Senator
“Herb” Kohl is the senior senator from the state of Wisconsin. He’s a
democrat. He was first elected to office way back in 1988. Twenty-two
years in the senate comes with some important responsibilities. The good
senator is on the Appropriations, Judiciary, and Banking Committees. He
is the Chairman of both the Special Committee on Aging and the
Agricultural Appropriations Committee.
Bottom line; Herb Kohl has clout in D.C. He is one of
America’s elder statesmen. So when he asks for a favor it’s very hard to
say “no”. I wonder what Tim Geithner is going to do with Herb’s recent
letter asking for a change in the rules for retirement ages for cops and
fireman from the great state of Wisconsin and every other state in the
Union. Here’s what Senator Kohl is asking for:
I ask
that you amend the regulations to make clear that the public safety
employees safe harbor apply to WRS protective occupation participants.
These participants put their lives on the line every day to protect our
citizens and they deserve to retire with full benefits at the ages of 53 and 54.
I’ve got nothing against cops and I’ve always liked fireman. It’s not
that I don’t think this group of people shouldn’t get a leg up. But at
whose expense? What about those nurses, EMT folks, and ER Docs? What
about everyone else?
The country is about to increase the Social Security retirement age and
push back eligibility for Medicare to 67. And Kohl wants to cut the cops
a sweetheart deal where they can retire with full benefits 12 years
before anyone else.
We have two classes of workers in the USA; those that work for
government and those in the private sector. There are two different sets
of rules. The differences are in the number of holidays, benefits (far
superior health care), job security and retirement benefits. Senator
Kohl’s proposal makes the gap even larger.
Senator Kohl needs to understand that America is not the rich country
that it once was. Our states, cities and municipalities simply can no
longer afford the largess proposed by Kohl. The rules that he suggests
are fair and reasonable actually aren’t fair or reasonable at all.
Senator Kohl is not blind. Nor is he uninformed. He must know that a
suggestion like this is going to be received very badly by the folks who
have to pay for it. That said, watch out for this one. Kohl’s clout makes even this proposal a possibility.
It’s an even money bet that this will happen. Special interest politics
is the way of the land these days. But here’s my bet for the Senator: Those cops and fireman who will get this benefit will never see those checks.
The government promises they are relying on will be broken at some
point in the future. America does not have the resources to make these
promises anymore. We will go broke because so many of these special
interest promises have been made.
We can hope and even expect that our political leaders will do the
“right thing” in these difficult times. There is a broad awareness that
everyone is going to have to do a bit more and get a bit less in the New America.
But that does not seem to be the case with this Senator. He is working
against the best interests of the country. In the end, those that he is
trying to curry favor from will be the losers. I suspect the Senator
knows this. He doesn’t care.
The full letter from Senator Kohl to Tim Geithner:
Secretary
United States Department of Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20220
purpose of this letter is to express my concern regarding the impact
of certain Treasury regulations on the normal retirement age (“NRA”) of
protective occupation participants, including police officers and fire
fighters, in the Wisconsin Retirement System (“WRS”). I ask that you
modify your regulations to ensure that these public safety employees
can maintain their current NRA under the WRS.
2007, the Treasury Department issued final regulations on NRA in
pension plans (the “NRA Regulations”)(1.401(a)-1(b)). NRA is a term
referring to the earliest age at which a pension plan participant can
retire with an unreduced benefit from their plan.
general, the NRA Regulations provide that, “normal retirement age
under a plan must be an age that is not earlier than the earliest age
that is reasonably representative of the typical retirement age for the
industry in which the covered workforce is employed.” The regulations
go on to provide that a NRA of 62 or older would meet this requirement.
However, whether an NRA of ages 55 to 62 meets the general rule would
be based on all of the relevant facts and circumstances - and an NRA
that is less than 55 years is presumed to be unreasonable (unless
determined otherwise by the IRS Commissioner).
the WRS, all state employees are in the same plan. General employees
constitute about 90.7 percent of the plan's active participants - and
protective occupation participants make up about 8.7 percent.
Protective occupation participants under the WRS include those
employees whose principal duties involve active law enforcement or
active fire suppression or prevention, frequent exposure to a high
degree of danger or peril and a high degree of physical conditioning.
