...The U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments (click here) will ask for public comment as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams, according to Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry, who are spearheading the effort....
No matter what any GOP member states in regard to 'public pensions' vs '401K' they are funds that are monies for retirement. More than that, the pensions are nothing more than pensions while 401Ks can be used for education, homes or any other purpose with or without penalty.
The reason unions are important for public employees is because 'the state' has incredible power over the individual. Unions bring 'equity' to that power in collective bargaining. In other words, when the State of New Jersey decides to balance their budget with monies PROMISED to public employees at their retirement; the unions stop the hideous politics and hold the state responsible for their promises.
The average public employee does not earn disproportionate retirement monies in their contracts. The reason they have 'State Pensions' is because a state is viewed as a sovereign authority where monies are SAFE for the future regardless of Wall Street Follies.
What Christie is doing is nothing more than any Wall Street millionaire/billionaire seeking to merge companies, destroy unions and rob employees of their pensions. People like Christie are henchmen for Wall Street using Wall Street tactics rather than actually finding solutions that will work for the citizens of their state. Using pension funds to balance a budget is grossly irresponsible when one considers those monies 'at least' guarantee 'a segment' of the 'future economy' to 'stabilize' what one can expect for a solvency 'within' the economy REGARDLESS of what happens 'in between.'
Destroying 'the promise' of public pensions results in an instability in the future economies of the USA and globally. Retirees spend monies regularly and in ways that support 'a service' economy resulting from tourism. The same dynamic is true of Social Security and Medicare. They are monetary expenditures that have a stabilizing effect on any other economic turbulence.
To 'mess with' any entitlements will result in greater instability in global, national, state and local economies. One that runs for Governor should understand EXACTLY what is going to happen in the future when 'honesty, promises and retirement plans' are undercut because it is a convenience to balance a budget. It is a 'populous' thing to do UNLESS one is a public employee.
Cutting public employee pensions will NOT lower taxes. It just won't. It will 'temporarily' relief a budget crunch long enough for a Governor to collect his salary and otherwise, but, in five to ten years from now, there will be people retiring without sufficient income, facing circumstances that will further impoverish the USA and future cause the country to SINK into greater debt and NOT LESS.
Pensions, 401Ks are all 'invested monies' GUARANTEED to support the economy through troubled times to 'buoy' the 'status quo' 'enough' to provide a platform for 're-establishment' of the economy.
The ranting of the GOP about public employee pensions is just more rhetoric for their policial base and nothing more. The gross inequity in realizing what the GOP is willing to do to public pensions but unwilling to monitor and stabilize 401Ks is a CLEAR demonstration of how 'rhetoric' provides for grossly unbalanced REALITY.
Leave public pensions, Social Security and Medicare ALONE !!!!
Stop going to war.
Gov. Christie's first year: Pension woes loom as top 2011 issue in NJ (click here)
TRENTON — Judging simply by dollar figures involved, the state's woefully underfunded pension and health benefits system appeared to be the largest looming issue heading into 2010....
