Posted on 02/19/2015 12:33:26 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
What a load of bullsh*t.
Not so crazy about that pen and phone when the shoe is on the other foot.
Communists Raus!
Lawmakers promised more and more benefits to retired teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other government workers over the past decade; meanwhile, the pool of money to pay these pledges was neglected. The estimated shortfall of nearly $100 billion between now and 2045 is, believe it or not, a rosy scenario, given that a) it assumes robust investment returns and b) doesn’t include local pension disasters, like the estimated $20 billion hole in the City of Chicago system.
Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel both urged the legislature to tackle the crisis during last year’s session. “The day of reckoning has arrived,” Emanuel warned. All sorts of repairs were floated: raising the retirement age for public employees, increasing employee contributions, freezing cost-of-living increases, shifting younger workers into 401-(k) style savings. Quinn even proposed that responsibility for teacher retirement plans should be shifted to local school boards. You can guess what the locals thought about that......
....The Pew Center on the States, which tracks the pension funding problem nationwide, says Illinois now faces the worst mess in the country, with less than half of its pension obligations currently covered. But other states are suffering from symptoms of the same disease. According to Pew, 34 states were short in 2010 of the recommended 80-percent funding level considered safe for pension systems. (That is the most recent year for which data is available; defenders of public pensions argue that 2010 figures exaggerate the problem because they collected near the bottom of the bad economy.) In all, Pew estimates the total shortfall in state pensions to be $1.38 trillion."............
Jan 2013: Why Illinois is Going Bankrupt
The writer asserts that cutting the government is “Orwellian”. How Orwellian of him.
What do we expect from socialists?
I think the writer believes “irony” means something tastes like iron.
It's merely an attack on heavily-entrenched union bullies who are squeezing non-members for "pseudo dues" against their will.
Legalizing such ridiculous systems is inherently corrupt.
It's unbelievable to me what these collectivist authoritarians think they are entitled to. And Salon wants to pretend this as an attack on workers?
It's an attack on workers' FREEDOM!
Every state should be right-to-work...
The readers of Salon are batscat crazy as evidenced by the comments. I am speechless at the vitriolic idiocy of their readers.
I have noticed a big uptick in these chicken little stories from libs since the election. While I enjoy their suffering, these stories make tiresome reading.
The Governor apparently realizes money is fungible. The money freed by the fees can and will go to support political activities, so, indirectly, the fees make that support possible.
The other cuts hit all the Liberal Sacred Cows, so no wonder they're having fits.
When North Dakota's budget contracted, Governor Ed Schafer placed the onus on State agencies to finish their year 5% under budget, and return that money to the general fund. By those incremenatal means, budgets were reduced across the board in the State, keeping the State out of debt.
What was decried by some as 'draconian' then, proved to be tremendous foresight, and kept the state fiscally healthier.
“Hardest hit would be health care for poor people, higher education, and mass transit.”
World to end tomorrow! Poor people hardest hit!
Being among Rauner’s harshest critics, I give him credit where credit’s due’
Never mistake Rauner for a conservative though. He’s still very much on my watch list.
Always a good idea.
I don't live in Chicago, why should I give a rat's a$$.
Curious that the background in this club scene shows no women.
If only the Republican US Congress would use its power of the purse to eliminate wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars going to progressive non-profits and public interest groups and from there being recycled into Democrat campaign coffers. Defund the grants, studies, consulting contracts, and subsidies to Planned Parenthood, environmental groups, foundations, education advocacy organizations, etc.
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