Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Wisconsin's largest teachers' union is an extremely profitable insurance business that happens to provide services to children on the side

Like me, you may be a little confused about the nature of the fight between the public sector unions and Wisconsin Republicans. After all, the unions are just upset about having to pay for some of their benefits, right?

Wrong.

...the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the largest teachers union in the state, has grossly abused [collective bargaining] for decades, resulting in the unnecessary siphoning of millions of dollars from Wisconsin public schools. Under current Wisconsin law, the [choice] of the insurance company that provides health coverage to school employees is a matter of collective bargaining in each school district.

In the majority of districts around the state, WEAC negotiators have used that law to pressure local school boards into purchasing coverage from WEA Trust, an insurance company established by and closely associated with the union.

WEA Trust offers very comprehensive health coverage, at a very high cost to schools... A few dozen districts have managed to dump WEA Trust insurance over the past few years [and] they managed to save at least six figures their first year with a different carrier, and maintained steady rates in subsequent years, while still offering quality health coverage to employees.

Officials from other districts say they're also eager to dump WEA Trust coverage, but need their employees' anonymous claim histories from WEA Trust to share with other bidders. Several say they have never requested that information because they were told WEA Trust would punish them by pulling them out of local insurance pools, resulting in skyrocketing premiums.

Today many Wisconsin school boards consider themselves stuck with expensive WEA Trust health coverage, until state law is altered to take the identity of the insurance carrier off the collective bargaining table. Gov. Scott Walker's current legislative proposal would do just that, giving school boards the opportunity to freely shop for insurance and save millions of tax dollars for instructional purposes.

Governor Walker has cited WEA Trust as a primary reason for reforming collective bargaining.

WEA Trust has grown very fat on public school dollars, with a net worth of $316 million and a team of 12 administrators all receiving compensation packages worth six figures per year... Sadly, this insurance swindle is endorsed by state law.

...most unions have traditionally come to the negotiating table demanding expensive WEA Trust insurance coverage, and the strategy has been effective. About 64 percent of Wisconsin’s 426 districts carry WEA Trust insurance, despite its prohibitive costs.

...WEAC pressures its local union officials to stick with WEA Trust. One district administrator told us about a meeting where everyone present, including union employees, agreed that a non-WEA health plan would be better for the district. He said state WEAC representatives were present and argued in favor of WEA Trust, just because it’s the union’s insurance brand.

...With the law on their side, many local unions won’t even consider alternative health coverage. They refuse to have the WEA Trust language taken out of their contract at bargaining time. If a school board wants to contest the coverage, the unions will frequently take the fight to arbitration.

Many school officials accuse WEA Trust officials of purposefully withholding insurance claim histories from districts that want to seek other insurance bids. That makes it nearly impossible for competing companies to prepare informed bids based on recent insurance activity in a district. It would be like asking a contractor to bid on a demolition project, without disclosing the size or condition of the building.

Those districts that seek claim histories are often threatened with higher insurance rates by WEA Trust, according to several sources.

This fight is about more than just benefits: it's about a rigged insurance operation that no one in their right mind would choose if given a real choice in the matter.

WEA Trust stands to lose millions through Governor Walker's heroic actions on behalf of the taxpayer - which is why the union bosses have reacted with violence, angry rhetoric and near-riots in the state capitol.

It has nothing to do with the kids. The union bosses want to steal more of your money with a crooked, rigged insurance scam.


Stunning News Item Slips by AP's Editors: 'Government Shutdown' Doesn't Shut Down Much of Anything

I've never heard of the Associated Press' Andrew Taylor and -- based on his article from yesterday -- we may never hear from him again.

Social Security checks would still go out. Troops would remain at their posts. Furloughed federal workers probably would get paid, though not until later. And virtually every essential government agency, like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, would remain open.

That's the little-known truth about a government shutdown. The government doesn't shut down.

...The air traffic control system, food inspection, Medicare, veterans' health care and many other essential government programs would run as usual. The Social Security Administration would not only send out benefits but would continue to take applications. The Postal Service, which is self-funded, would keep delivering the mail. Federal courts would remain open...

