For years another potential multibillion fiscal catastrophe has been brewing, obscured by higher-profile storms created by taxpayer bailouts of Detroit and Wall Street and the looming crash of underfunded public employee pension plans.
For the first time, taxpayers may become responsible for the nongovernmental pension liabilities of union collective bargaining contracts in construction, trucking and other industries in which workers move from one employer to another. Some estimate that these multiemployer pensions are $165 billion short of committed obligations for paying retirees' defined benefits.
It's not a new problem, but it has been under the radar for years as it's worsened. In 2004, the libertarian Cato Institute's Richard A. Ippolito warned that underfunded private-sector pension funds increased the likelihood of a taxpayer bailout.
A bill in Washington would put taxpayers on the hook for multiemployer plan obligations backed by the PBGC, which so far has been financed only by insurance premiums, investment income and pension plan assets. How much tax support will be required is in dispute. We fear the total also will be open to negotiation and union pressure.
#1
That's easy enough - just say "NO". If unions cannot be responsible enough to look after their pension plans, then they don't need to exist. Hold them accountable, and treat them as criminals until proven otherwise. I have no desire to pay someone else's exorbitant pension receipts. The UNION made the promises, so the UNION should make good. If that means some union employees don't get a pay raise, or get a reduced retirement themselves, so be it. The government (I.E. the people - you and I) isn't responsible for the behavior of others. We're also not responsible for their broken promises, or too elaborate promises. Just say NO.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/23/2010 17:14 Comments ||
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#2
That's easy enough - just say "NO"
Well, YOU may say no, but Obama and the Democrats are saying "Yes, we can".
#3
How about if everyone gets a vote in union elections like the general election then? Something about taxation without representation. Think the union leadership would be open to that? /rhet question
Few Americans consider themselves bigger than the presidency but Obama might be one of them. The man in the Oval Office, argues Toby Harnden, may already be preparing for a role as a post-president in a post-American world.
#10
He succeeded in putting that same half in the White House too, DMFD. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/23/2010 18:34 Comments ||
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#11
"Does Barack Obama want to be re-elected elections to be held in 2012, or can he figure out how to cancel the elections and declare himself emperor?"
Fixed the headline for ya', tipper. No charge. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/23/2010 18:49 Comments ||
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#12
World Emperor of the UN. Being POTUS is far too much work and not enuf travel. The Hildebeast will be our next democratic candidate.
#14
It would be a good gig if it weren't for all the troublesome plebeians in fly-over land and it allowed more time for golf. BHO thought the swearing in meant deification not work.
#2
Gimme a break. I see rantbuggers can't take a joke and need testicar ball retrieval Surgery just like the stultified group of New York libcommicreampuffs.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2010 16:32 Comments ||
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#5
Its reciprocity, with bacon bits added. I've seen other far worse commentary on here, even today, for instance that was safe. Housewifey moderators can't keep it consistent. Keep pan handling for funds biotches.
#6
I left my testicles in Cincinnati, dear Mr. Highefficiency. Last I heard, they were taking a 3rd degree black belt test, which keeps them busy and out of trouble when I'm away. I don't think they'd appreciate your suggestion of surgery, though -- they had enough of that when they were doing cancer research using mice back in their youth.
And no, jokes don't always fly as intended. This does not necessarily mean it's the audience that lacks a proper sense of humour. Sometimes it just means they lack enough beer.
#7
Oh, and that salmon moderator? That's Steve White, physician extraordinaire, who is nothing at all like a housewife. I'm the housewife; when I moderate I wear periwinkle. It's a kind of purple flower, if you're into knowing such things.
As for the sinktrap: if we were really annoyed with you, you'd be banished to Roadside America until you grasped the idea that Rantburg is Fred's private living room. Do stop fussing over a light slap on the wrist.
#9
Sleque, outside, irrelevant--some people are just born that way and there is not much they can do about it. Inside is what counts. MO more than fugly there.
Awami National Party (ANP) provincial leader Ubaidullah Yousafzai along with Saleem Akhtar, a cashier at PIA, was shot dead last week, which resulted in yet another chain reaction because of which more than a dozen people have lost their life and numerous vehicles have been burned. Daily Times on August 14, 2010 "Conspiracy to destabilise Karachi" was the first publication in Pakistan to have predicted and warned of such an assassination of the second-tier leadership of the ANP, MQM, PPP and the Sunni Tehreek citing multiple intelligence sources and investigations by Qari Zafar-led Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has recently been hired by al Qaeda in North Waziristan to do their "dirty work". Astonishingly, the ANP leader was targeted at a "high-security zone" by two armed motorcyclists. An intelligence officer who had followed the lead revelled, "Al Qaeda wants to create a Beirut out of Karachi and create such a situation where, somehow the armed forces are bogged down in Karachi, further stretching the army".