Protective occupation participants include police officers and fire
fighters.
NRA for general employees under the WRS is age 65. However, the NRA
age for protective occupation participants in the WRS is age 53 with 25
years of service or age 54 with less than 25 years of service.
the NRA for WRS protective occupation participants is less than 55
years, under the NRA Regulations, there would be a negative presumption
that the age is unreasonable. And if the NRA is deemed unreasonable,
the age may need to be raised to comply with the regulations.
public safety employees in other state pension plans avoid this result
through the public safety employees safe harbor in the NRA
Regulations. Under the safe harbor, a NRA under a plan that is age 50 or
later would meet the requirements of the regulations if substantially
all of the participants in the plan are qualified public safety
employees. However, even though WRS protected occupation participants
are qualified public safety employees, this safe harbor may not apply to
them. This is because they participate in the same plan as general
employees and do not constitute a majority of the total active
membership. Therefore, protective occupation participants within WRS may
not meet the “substantially all” requirement of the safe harbor.
ask that you amend the regulations to make clear that the public
safety employees safe harbor apply to WRS protective occupation
participants. These participants put their lives on the line every day
to protect our citizens and they deserve to retire with full benefits at
the ages of 53 and 54. Furthermore, these participants were promised
these benefits and relied on these promises. Therefore, it's unjust to
cut their benefits after the fact.
Chairman
J. Mark Iwry, Senior Adviser to the Secretary, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Retirement and Health Policy, United States Department of
Treasury
You of course realize that many will never, ever acknowledge this simple truth. Right?
Well stated, regardless.
So, the professions that have the most risk of personal harm get the axe, while fag-street bankers who add absolutely nothing but speculation with no risk of harm whatsoever get record bonuses?
It is YOU Bruce Krasting with the double standard. Pull your head out of your ass and seek real perspective. The reason we are broke are sweetheart deals around $787 BILLION which you supported!
It is this skewed shit-on-the-little-people garbage that you spew that utterly destroys your credibility. What's good for the goose isn't good for the gander in your valhalla.
You may have a little fan club on ZH but it is trash like this that affirms your ungrateful true colors (with a bullshit cheap disclaimer) and minimal, speculative understanding of these professions while trying to be penny wise and pound fucking foolish.
How many trillions/generations has been thrown down the drain supporting you wanker fuaud fucks?
Do us a favor and go back to hard hitting investigations, not how you can rob the "poor" of their dignity.
I hope you fall off your high horse before you're picked off.
I'm no apoligist for the finacial sector. Here is my blog site. I crap on everyone.
Bkrasting@blogspot.com
I'm too old to give a shit about the outcome of this. But I tell you that you are wrong. The cops and fireman and teachers and nurses and maybe you will be the losers here. Promises are being made that simply can't be kept. I'm telling you that the folks like Kohl are lying to you. You may not like me. Fair enough. But if you support guys like Kohl on this you are backing the wrong horse. He may win some votes for this crap, but it is certain to end badly.
Bruce, you are "no apoligist for the finacial sector" but you do think that raising taxes so that people like Kohl have more money to give to their captive voters like policemen and firemen is part of the solution. Even worse, you do think that the IRS should tighten the screws even more in order to get those "tax cheats".
"I crap on everyone."
That's MY stance! :-)
"I'm telling you that the folks like Kohl are lying to you."
No, say it ain't so! :-) Humans, like other creatures of nature, operate through deception. What's that old saying? "How can you tell whether a politician is lying? When he/she is moving their lips!"
You are arguing against a point that Bruce did not make. Where in this piece did he defend the bonuses or conduct of the banking class?
It is required on this site that no matter the topic at hand, banker bonuses must be roundly rebuked in at least one out of every three posts......and PMs (only in physical form) exalted as the only way to make a buck. These post quotas have been in place for some time.
I may support these positions (e.g., own my share of PM), but the redundancy of the posts makes this site less relevant -- except maybe as a minor market sentiment gauge to trade off of (e.g., the level of giddiness when silver rallies may provide traders some insight).
The site could provide a forum for more thoughful debate on financial and political matters, but I understand site hits may go down (which is not good for business). So more red meat for banker bonus / physical PM mob.
Just saying on how I think the site could improve.