...from a practical perspective, shutdowns usually aren't that big a deal. They happened every year when Jimmy Carter was president, averaging 11 days each. During President Reagan's two terms, there were six shutdowns, typically of just one or two days apiece. Deals got cut. Everybody moved on.

Attention, GOP leaders: let President Obama shut the government down.

If they can't cut spending, it's going to shut down soon anyhow -- when the whole freaking system collapses. And that's not my opinion - that's TurboTax Tim Geithner's take.

Let. Obama. Shut. It. Down.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

State-Run Media: Government Spending Cuts Will Kill the Economy!

Just a glance at the headline of an article by the AP and published by National Public Radio tells you everything you need to know about state-run media's agenda. Please consider State And Local Budget Cuts Are Slowing US Economy.

Deep spending cuts by state and local governments pose a growing threat to an economy that is already grappling with high unemployment, depressed home prices and the surging cost of oil.

Lawmakers at state capitols and city halls are slashing jobs and programs, arguing that some pain now is better than a lot more later. But the cuts are coming at a price — weaker growth at the national level.


...Newly elected Republican governors are leading the charge. They're acting on campaign pledges to shrink government to meet budget gaps. They favor smaller governments with lower taxes and less regulation, which they say will boost private-sector growth and job creation.

Gee, schmucks: did it ever occur to you that public sector jobs aren't real jobs when it comes to GDP and economic growth? Because the private sector has to pay the freight for all public sector jobs?

And the more public sector jobs the private sector has to support, the worse the real economy?

This calculus is so simple to understand that even the nimrods on the coasts are starting to get it. Please consider The Los Angeles Times' Debt takes a huge chunk out of California's beleaguered budget.

Closing California's deficit this year would be immeasurably easier if the state weren't paying for a 10-year borrowing binge.

Without that tab, officials could scrap plans to close state parks, force nearly a million low-income children to go without eye care and take in-home aid away from hundreds of thousands of elderly, blind and disabled residents.

But the state has had an insatiable appetite for debt in recent years. In the last decade, the debt per resident has tripled, to $2,362, according to the credit-rating agency Moody's Investors Service... That means for every household of four, California owes nearly $9,500 — more than the government spends to put a child through a year of school. In the next budget, the amount devoted to debt repayment is expected to exceed the money invested in California's prized public universities.

...[And b]ecause of its rock-bottom credit rating, California pays a premium for its loans. Taxpayers must fork over roughly $2 for every $1 borrowed — about 20% more than top-rated states,

Excessive debt is literally strangling the states and is about to crush the federal government.

But the loons in state-run media think the states and the federal government should keep on borrowing and spending, not because it will support them, of course. But because it'll "help grow the economy".

Yes, this is economic propaganda at its finest, crafted with the help of your tax dollars.


Friday, February 25, 2011

Brilliant: Dick Trumka Says That Higher Gas Taxes Will... Create Jobs

The crypto-Marxist who heads up the AFL-CIO is a guy named Richard "Dick" Trumka. And he, with his extensive and legendary experience of shaking down private businesses negotiating for workers and paying off Democrat politicians judiciously rewarding his political allies, says that raising taxes will create jobs.

And I'm sorry to say that this isn't a satirical story.

Though I know it's hard to tell sometimes.

What's the best way to get Americans back to work?

Raise taxes, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Specifically, he wants to raise the federal gas tax as a means to fund infrastructure spending.

My memory's a little fuzzy on this topic, but didn't we spend a trillion dollars on a "Stimulus" program to do that? And didn't the unemployment rate continue rising to its current 20% un- and underemployment level? Why, yes, I believe so.

"We need a dedicated source of revenue to create infrastructure in this country... We need to create jobs. The best way to do that is through infrastructure development."

Let me guess: they'll all be shovel-ready projects. Which will employ only unionized labor. Lucky guess, right?

Trumka didn't say specifically how much he would raise the gas tax, but mentioned he's shown the President a $256 billion plan to improve infrastructure. If every billion spent on infrastructure creates 35,000 jobs, as he claims, this package would create close to 9 million jobs over the next five years.

Schmuck -- didn't you learn the lingo? It's save or create close to 9 million jobs! C'mon, you know better than that!

Didn't those "two or three visits a week to the White House" teach you a thing?