"We don't have a clue about what's happening" a senior policeman said. "There's no intelligence sharing with us," he said. Daily Times investigations could reveal that the same hitmen who assassinated MQM's legislator, Raza Haider, killed ANP's Ubaidullah Yousafzai. Both the MQM and the ANP had become the boldest opponents of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan. The statement of Shahi Syed, the controversial leader of the ANP Sindh chapter about, "calling of army to Karachi" transformed into "we will not blame anyone" and "that extremists" are responsible for the killing pointing towards the Taliban came only when a certain agency briefed the central leadership of ANP to "calm things down in Karachi" and "not blame anyone". Obviously, the army is reluctant to come into the urban areas and open new fronts as it's already been stretched out.
The intelligence agencies are now chalking out a strategy to deal with the current situation in Karachi in absence of the provincial government's writ in Sindh's capital. Interestingly, one of the two persons arrested by the Karachi Police is of Burmese origin, which confirms LeJ's involvement, as LeJ had previously used another Burmese national to assassinate Imam Turabi in Karachi. As a former Western intelligence officer who had previously worked in Pakistan told Daily Times, "Karachi's situation is now controlled by people in North Waziristan as they now have the remote control, and unfortunately we will see them clicking the buttons in the near future -- there's no stopping it".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Democracy third world style---one man, one bullet.
#4
We're definitely all descended from africans at least, Punky.
That article is trash. The chain of custody on the DNA evidence is laughable - it was pulled by dumpster-diving genetic material from a *great-nephew*. Isn't there any live dna from somebody's relic somewhere - a hair, or a blood sample from one of his physicians?
Why's the Daily Mail suddenly interested in ol' Schicklgruber all of a sudden, anyways?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/23/2010 14:03 Comments ||
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#5
Why's the Daily Mail suddenly interested in ol' Schicklgruber all of a sudden, anyways?
#7
IIRC MSM-NET > Scientists had claimed that the true GARDEN OF EDEN was actually in AFRICA, in or around MALAWI/MALI REGION where MADONNA + BRADGELINA, etc. had adopted some of their Kiddies.
#8
Hardly the Garden of Eden. More likely a post Toba Catastrophe remnant population who survived on fish from the Rift Valley lakes, when 99% of large mammals died in a 'volcanic winter'.
...One of my husbands friendshated Bush, loved Obama and defended him vociferously for the first year, less passionately the secondtold him over lunch this week that hes done with Obama and I never thought Id say this but I miss Bush. We knew that he said what he meant, even if we didnt want to hear it. We knew who he was, even if we didnt like him. And we never had to wonder whether he liked us. He always did.
And that is it, in a nutshell. Bush is missable, because we miss having a president whose affection for his country and its peopleeven the ones who hated himwas never in doubt.
We miss Bush because he never lectured us or harangued us, and when people disagreed with him, they were not immediately called names in an attempt to simply shut up debate.
Were President Bush faced with this precise Cordoba Group situation during his presidency, I have no idea what his response to it would have been. It is conceivable that he would have made a point of encouraging his citizenry to look at the proposed construction as a great reflection of Americas steadfast commitment to liberty. Had he done so, he likely would have faced opposition from his base, and from the center, and quite possibly from the very folks on the left who are now pining for him because recall that during his presidency, nothing coming form the mouth of Bush was permitted to be deemed credible, reasonable or intelligent.
I am absolutely certain however that in the face of angry, hurt opposition President Bush would not have permitted or encouraged his party to charge 60% of the nation with bigotry and xenophobia, because Bush never hated his opponents, and he never believed the worst of his countrymen; he believed the best....
It is a much better message for a president to send to his people than, Dont be evil. Like you usually are.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/23/2010 07:49 ||
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#1
And George Bush does not embarrass us with goofy opinions as an ex-president. He is a Class Act.
Hollywood director James Cameron challenged three high profile global warming skeptics to a public debate at a global warming and energy conference. But Cameron backed out of the debate at the last minute after environmentalists "came out of the woodwork" to warn him not to engage in a debate with skeptics because it was not in his best interest. Whose best interest -- Cameron's or that of the movement?
Cameron challenged Andrew Breitbart, Climate Depot's Marc Morano and filmmaker Ann McElhinney of 'Not Evil Just Wrong.' That's sending a cub scout against the SEALs ...
The debate was already in the program for the Aspen American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) summit. The website program described the agreed to debate as "AREDAY Climate Change Debate: Reality or Fiction?"
After setting up the public global warming debate, Cameron and his negotiator then changed formats multiple times and initially said it would be open to the media and then said he would only participate if it was private with no recording devices. The skeptics agreed to all the changes. Throw us into the briar patch, James!
According to AREDAY organizers, activist Joseph Romm of Climate Progress urged Cameron not to go ahead with the debate as well. "Are you nuts!?? Those guys will eat you alive!!"
Cameron's cancellation of the agreed to debate did not happen until one debate participant (Morano) was already in mid-air, flying from DC to Aspen on Saturday August 21 to attend the debate. (AREDAY did grant Morano a 90 minute slot to speak at the summit.)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Elizabeth Scalia ("The Anchoress") @ First Things
Hollywood director James Cameron challenged three high profile global warming skeptics to a public debate at a global warming and energy conference. But Cameron backed out of the debate at the last minute after environmentalists "came out of the woodwork" to warn him not to engage in a debate with skeptics because it was not in his best interest.
