Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Hold On To Your Wallets!!

Many people have been worried that Scott Walker and the rest of his republican "yes" men in the Senate and Assembly have had the long term goal of dipping into your pension. Tommy Thompson tried and was rebuked. Thanks to keeping the incredibly incompetent Tommy Thompson out of it, Wisconsin's pension system is one of the strongest there is in the country.

 Now Governor Walker's state budget has authorized a study of the Wisconsin Retirement System, and many believe this is the first step toward efforts to undermine the system. One would think this would just be a typical republican waste of taxpayer money, but in reality its the first step in Governor Walker being able to dip into your pension.

 As I have often said the best way to figure out what the republicans are up to is to actually listen and watch them. In a recent "Joy Cardin Show" discussion, a nameless shrill from the extremist right wing group Heritage Foundation, was on arguing that we need to move the Wisconsin Retirement System to a 401(k) system. Luckily, WEAC vice president Betsy Kippers was there to set the record straight(teachers are always teaching).
The Wisconsin Retirement System is financially strong, working well and does not need to be "fixed," WEAC Vice President Betsy Kippers said Thursday on a Wisconsin Public Radio program. “The Wisconsin Retirement System is very strong and healthy because it’s very flexible, it’s complex and it has many checks and balances,” Kippers said.

Kippers was one of two guests on the Joy Cardin morning program, countering arguments made by Jason Richwine of the conservative Heritage Foundation, who argued in favor of coverting the WRS from a pension system to a 401(k) system. Defined benefit pension plans provide delayed compensation with benefits paid out in the form of monthly retirement benefits, or annuities, for life. A defined contribution plan such as a 401(k) shifts the responsibility for investment decisions to the individual, essentially privatizing the system and eliminating guaranteed benefits.

Kippers noted that few people are qualified to successfully manage those 401(k) investments. She said the state retirement system is successful because it is professionally managed and has built-in protections for both annuitants and taxpayers. If the fund does not meet its investment targets, the loss is shared among the 570,000 annuitants, not taxpayers, she said.

Also, she said, state and local employees have sacrificed salary increases for many years in exchange for contributions to the WRS. Kippers said efforts to change the system are part of a national conservative agenda. However, she said, the Wisconsin Retirement System is very strong unlike systems in some other states.


“It’s not broken. It doesn’t need fixing,” she said.
Full show here:

Finally there are other clues that it it does not take Velma Dinkley to pick up on. The first, and most convincing clue, is Scott Walker says he does not want to touch the pensions.

 The second is, almost on cue, the right wing propagandists(and poorly named) Wisconsin Reporter is out with a news hit/propaganda piece pointing out that despite everything you hear, the pension system is not that strong.

The only surprise here is that fantasy writer Christian Schneider has not written a fiction/propaganda piece yet about the imminent collapse of the pension fund. For those of you who think that Scott Walker has no intentions of dipping into your pensions let this serve as a warning.

We have watched Scott Walker way to long, so we understand that only does he want to, he has a plan to do so. He has already fired the first couple shots, sit back and watch and you will see. The biggest weapon he will have though, in accessing your pensiosn,  is a republican assembly and senate in November.

If we give him that, count on a fast track plan to not only drum up a "pensions are in fiscal crisis" crisis, followed shortly after by a plan to reform(and profit immensely from) the plan to save the pensions.

Only YOU can prevent that!

3 comments:

  1. Any news on when this asswipe criminal is going to be indicted?

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  2. Anyone else been complaining to WPR about the Faux News format (from out of the closet professed, conservative Merens, and time for a replacement, Cardin) of bringing on extremest right-wing shills as a supposed fair and balanced alternative to simply discovering facts and reporting facts. I don't need to hear the lies and distortions as some kind of supposed discussion equivalence, being passed off as "educating the public."

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  3. It would be nice to see another Tom Clark back in Cardin's slot. Ol' TC wasn't afraid to call out the average disingenuous conservative and hand him his head. Cardin soft-pedals shamelessly on the rare occasions when her program is something of substance rather than the increasingly-frequent, artsy/craftsy fluff stuff.

    ReplyDelete