Perhaps Trumka's arithmetic skills are part of Wisconsin's "new math" curriculum that lets the teachers collect boffo bucks when they're faking sick-days.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

In the blue corner: public sector unions... bought-and-paid for Democrat hacks... and legacy media. In the red corner: the American taxpayer...

The union beat-downs of innocents continued today, proving that the violence isn't isolated. It's organized. Community organized, if you will. But maybe they can't help themselves. Maybe Sarah Palin made 'em do it.

Slapping an innocent cameraman, calling him an epithet and then threatening to sodomize him? Check.

Shoving around a 5'1" female blogger who dared to videotape a thuggish bully? Checkety-check

An SEIU thug knocking a Congressional candidate to the ground? Check. And. Mate.


Yes, this should really build a lot of sympathy and good will for the public sector union bosses who rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in dues money -- which they promptly spend on themselves and Democrat politicians in order to steal ever greater amounts of your hard-earned money.

Go pound sand.

There's no money, losers. You can raise taxes to 100% and there's still not enough to pay for your Rolls Royce pension and benefits.

Welcome to the real world.

And that goes double for you pathetic legacy media types who decried non-existent "violent rhetoric" by Sarah Palin after Tucson... but can't seem to find a single instance of actual leftist violence. What with all of your layer upon layer of fact-checking and such.

Get stuffed.


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Bad Timing: California Teachers' Retirement System 'Is Insolvent'

And the hits just keep on coming for the Democrat Utopia of California. Businesses and wealthy citizens are fleeing. A two-time failed governor just got elected governor. The AFL-DNC controls the state, counties and most municipalities -- always the sign of exceptional governance.

And so it comes as quite a shock to find out that "CalSTRS - California State Teachers' Retirement System is Insolvent."

The time bomb of retiring teachers has gone off. Few admit it yet, but a pension reform group in California understands the problem, and taxpayers are on the hook.

As California school districts anticipate possibly the worst budget crisis in a generation, many will try to lighten their burden by enticing older teachers into retirement. But as more and more teachers retire -- with a pension averaging 55 percent to 60 percent of salary -- they will be straining a system that already can't meet its obligations.

The California State Teachers' Retirement System is sliding down a steep slope toward insolvency. The threat isn't to teachers who have retired or plan to, but to the people of California. Taxpayers, who already pick up 23 percent of CalSTRS expenses, will be increasingly burdened as the giant pension system fails to meet its obligations.

"We're on a path of destruction," said Marcia Fritz, president of pension-reform group California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility... And merely rejiggering formulas for new employees won't rescue the system, she said. Simply put: "We overpromised."

Among those promises, "Californians have typically given their public employees richer retirement benefits" than have other states, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office... Despite the looming disaster, CalSTRS is like an ocean liner that's slow and complicated to change course. Gov. Jerry Brown hasn't mentioned overhauling the system that benefits one of his major supporters, the teachers union. Nor has the Legislature taken up the issue...

...CalSTRS' formula, which is based largely on employee salary, age and longevity, tends to reward retirement at age 61½. For example, a teacher who has worked for 35 years, making $90,000 in her final year, could retire at age 62 and reap a $75,600 annual pension -- 84 percent of salary. Teachers can add to their pensions by "buying" additional years.

CalSTRS is not "headed" for insolvency. It "is" insolvent.

Well, if Trumka and the rest of the union fat-cats are right, all it will take is doubling taxes in California to fix this mess.


Chart: Mercury News.

Feel the burn: Obama orchestrates yet another $14B handout to the unions

CNN has the low-down on the continued skulduggery related to the incestuous relationship between Barack Obama, the UAW and Government Motors.

The U.S. Treasury is giving up $14 billion in tax revenue, because of a sweetheart deal it's giving U.S. automaker General Motors that's about to start paying off...

How is it that handing billions of dollars to the UAW fat-cats is somehow noble, but the guy who owns the dry-cleaner on the corner is "the rich", to be despised, vilified and harassed by the Left?

One reason the government might have let General Motors claim the loss, was to reduce the perceived cost of the bailout, said Linus Wilson, finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette... the fact that GM kept the tax breaks made its stock more attractive at the time of its initial public offering last November, Wilson said.

