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MD: Ok, I have another idea. And I particularly like this one because it involves sticking it to public employee unions. It’s long, but stick with me.

First, think about Social Security(SS). We all know it’s a Ponzi Scheme. The pols spend our FICA money as fast as it rolls in. What doesn’t go to benefits they spend on the general fund. They put IOU’s in the SS “fund”...promising a future congress will pay us back. There is not one dime in the “fund”. (For discussion purposes, I may refer to SS as our “pensions”.)

Now, think about all those public employee pensions out there at the state and local levels. Yes, they’re underfunded. But they DO have FUNDS in them...TRILLIONS of $$$! I.e., the governments don’t treat public employees’ pensions like they do ours. Theirs are “off budget” and funded.
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In short:
Government “gave” us a “pension fund” with nothing but IOUs in it.
BUT
Government taxes US to give THEMSELVES pensions funds with $Trillions in them.
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I propose that we confiscate those trillions sitting out there in public pension funds.

We’ll give them IOU’s -— just like the ones THEY put in our SS accounts. Their IOU’s cannot be redeemed any faster than the rate at which Congress repays SS. And, like Congress has power to cut our benefits and change retirement ages, we will take back the power to set the same for public employees. First action would be to modify those overly generous pensions to something more resembling ours. Retirement age: 65. No annual pension can be higher than average salaries in the private sector. Most would look more like SS. No health care for life...welcome to Medicare. No exempting pensions from taxes unless the same exemption applies to SS recipients and private pension payments. We’ll “give” them 401k’s just like the gov’t gave us, but none of those rip-off provisions that promise them EIGHT AND HALF PERCENT returns!

Can you imagine the backlash?! (Maybe a war)
They will say, “Hey, we CONTRIBUTED out of our paychecks”.
We can say “SO DID WE! Ever heard of FICA?!”.
They’ll say “It’s not fair, we were promised those benefits”.
We will quote Obama: “Everyone has to pitch in”.
They will say, “The state constitution guarantees our benefits”.
We will change the constitution.

In other words, their bellyaching will fall on my deaf ears. I mean, how can they complain that it’s not fair to put IOUs in one’s retirement account? Really?!

I know. It’s a pipe dream. It would take some kind of voter initiative revolution to accomplish it. But I can dream. Just thinking about it brought a smile to my face.

[One last thought. This reminds me of the Dems’ trial balloon last Fall where they would confiscate our 401k’s and put them in the SS fund (for our good, of course!). They said they could do it because it was government that authorized the accounts to begin with, therefore government could take them away. Wouldn’t it be fun to turn the tables on them and their enablers in the public unions?! “Hey, we PAID for those pensions. Now we’re taking them back!”. I’d love to see it.]