rhodes has been talking about this simple principle for a while now. Today I decided to track down, what she's been talking about.
SOOO, sincere H/T to Rhandi, once again ... Thanks!
Randi Rhodes Homework
The Wisconsin Lie Exposed – Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions
That link leads to the Pension Plan Facts ...
Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who 'Contributes' to Public Workers' Pensions?
David Cay Johnston, tax.com -- Feb. 24, 2011
Economic nonsense is being reported as fact in most of the news reports on the Wisconsin dispute, the product of a breakdown of skepticism among journalists multiplied by their lack of understanding of basic economic principles.
[...]
Accepting Gov. Walker' s assertions as fact, and failing to check, created the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not.
Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin's pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
How can that be? Because the "contributions" consist of money that employees chose to take as deferred wages -- as pensions when they retire -- rather than take immediately in cash. The same is true with the health care plan. If this were not so a serious crime would be taking place, the gift of public funds rather than payment for services.
[...]
The key problem is that journalists are assuming that statements by Gov. Scott Walker have basis in fact. Journalists should never accept the premise of a political statement, but often they do, which explains why so much of our public policy is at odds with well-established principles.
The question journalists should be asking is "who contributes" to the state of Wisconsin's pension and health care plans.
The fact is that all of the money going into these plans belongs to the workers because it is part of the compensation of the state workers. The fact is that the state workers negotiate their total compensation, which they then divvy up between cash wages, paid vacations, health insurance and, yes, pensions.
Since the Wisconsin government workers collectively bargained for their compensation, all of the compensation they have bargained for is part of their pay and thus only the workers contribute to the pension plan.
This is an indisputable fact.
[...]
Who is David Cay Johnston?
David Cay Johnston: Profile
David Cay Johnston is a Tax Analysts' columnist. The Washington Monthly calls him "one of the country's most important journalists" and the Portland Oregonian says his work is the equal of Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair and Lincoln Steffens. At The New York Times, Johnston received a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for exposing tax loopholes and inequities. [...]
Paul Krugman chimes his some his own "Pension Plan Facts" recently, too:
The Truth About Pensions
Paul Krugman is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times,
Feb 27, 2011
[...] years and years of huge giveaways to unions, resulting in gigantic, unpayable debts -- is just wrong: to a very large extent, the pension shortfall has emerged just since 2007, thanks to the financial crisis [...]
It seems, like so many 401-k plans, Pension Plans took a 'hit' too, thanks to the Wall Street Casino fiasco we all had to endure.
That's the Market, for you. Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Gains. Indeed the Opposite CAN Happen, and often does.
But the point is those Pensions, like those 401-k's -- they Belong to The People ... whatever is left of them -- that is. No Take-Backs!
State Govt's should NOT look to Pensions as their OWN Personal Biggy Banks -- Unless they have a damn-sure-fire way to PAY BACK those Pension Funds they Borrow!
And even with such assurances, MY inclination would be to say:
HELL NO! Scott Walker, keep your mitts off of OUR Future!
That Pension Money, was earmarked and deducted from Public Workers hourly Paychecks.
Hands OFF! Pensions are OUR 'Deferred Wages' -- We earned them! ... Every Cent.