Sadly, I think that you're mostly right in your observations...
I pop open these articles just to measure whether people are starting to get it. No. Still folks all primed/pumped over stupid party politics: yeah, throw the bums out (and put in OUR bums), or it's ALL the problem of the govt and if it were gone the corporate world would become saints...
NOTE: I fucking get it that old, entrenched politicians SUCK (big time). But... I hardly see anyone saying the same of GOPers, which leads me to believe that most attacks are party-based. I don't vote, so don't blame me for the fuck-ups.
Bruce is in the financial sector, he has supported TARP and been a general advocate for the financial sector. I'll say it again, the financial sector (which adds no REAL value to the economy) has become a cancer that the rest of the sectors of the economy can no longer support.
Hedge accordingly.
Previous articles, Chunky. Bruce supported TARP, and all the bullshit behind the crooked business... or should I say, "a skunk never smells his own stench."
In banking its about looking the other way - which is obvious in the above.
"this skewed shit-on-the-little-people garbage "
Widowmaker, I'll give you some credit for sympathy but the little people are the ones being squeezed by higher taxes. Not just property taxes but income taxes, fees and the insidious tax of inflation which is the most regressive tax of all. The more we favor a special interest and transfer our nation's income to that group, the more we have to "shit-on-the -little-people".
Bruce is all about feeding the rich to shit on the poor. Make no mistake about the ungrateful.
Taxes are a rabbit trail (diversion) when dealing with deficit spending. Bruce's nonsense was about the giveaways, hence the stench of his poor judgement and rotten double standards and bias towards the fraud business through the same giveaways an order of magnitude greater.
No one elects politicians, they are placed.
Another prime example of why long term pols need to be fired at the next available opportunity.
But no, the states/districts keep bringing them back, thinking big daddy will bring home more bacon.
By the time these uninformed, selfish, voters realize there's no more bacon left, it will be too late.
On this front, give Wisco a break, man. We got rid of the uber-duche Feingold last time around. You don't think that has scare ol' Kohl into trying to buy more votes for his next re-elect effort??
Yeah, that Feingold bastard, just imagine the nerve of him voting against the USA PATRIOT ACT!
Apparently you folks in Wisconsin love oppression.
hey officer, you got your check right? now go get those home grown terrorists off my lawn, you gotta eat next week too, so make sure some of them have bad accidents.
More proof that the old man is corrupt. Nice maneuver though, Federal regulation requiring the State to pay more for less. It does seem outside the purview of the Feds as labor law regarding the individual States is still under the State's authority when concerning State employees.
Slightly off topic but indirectly relevant...
In Canada, Saskatchewan Teachers are asking for a 12% annual increase.
http://www.labour-reporter.com/ArticleView.aspx?l=1&articleid=10096
It's as if public unions are begging to have their pension plans crushed.
They know that the obligations will not be met, so they are trying to get everything they can up front. makes sense to me. However, if we all did this (plumbers, electricians, teachers, whatever) and demanded more for our services/products, it will certainly fuel more of that inflation the chair satan is looking for.
Do you think we should be teaching that "social value" in school?
Wow, now that is one big can of worms that you are about to open. What I will say is I have been very disappointed by the disappearance of vocational education and the general failure of schools (both public and private) to teach the value of truly understanding the importance of and value of different disciplines (in the physical sciences especially). Basically in the real world (in my case this is Biotech) my fermentation engineers need to understand and respect the microbiologists and plant virologists and they all need to understand the business side. Basically, what are our input costs compared to what are products sell for.
All schools are teaching students that they are all "winners" and only their area of expertise matters. Bullshit, there are winners and there are losers and you had better respect and understand other professions, otherwise you and your team will not be competitive.
One thing I wish more kids were required to understand is physics and thermodynamics. It takes energy to do everything, period. The bottom line for me is simple, once the energy input costs get too high, I shut down my operation, period.
We HAVE vocational education. No, not in the old sense (trades), but in the new one- shit that requires "higher" education, like bio-tech...
Educational institutions are handmaidens to big corporations, who "endow/fund" "research" projects (that tend to support corporate claims/"science"). The educational instututions bilk money from everywhere and then plaec these funds in "investment" funds, which, in most cases likely circle back to the original corporate funders.