...Wilson said the improvement in stock value due to the tax break will offset only a small fraction of the tax revenue Treasury is giving up... "Is it worth the cost? No. It's a bad policy from a government point of view," Wilson said.

The full tab for nationalizing the auto companies will be well north of $75 billion, money that will never, ever be repaid.

Care to guess where a lot of that money will be going? That's a rhetorical question. Those hard-earned dollars of yours will help pay union dues... which will fund the fat-cat union bosses... and fill the campaign coffers of President Obama... so that we can keep getting screwed receiving the benefit of all of these oh-so-successful programs.

Like Cash-for-Clunkers, HAMP, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, "Climate Change" programs and all the rest of the ripoffs.


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Fleebagging Wisconsin Democrats call police after being photographed by patriots in Illinois -- may also need to put out APBs for their paychecks

Founding Bloggers and Gateway Pundit have the hilarious photos.

Spotted in the wild, south of the Illinois-Wisconsin border!

Illinois Tea Party board member Doc got the Heritage Suites in Harvard, and found the fleeing senators in the lobby of the motel. He said that they were laughing like school children. News cameras were there.

Doc confronted the senators, saying, “Do you know any reason why you shouldn’t be recalled for your failure to fulfill the duties of your office?” and the like. They asked him who he was. When he identified himself as a member of Northern IL Tea Party the mood changed. The hotel clerk asked him if he was a paying guest. He/she said, if he wasn’t he would have to leave.

Doc asked if this was still America. The clerk called the police. Three cars pulled up. Doc went outside and said, “I guess I’m the guy you’re looking for.” They said they had to go into the lobby to pick up the complaint against him.

Doc was interviewed by a reporter outside the hotel. The reporter asked for his name, and Doc said, “It’s “Doc” — if they’re going to try to arrest me, that’s all you need.” Then he drove away.

Michelle Malkin relays a report that the Wisconsin GOP -- thankfully -- is still playing hardball.

State senators who miss two or more session days will no longer get paid through direct deposit. They’ll have to pick up their checks in person on the Senate floor during a session... The new rule is aimed at forcing the return of 14 Senate Democrats who have been hiding in Illinois since Thursday. They fled the state to stall a vote on an anti-union bill, and have threatened to stay away until Republican Gov. Scott Walker agrees to compromise. Tuesday’s vote was along party lines. The three Republicans on the Committee on Senate Organization voted for it and the two Democrats opposed it.

It turns out that Indiana's Democrat legislators have also fleebagged to Illinois.

It would appear that Democrats hate the democratic process. They lost the midterm elections in a historic landslide. And instead of manning up and voting, they're running away once again to expressly ignore the voters' will.

As Mark Hemingway asked the other day, "After Wisconsin, How Do Democrats Argue Against a GOP Government Shutdown??"


Great news: Democrats' no-drill policy working out swimmingly for consumers as reports surface that Gaddafi is sabotaging Libyan oil facilities

Three years ago Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) described his refusal to allow oil drilling in the United States' Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

What does the president do? He takes out the old saw of ANWR. ANWR wouldn't produce a drop of oil in ten years...

Of course, that's exactly what Democrat Bill Clinton said seventeen years ago, when he vetoed legislation that would have permitted drilling in ANWR's coastal plain. Had Clinton signed off then, we'd have started producing oil seven years ago.

Which puts this troubling report in context.

Time Magazine's intelligence columnist reported on Tuesday that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has ordered his security forces to sabotage the country's oil facilities, citing a source close to the government...

Robert Baer said the sabotage would begin by blowing up pipelines to the Mediterranean... "Among other things, Gaddafi has ordered security services to start sabotaging oil facilities," Baer wrote. "The sabotage, according to the insider, is meant to serve as a message to Libya's rebellious tribes: It's either me or chaos."

The growing violence in Libya has forced a number of oil companies to shut in production in Africa's third-largest oil producer and disrupted flows from the country's export terminals... Paraphrasing the source, he said that Gaddafi had also ordered the release from prison of the country's Islamist militant prisoners in hopes they would act on their own to sow chaos.

Thanks to the modern, Soros-controlled Democrat Party, the United States is the only country on Earth that restricts access to its own energy reserves.

Which makes about as much sense as anything else in the Democrat Party's platform.


