Why? Part 1: The Shameful Attack and Truth
Public servants, unions and pensions are convenient scapegoats.
It's far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public work -- sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees -- to call them "faceless bureaucrats" and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets.
"On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert
I pick up my money and head back into town
Driving cross the Waynesboro county line
I got the radio on and I'm just killing time
Working all day in my daddy's garage
Driving all night chasing some mirage
Pretty soon little girl I'm gonna take charge"
Public employees earn far more than private sector workers?
That's untrue when you take account of level of education. Matched by education, public sector workers actually earn less than their private-sector counterparts.
Only 23 percent of private-sector employees have college degrees; 48 percent of government workers do.
Over the last fifteen years the pay of public sector workers has dropped relative to private sector employees with the same level of education.
Public sector workers now earn 11% less than comparable workers in the private sector, and local workers 12% less.
Even if you include health and retirement benefits, government employees still earn less than their private-sector counterparts with similar educations.
"I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start"
Public-sector pensions are crippling the nation? Public-employee pensions obligations are out of control?
Some reforms do need to be made. Loopholes that allow public sector workers to "spike" their final salaries in order to get higher annuities must be closed. And no retired public employee should be allowed to "double dip," collecting more than one public pension.
But these are the rare exceptions of ABUSERS. Most public employees don't ABUSE and do not have generous pensions.
After a career with annual pay averaging less than $45,000, the typical newly retired public employee receives a pension of $19,000 a year. Few would call that overly generous.
And most of that $19,000 isn't even on taxpayers' shoulders. While they're working, most public employees contribute a portion of their salaries into their pension plans.
Taxpayers are directly responsible for only about 14% of public retirement benefits.
Bargaining rights for public employees have caused state deficits to explode?
Some states that deny their employees bargaining rights -- Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona, for example, are running giant deficits of over 30% of spending.
Many that give employees bargaining rights -- Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Montana -- have small deficits of less than 10%.
Public employees often know more about whether public programs are working, or how to make them work better, than political appointees who hold their offices for only a few years.
This version of class warfare is to pit private-sector workers against public servants.
The ruling class would rather set average working people against one another -- comparing one group's modest incomes and benefits with another group's modest incomes and benefits -- than have Americans see that the top 1% is now raking in a bigger share of national income than at any time since 1928, and paying at a lower tax rate.
"Well there's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted"
Click this link to read the full text of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s op-ed.
The Nattering One Muses... It is a shameful attack indeed. Rather than place blame, directly were it belongs, with the politicians responsible for the House of Finances ascendancy over the last thirty years...
and the rich blue blood fatcats that got them elected in order to rape and pillage globally along with their globalization (new world disorder) plans...
along with the greed and hubris of Wall Street, real estate, bankers and financial criminals who brought us the house of cards we now live in... We need to school some liberal left wing Democrats and conservative right wing Republicans.
We won't mention anyone else calling themselves tea baggers, because calling a Ex-Democrat - a Libertarian, or a Ex-Republican - a Tea Party member, is like calling a Ex Nazi - a Socialistic Swastika Lover.
"Well the dogs on Main Street howl 'cause they understand
If I could take one moment into my hands
Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man
And I believe in a promised land"
With over 90,000 municipal pension funds, and $16.5163 TRILLION in defined benefit & contribution pension funds... This is the Promised Land.
And the very people who stand to benefit by raiding pension plans are the very people responsible for creating many a pension funding shortfall. That would be Wall Street and the bankers.
Your political camouflage is a thin cheap veneer, and deep down, you know what you are, and you can't handle the truth.
The truth being, you can't change your spots or stripes and hide from anyone with an ounce of common sense and you will be exposed through your words and actions.
We of the COMMON SENSE party call bullshit and shame on all of you. More to come in Why? Part 2: The Overblown Crisis and The Contract
Overhauled & Updated from 03/12/11 for 2014.
It's far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public work -- sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees -- to call them "faceless bureaucrats" and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets.
"On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert
I pick up my money and head back into town
Driving cross the Waynesboro county line
I got the radio on and I'm just killing time
Working all day in my daddy's garage
Driving all night chasing some mirage
Pretty soon little girl I'm gonna take charge"
Public employees earn far more than private sector workers?
That's untrue when you take account of level of education. Matched by education, public sector workers actually earn less than their private-sector counterparts.
Only 23 percent of private-sector employees have college degrees; 48 percent of government workers do.
Over the last fifteen years the pay of public sector workers has dropped relative to private sector employees with the same level of education.
Public sector workers now earn 11% less than comparable workers in the private sector, and local workers 12% less.
Even if you include health and retirement benefits, government employees still earn less than their private-sector counterparts with similar educations.
"I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start"
Public-sector pensions are crippling the nation? Public-employee pensions obligations are out of control?
Some reforms do need to be made. Loopholes that allow public sector workers to "spike" their final salaries in order to get higher annuities must be closed. And no retired public employee should be allowed to "double dip," collecting more than one public pension.
But these are the rare exceptions of ABUSERS. Most public employees don't ABUSE and do not have generous pensions.
After a career with annual pay averaging less than $45,000, the typical newly retired public employee receives a pension of $19,000 a year. Few would call that overly generous.
And most of that $19,000 isn't even on taxpayers' shoulders. While they're working, most public employees contribute a portion of their salaries into their pension plans.
Taxpayers are directly responsible for only about 14% of public retirement benefits.
Bargaining rights for public employees have caused state deficits to explode?
Some states that deny their employees bargaining rights -- Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona, for example, are running giant deficits of over 30% of spending.
Many that give employees bargaining rights -- Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Montana -- have small deficits of less than 10%.
Public employees often know more about whether public programs are working, or how to make them work better, than political appointees who hold their offices for only a few years.
This version of class warfare is to pit private-sector workers against public servants.
The ruling class would rather set average working people against one another -- comparing one group's modest incomes and benefits with another group's modest incomes and benefits -- than have Americans see that the top 1% is now raking in a bigger share of national income than at any time since 1928, and paying at a lower tax rate.
"Well there's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted"
Click this link to read the full text of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s op-ed.
The Nattering One Muses... It is a shameful attack indeed. Rather than place blame, directly were it belongs, with the politicians responsible for the House of Finances ascendancy over the last thirty years...
and the rich blue blood fatcats that got them elected in order to rape and pillage globally along with their globalization (new world disorder) plans...
along with the greed and hubris of Wall Street, real estate, bankers and financial criminals who brought us the house of cards we now live in... We need to school some liberal left wing Democrats and conservative right wing Republicans.
We won't mention anyone else calling themselves tea baggers, because calling a Ex-Democrat - a Libertarian, or a Ex-Republican - a Tea Party member, is like calling a Ex Nazi - a Socialistic Swastika Lover.
"Well the dogs on Main Street howl 'cause they understand
If I could take one moment into my hands
Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man
And I believe in a promised land"
With over 90,000 municipal pension funds, and $16.5163 TRILLION in defined benefit & contribution pension funds... This is the Promised Land.
And the very people who stand to benefit by raiding pension plans are the very people responsible for creating many a pension funding shortfall. That would be Wall Street and the bankers.
Your political camouflage is a thin cheap veneer, and deep down, you know what you are, and you can't handle the truth.
The truth being, you can't change your spots or stripes and hide from anyone with an ounce of common sense and you will be exposed through your words and actions.
We of the COMMON SENSE party call bullshit and shame on all of you. More to come in Why? Part 2: The Overblown Crisis and The Contract
Overhauled & Updated from 03/12/11 for 2014.
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