It was all going to come to this point. It's consolidation. It's centralization (brought about by concentration of power- concentration of capital). Only those who have just fallen off the turnip truck don't get this...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We're in the US. We don't teach labor history here.
You must be in one of them red states where they still teach useful things. Here in Wisconsin, our little brainwash targets are only indoctrinated with tales of the evil rich, fables of the glory the teacher's union, the importance of Earth Day, and the ever-valuable lesson: "Why everyone should be taxed but me".
The education system is more focused on teaching the 3 R's -- racism, recycling and reproduction. Oh, and self esteem. And "you can do whatever you dream." And everyone is well above average.
Sadly these poor kids don't really know how much more it will take than just a dream. Way too many will have no skills that will allow them to compete in the world market - to produce what will actually sell in the marketplace. But hopefully they will feel good about themselves.
"tales of the evil rich"
Tales? Have you looked outside your myopic world to see that This is exactly what is happening? Banksters, union mobsters... Oh, yeah, they're poor benevolent folks...
Only in the US can folks making millions a year tell those making $40k/yr that those earning $20k/yr are their oppressors.
Right. And poor are that through no fault of their own. I can generalize about a group just as well as you.
I would agree that many (all?) career politicians are worthless at best. I agree that some of the executives of large corporations are not beneficial to anyone but themselves. But to characterize anyone who earns more than you as the cause for your plight (and please spare me the "rich I am talking about it only the top .01% crap...the class warfare snares a significantly wider net) when it is precisely that group that has paid your wages, benefits, welfare, taxes, etc. (and contributes to charity on top of that!) is painting with too broad a brush. And it is nearly criminal when this is what passes for "teaching".
I don't worship at the alter of wealth. Sorry if that doesn't please you.
But, again, to caracterize the public sector as being a panacea, no, it is not. Same humans: refer to BP etc.
"Teaching" has been about programming the youth to work in the corporate machine. Yeah, the "private sector" machine.
The REAL "public" used to be about shit like small-scale farming, which relied upon CO-OPS and Granges (many here would classify these as socialist- go figure).
People are so caught up in all this political horseshit that they can't see straight.
As the ubber-capitalist himself, Buffett, said, it's class warfare and it's HIS class that is winning.
I have to question the motives of anyone who doubts that there's class warefare: surely they don't know history.
Thanks for playing!
First off, Buffett is not an uber-capitalist. Hasn't been for at least 25 years. He is a crony-capitalist at best, but more so a statist...like Soros. He got his and doesn't want anyone else to get theirs.
Second, I honestly have lost track of what you are arguing. I mean no disrespect and I am not trying to be funny. I just don't know how to respond.
What is the alter (sic) of wealth? I have not asked you to love those in any class or strata. Only to accept that, like with everything else, the 60% middle is torn at by the 20% at each end. I am the one arguing that politics and class warfare (from both extremes) are the problem. And your response is to argue that I am caught up in politics, I don't believe there is class warfare, and to harken back to the days of Jefferson's agrarian society?
"Only to accept that, like with everything else, the 60% middle is torn at by the 20% at each end."
Well, yes, but... consider that it's the UPPER 20% that's got the upper hand and control things- perpetuates the status quo.
And are there beggars? Yes. But I don't believe that they constitute the burden on society as many would believe.
My position is this: growth is a dead-end street; "capitalism," whether it can or could exist in some pure form (nothing can/has; argument could be made for ANY ideological position), isn't going to make ANYTHING go away, but, it WILL provide fresh meat to the coporate powers.
Calling Buffett a statist is kind of funny, in that it really only goes to follow that the very system that's made him "wealthy" IS the State, same as for all others (even those pretending to NOT be Statists [which really only means they don't want a socialist state- a fascist state suits them fine] Coors, Koch etc.) Same thing with religion- ALL power gets in bed with power: Catholic church got in bed with the Nazis.
There's an over-concentration of wealth/power. History shows that this happens time and time again, and that the "correction" isn't about allowing MORE of such. I don't know what is the "solution" (anyone professing to have one isn't anyone that I'm really going to trust), but I do know that POWER controls, and if it's to IT's advantage to create class warfare then it's going to do so: whether I believe that class warfare is or isn't a good thing or is being orchestrated by TPTB is beside the point- it DOES exist.