Monday, February 21, 2011

Introducing the Obama Financial Anxiety Index Level™ (O-FAIL for short)

I've finally come up with an excellent proxy for the level of economic distress felt around the world thanks to our feckless Democrat leaders. I call it O-FAIL, which stands for Obama Financial Anxiety Index Level™. O-FAIL takes all of the world's instability, hysteria, currency woes, fears of energy disruption, terrorism and war -- and encapsulates them into a single, easy-to-understand number.

The higher O-FAIL gets, the worse things are around the world. Check out the O-FAIL index. You can see that over the past couple of years, immediately after the election of Barack Obama, it began going parabolic.

O-FAIL is also known as the price of gold.

The last time it was this high, in inflation-adjusted terms, one James Earl Carter was President. Enough said.


Hat tip: Post1.org.

Oops: White House, DNC disavow involvement with #WIunion protests but Twitter busts 'em cold @ByronYork

The unofficial public relations arm of the Obama administration reports that the White House and the DNC really had nothing at all to do with the public service union protests in Madison.

Over the weekend, the White House and Democratic Party officials pushed back against criticism from Republicans that Mr. Obama and his political network were meddling in the Wisconsin dispute.

Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to balance their budgets...

...And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots network born of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with...

... "This is a Wisconsin story, not a Washington one,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “False claims of White House involvement are attempts to distract from the organic grass-roots opposition that is happening in Wisconsin."

These are outright fabrications. In fact Brad Woodhouse, the Democratic Party Communications Director, was spotted crowing about Obama's involvement as recently as Thursday.

And Obama's political wing -- an extension of the SEIU, it would appear -- is still hawking the protests. According to Politico's Ben Smith, it has published at least 54 tweets promoting the rallies.

Stand strong, Governor Walker.

These mendacious economic illiterates must be defeated.


Hat tip: @ByronYork. Linked by: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, The Tatler, Protein Wisdom, Weasel Zippers, NewsReal and Memeorandum. Thanks!

15 Best Signs from the Pro-Walker Rally in Madison #wiunion #solidaritywi

Heather Radish's Flickr feed has a comprehensive gallery of signs from the pro-Walker rally held Saturday. Stunning we haven't seen any of these on the network news shows, no?















The whole gallery can be found here.


Hat tip: Ace o' Spades.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The most under-reported news story of the week: Governor Walker wants to save 12,000 teachers' jobs

Mike Shedlock reports the news that legacy media is apparently too busy to cover.

Unions don't really want to save jobs. Rather they want every union worker to extort every possible cent from every possible taxpayer. The goal of unions is to do the least work at the most cost.

Governor Walker's proposal will save 12,000 jobs. The union does not care. It would rather fire 12,000 teachers than for all of them to make modest concessions.

I have countless examples to prove that, yet the myth goes on.

If this was really "about the kids" rather than about the greed and arrogance of the public unions, teachers would be in the classroom teaching instead of fraudulently calling in sick, with help of doctors aiding and abetting that fraud.

Please consider 12K State Workers Could Be Fired Without Budget Deal, Wisconsin Governor Warns.

If changes aren't made to the benefit contributions paid by Wisconsin's nearly 300,000 public sector employees, about 10,000-12,000 workers will lose their jobs, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker warned Sunday.

"I don't want a single person laid off in the public nor in the private sector and that's why this is a much better alternative than losing jobs," Walker told "Fox News Sunday... If we're going to be in this together, (cut) our $3.6 billion budget deficit, it's going to take a whole lot more than just employee contributions when it comes to pensions and health care... it's like a virus that eats up more and more of the budget if you don't get it under control."

President Obama, whose group Organizing for America, has bused in some of the nearly 70,000 protesters outside the state capitol on Saturday, last week called the bill "an assault on unions."

Under the governor's proposal, unions still could represent workers, but they could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized. Only wages below the Consumer Price Index would be subject to collective bargaining, anything higher would have to be approved by referendum.

As Mish points out, no less a Democrat icon than FDR understood that public sector unions are antithetical to the concept of American government.

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service... Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees.

A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.

Yet today's Democrat Party -- which has aligned itself with the most horrifically failed policies of the modern era -- has set a course for fiscal destruction.

