Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,859
"A subcommittee of the US House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform held a hearing February 9 to prepare the way for attacks on the pension benefits of millions of state and municipal workers across the United States.
The hearing, titled “State and Municipal Debt: the Coming Crisis?” was held the same day as the introduction of a bill by Rep. Devin Nunes, Republican of California, to prohibit bailouts of states by the federal government.
The House’s Subcommittee on TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), Financial Services & Bailouts of Public and Private Programs questioned a panel of four experts about the potential effects on bond markets of state bankruptcies. But during the first hour of testimony the committee focused its attention on unfunded liabilities in the pension plans of millions of teachers, firefighters, transportation workers and other public employees.
The problem of state budget deficits—estimated to total between $125 billion and $140 billion and exacerbated by the ongoing economic crisis—is very real (See “US state budget deficits could top $140 billion”). However, in his opening remarks to the subcommittee, Chairman Patrick McHenry (Republican, North Carolina) ruled out any new revenues for states and blamed the problem on a “fiscal straitjacket caused primarily by … lucrative public sector union pension and health care benefits.”
These benefits, according to McHenry, will cause people to realize “in the end … that their government has actively hurt them.” This statement ignores the obvious: public sector workers and their hard-won benefits are being been demonized while Wall Street has received untold billions in bailouts from the federal government.
Testimony before the subcommittee established that, depending on the rate of return of invested pension assets, the average percentage of state and municipal budgets devoted to pensions is between 3.8 and 5 percent. To McHenry, this allocation of resources to a basic social right constitutes “reckless spending.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/stat-f15.shtml
see also "US state budget deficits could top $140 billion" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/stat-j24.shtml
Comrade Stalin
The hearing, titled “State and Municipal Debt: the Coming Crisis?” was held the same day as the introduction of a bill by Rep. Devin Nunes, Republican of California, to prohibit bailouts of states by the federal government.
The House’s Subcommittee on TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), Financial Services & Bailouts of Public and Private Programs questioned a panel of four experts about the potential effects on bond markets of state bankruptcies. But during the first hour of testimony the committee focused its attention on unfunded liabilities in the pension plans of millions of teachers, firefighters, transportation workers and other public employees.
The problem of state budget deficits—estimated to total between $125 billion and $140 billion and exacerbated by the ongoing economic crisis—is very real (See “US state budget deficits could top $140 billion”). However, in his opening remarks to the subcommittee, Chairman Patrick McHenry (Republican, North Carolina) ruled out any new revenues for states and blamed the problem on a “fiscal straitjacket caused primarily by … lucrative public sector union pension and health care benefits.”
These benefits, according to McHenry, will cause people to realize “in the end … that their government has actively hurt them.” This statement ignores the obvious: public sector workers and their hard-won benefits are being been demonized while Wall Street has received untold billions in bailouts from the federal government.
Testimony before the subcommittee established that, depending on the rate of return of invested pension assets, the average percentage of state and municipal budgets devoted to pensions is between 3.8 and 5 percent. To McHenry, this allocation of resources to a basic social right constitutes “reckless spending.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/stat-f15.shtml
see also "US state budget deficits could top $140 billion" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/stat-j24.shtml
Comrade Stalin