Move over Scott Walker, there's a new sheriff in town. Rather than claiming we need to end collective bargaining because public employee pensions are the cause of all our budget woes, which is a complete lie, Senators Richard Burr and Tom Coburn are sponsoring legislation to simply do-away with pensions for public employees all together.
Who needs a retirement anyway?
WASHINGTON – New legislation introduced in the Senate would slash retirement pensions for all federal employees hired starting 2013, invoking the argument that benefits for government workers are too generous and are a large contributor to budget deficits.
The "Public-Private Employee Retirement Parity Act," offered Thursday by Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and co-sponsored by Tom Coburn (R-OK), would eliminate all pensions under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) but keep the Thrift Savings Plan in tact. The bill would also apply to members of Congress.
"Right now, federal government workers receive far more generous retirement benefits than private sector employees," Burr said in a statement. "The cost to taxpayers of these benefits is unsustainable and we simply cannot afford it. We cannot ask taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for public employee benefits that are far more generous than their own."
Liar, liar. Pants on fire.
The "Public-Private Employee Retirement Parity Act." Isnt that cute?
Of course, the notion that pensions for public employees are vastly superior to pensions for private employees is complete horseshit. Also, public employees fund their own pensions through investment returns. If a pension fund is under-water, it's because it was invested and it sank into oblivion when Wall Street and the mortgage industry killed the economy in 2008. The perfect case against privatizing public pensions.