Today the Democrat Party is the government leviathan. They are inseparable, like a pod-person from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

There's no choice: the public sector unions must be broken. And it's truly a pity it had to come to this.

God Bless Governor Walker.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Memeorandum. Thanks!

Applying the Individual Mandate to your retirement account

Rather than abide by Judge Roger Vinson's ruling that the entirety of Obamacare is null and void, the Obama administration is doing its best to ignore the decision. It is continuing to implement new regulations and create new bureaucracies while playing "Four Corners" in court.

The reason is simple: if the Individual Mandate is eventually deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, many of the Statists' grand plans for this society go poof -- pulverized into dust.

For if the government can compel you to purchase a particular kind of health insurance product, what are the limits on the bureaucrats' control over the individual? Truly, there are none, for the appetite of the Democrats is insatiable. As their massive social engineering experiments implode (say, Medicare and Fannie Mae), they're on to the next set (e.g., Obamacare and HAMP) without a single look back to see what went wrong.

Using the Individual Mandate to force you to buy 'safe investments'


Next on the Democrats' agenda: a plan to use the precedent of the Individual Mandate to force you to buy "safe investments" in your retirement accounts. Oh, it would be for your own benefit. They're just looking out for you.

The always fascinating Pensions & Investments (their latest centerfold was a real doozy) reported last year that the feds were examining the regulation of all private pension plans.

The point being: the Obama administration would love to get their hands on the trillions of dollars in private retirement accounts. By forcing individuals, say, to buy annuities (for their own safety, remember), they would require the insurance companies that manufacture annuities to include a certain amount of Treasury notes (government debt) in their investment portfolios (again, just for safety's sake).

That would funnel trillions of private dollars into the government's coffers in exchange for paper promises, enabling them to continue borrowing and spending like drunken liberals.

In 2008 Democrats talked openly about 'eliminating investment risk'


It's not crazy talk: Congressional Democrats, circa 2008, openly discussed the possibility of confiscating 401(k) and IRA plans; one can legitimately connect the notion of "eliminat[ing] investment risk" to giving the feds control of your retirement account.

...In a joint agency RFI published in today's Federal Register, the Treasury and Labor departments expressed concern that defined contribution plans generally make only lump-sum payments available to plan retirees.

The agencies specifically want to know whether some form of “lifetime income distribution” should be required in all defined contribution plans...

To put this news in context, consider that in late 2008 Democrats openly discussed the possibility of confiscating private retirement accounts in order to "strengthen and protect Americans’ 401(k)s, pensions, and other... plans".

The [Congressional] testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers’ retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.

...The current retirement system, Ghilarducci said, “exacerbates income and wealth inequalities” because tax breaks for voluntary retirement accounts are “skewed to the wealthy because it is easier for them to save, and because they receive bigger tax breaks when they do.”

...GRAs would guarantee a fixed 3 percent annual rate of return, although later in her article Ghilarducci explained that participants would not “earn a 3% real return in perpetuity.” In place of tax breaks workers now receive for contributions and thus a lower tax rate, workers would receive $600 annually from the government, inflation-adjusted. For low-income workers whose annual contributions are less than $600, the government would deposit whatever amount it would take to equal the minimum $600 for all participants.

In a radio interview with Kirby Wilbur in Seattle on Oct. 27, 2008, Ghilarducci explained that her proposal doesn’t eliminate the tax breaks, rather, “I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading — spreading the wealth.”

Now that the Democrats have decimated the economy (more quantitative easing, anyone?), the trillions of dollars in private retirement accounts represent the juiciest of all possible targets.

The Individual Mandate is unconstitutional. Because if it is not, the federal government has unlimited power over the individual -- and our free society really will have come to an abrupt and unseemly end.


Illinois: 200 feet below the surface and running out of air

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has proposed a new state budget that sketches out spending of $52.7 billion. The problem: his plan requires borrowing of $8.7 -- 17% of the budget -- to help pay for all of the overdue bills the state owes.

Republican lawmakers said the budget plan is DOA, noting that overall state spending would increase by about $1.7 billion. Chicago's Civic Federation, a budget watchdog group, said the borrowing would cost Illinois about $3.4 billion in additional interest. Even Democrats in the state legislature said were not satisfied with the plan and promised to look for additional places to cut spending.

Quinn also came under fire from human service agencies who say his budget plan would unfairly hurt the poor, sick and elderly [cutting] $1 billion [overall and] $552 million ... the state's Medicaid reimbursement rate...

...The bond offering, now scheduled for next week, will help the state to pay its annual contribution to the state's public pension plans, which are more than 50% underfunded. Notably, Quinn's budget plan doesn't address the state's pension problem, which is one of the worst in the nation.

Even the state's notoriously liberal media outlets have come to realize just how precarious Springfield's position is.

Stop. Your. Borrowing.

In January, Gov. Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats in the state Legislature told all of us we have to surrender an additional $7 billion in income taxes so that deadbeat Illinois can pay its old bills.

Now Quinn and some Democratic lawmakers want this hugely indebted state to borrow $8.75 billion so that … um … deadbeat Illinois can pay its old bills.

...That's the core problem every Illinoisan needs to grasp: With Quinn & Co. in charge, these unsustainable patterns of spending just go on and on. More taxing and borrowing only liberates them from having to restructure how Illinois does business with public employee unions and others who benefit from taxpayer dollars...

...That's right. As with prior borrowing to cover annual payments into the state pension system, the Democrats want to borrow long-term money to pay routine operating costs of state government. By that corrosive tactic, Quinn and Cullerton would dump today's everyday expenses onto tomorrow's taxpayers.

And it gets worse: By the Civic Federation's estimates, taxpayers would pay more than $3.4 billion in interest to retire these 15-year bonds. And the proposal backloads both principal and interest payments: Total debt service would leap upward in 2015 and 2016 — when Quinn's supposedly "temporary" income tax hike is scheduled to vanish.

Not to be callous, but the residents of Illinois are getting precisely what they deserve. They keep electing corrupt, irresponsible hacks to office. Otherwise known as Democrats.


Image adapted from: Chicago Sun-Times.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Suffice it to say that the Union hacks and the Democrats -- but I repeat myself -- aren't math majors #wiunion #solidaritywi

Consider the following data-points as backdrop to the public sector union skulduggery in Wisconsin:

• The national unemployment rate is 10% and the U-6 underemployment rate is 19.6%

In California roughly 200,000 of the 235,000 state employees are unionized. In the last decade, pension payments by the state increased 2,000% with $3 billion paid out in 2009 alone. 15,000 retirees collect at least $100,000 a year. Many are former police officers, firefighters and prison guards who can retire at age 50 with pensions that pay 90% of final year's pay and are indexed for inflation

In Illinois, more than 4,000 retirees receive in excess of $100,000 annually and nearly 15,000 collect more money than they ever did as state employees. The state's pension system is the most underfunded plan in the nation with a $50 billion shortfall

The economy is flat on its back and the states' pension systems are about to collapse.

And the crybabies in Wisconsin are complaining that they'll have to contribute 5.8% of their salaries towards pensions and contribute 12.6% of their health insurance premiums (hint: the national averages for real workers -- real because they're the taxpayers, not the tax-takers -- are 7.5% and 20%, respectively).

Public sector union bosses have completely hosed their members and taxpayers by constructing impossible pension payment schemes. The shortfall will be real, the outrage formidable and the misery significant.

When a company goes bankrupt, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp (PBGC) is intended to step in to cover the shortfall. But the PBGC does not protect state or local retirement plans.

It's high time that public-sector unions were outlawed and all such organizations currently operating disbanded. It's clear that they serve no useful purpose other than soaking taxpayers and their rank-and-file members. It's simple math: it can't last and it will all collapse.


Friday, February 18, 2011

Treasury Secretary Geithner to Senate: "Yes, Obama's Budget Will Cause the United States to Collapse. What Are You Gonna Do About It?"

"What this country needs are more unemployed politicians." -- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

Yesterday's testimony by the Treasury Secretary in the Senate Budget Committee meeting was shocking for two reasons. First: Tim Geithner as much as admitted that his boss's budget sucks. Second, that legacy media didn't report his shocking admission.

That is: Obama's budget sets the United States on a course of complete economic collapse. And, no, I'm not kidding -- though I wish I were.

Sen. Jeff Sessions: "...Under your budget, the interest increases each year. It was $187 billion in 2009, under your proposal it increases to $844 billion."

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: "Senator, absolutely, it is an excessively high interest burden, it’s unsustainable."

Sessions: "Well it’s your plan. That’s the plan the President submitted."

Geithner: "You’re absolutely right that with the president’s plan, even if Congress were to enact it, and even if Congress were to hold to it and reduce those deficits to three percent of GDP over the next five years, we would still be left with a very large interest burden and unsustainable obligations over time."

The question, though, is -- just to be direct about it -- what's the alternative plan? ... We'll be able to see from the House, to see from this body, whether you people can find the political will here to go deeper. And if you can find --

Sessions: "Well, what your plan is, that plan, the one you're required by law to submit, and ... it's not acceptable..."

Let me repeat: Interest payments by the federal government were $187 billion in 2009.

Under the Chavez administration, our annual interest payments alone -- alone! -- will total $844 billion. That interest payment is double the worst total Bush-era deficit.

Now that's what I call change.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

A Bipartisan Approach to Deficit Reduction - a Letter to the Editor

Scott writes:

I just read this at the Wall Street Journal:

Deficit Plan Details Emerge


The first sentence says it all: "A bipartisan group..." With all due respect, why do we need the input of a bunch of irresponsible Democrat losers? When are you people going to learn that compromise with losers equals losing? This proposed agreement is nothing but window dressing, Band-Aids and kicking the can down the road. It solves no problems.

The article also suggests that reforms would generate $785 billion in new revenues over the next 10 years. Excuse me? The government does not need more revenue! Money should be returned to the American people via cuts. Cuts!

Anything that does not start with repealing socialized medicine, de-funding PBS and CPB and killing Amtrak -- just to name few -- is a non-starter. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Labor and Education completely defunded. Oh -- and the United Nations as well.

And since the Department of Justice is stiffing Congressional investigations, how about cutting some of their funding until they comply with Congressional requests for information. If you all need more ideas, please consider "How to Cut $343 Billion from the Federal Budget."

Why can't you all emulate Sen. Rand Paul? At least he has the sense to ask for real cuts. I voted for change last fall, but all I’m getting is business as usual. It looks like nothing has changed.

This is not enough. Don’t compromise. Fight for your constituents. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Play hardball. Be adults for once in your life.

Cue the applause.


Thursday, February 17, 2011

Top 15 Photos From the Wisconsin Hate Rallies You'll Never See in Legacy Media #wiunion #solidaritywi

No captions are necessary. But remember, geniuses like Nancy Pelosi, Charles Blow, Bill Maher and the other drones say all of the hate speech comes from the right.
















I love how these economic illiterates -- that's you liberal drones -- say that they want more of your money. They want more of your private property, which you pay for with the precious, finite hours you spend working.

Attention, drones: there is no money! The Democrats and the public sector union bosses created untenable compensation, pension and benefit packages... and then promptly destroyed them by making them so outrageous that the taxpayers simply can't afford them anymore. And instead of saving up the union members' dues money for tough times -- like these -- they spent all of that money electing Demcorats and funding ever more untenable spending programs. Get it? There's no freaking money!

Democrats have created and bankrupted Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the "Great Society" welfare programs, you name it. Every form of social engineering experiment -- all unconstitutional mind you -- Democrats have tried has resulted in untold misery, poverty and destruction.

And they ignore all of that history and pass Obamacare -- against the will of the people -- with an enormous bill that no one read and fewer understand.

Now they're turning Madison, Wisconsin into Greece -- and, believe you me, the worst is yet to come.


Update: Here's the salary info that Wisconsin's public sector union bosses don't want you to see. Tip: prepare to scroll down a while through the list of $100K+ administrators who work nine months a year and get gold-plated benefits courtesy of the taxpayer.

Update II: Pictorial: Protest Saturday in Wisconsin ("(a) Scott Walker is still Hitler, (b) he’s “exterminating” union members, and (c) Sarah Palin shot someone’s dog.")


Hat tips: Hot Air, FoxNation, WISGOP.org, @brentgohde, @jerryhaines, @millbot, @cassidyjasper. Linked by: Weasel Zippers and Don Surber. Thanks!