It's not a matter of whether we will harken back to the days of Jefferson's agrarian society, but of when: clearly the path of Hamilton has nearly run its disasterous course. We can only hope it resembles this over that say in China's countryside.
We have found a point to agree on. I don't have an end-all solution either. I just think less largesse, more personal responsibility, and more individual freedom is the path we should be on.
Tyler,
Thank you for bringing this stuff to light. I am getting tired of the talking heads saying "we all need to sacrifice" when they really mean "everyone else but me and my special interests need to sacrifice."
There will be more of this in the final decent into bankruptcy. I foresee a bill in Congress to pay Congressmen in gold before this is all over. Give me mine, and screw you mentality.
If law abiding citizens were armed and trained you would need far less cops. A citizen can be armed and trained and one could argue that it is both the citizen's right and responsibility to do so.
But a consumer? An armed consumer? It makes no sense. In the land of the service economy, consumers may abdicate responsibility for everything except consuming more goods and services.
Now that the model has been exposed as a debt or ponzi scheme, measures must be taken. If people regard themselves as citizens and not consumers, this becomes easier to conceptualize.
No collateral damage in your vigilante universe? No innocent bystanders hit by stray bullets? How many things are made less complex by the introduction of multiple firearms?
I'm not sure what idiotic glory days you think you're harkening back to, but your "far less cops" plan is synonymous with a "more blood in the streets" plan.
There is a lot of collateral damage with today's roided up/jackbooted cops running around pointing their guns at people for no good reason.
Cop pulled his gun on me when my young wife was breastfeeding our infant in the backseat of our car because he had been screaming. Two 30 year old white people househunting in a upper middle class neighborhood. Fucker wanted to leer at my wife.
I think that it is a mistake to assert that an active interpretation of the second amendment leads to vigilantism. No one is suggesting deterrence through guns a blazing. A hard target is often deterrence enough.
The constitution is not simply an historical record, as many liberal interpretations would assert (Justice Breyer). It is forward looking. The amendments reiterate that the base of the body politic resides in the individual, not the government. There are many who would abdicate their own responsibility to justice and leave it to mercenaries.
Texas is a carry state and in Texas, how many problems are there with vigilantes?
I couldn't agree more....about the safest I ever feel on this planet is inside a gun store or at a shooting range.
Really? Man, your world must really suck.
I feel safest at home, on my property.
For fuck sakes people, enough with the over-exaggerations. Guns are fine, stockpiles of them are not: it goes with my general philosophy that BIG=FAIL (all things in moderation).
Value Added.
When seconds count, the cops are only minutes away.
Only if he/she is on his/her last donut and cup of coffee.
Grow up snowball. Nature makes no promises regarding your survival. To pretend that some things are not worth some sacrifice is to believe in fairy tales.
We train and prepare ourselves to fight, so that ultimately we do not have to. Ying and yang etc. Nature and the laws of physics will restore order and accountability one way or the other. I work to educate people in my own community about their choices and consequences and I pray that it is an orderly transition, but I will not ignore the history books and human stupidity. Do so at your own peril.
snowball, do you pee your panties when you see someone with a gun? I know the conditioning you have undergone to make you fear guns..they have been at it for 50 yrs so it is not your fault..I feel sorry for you, for you will never be able to defend yourself while waiting for police to come to your aid..they always arrive after the body has hit the floor.
but the gov hand out is my right mentality goes hand in hand with who will protect me meme..the truth is you are on your own criminals don't do crimes with cops near by.
great point. It is in fact the duty of every citizen, who has the ability, to arm and train themselves in order to protect the life and liberty of themselves and their neighbors from all threats foreign and domestic. I would wager that the major threats to life and liberty now are, by far, coming from internal threats as opposed to any foreign threats.
The cops will need to decide if they will kill citizens to protect the criminals or not. I hope the lynch mobs understand that the cops are NOT on their side so they don't have to be massacred by the cops to learn that this is going to be a BLOODY and VIOLENT revolution. John Adams our second President said, "In order to throw off the yoke of oppression there must be bloodshed." He was NOT a stupid man AND he lived in times EXACTLY like the times we now find ourselves living in, constant oppression from our government. Just like he found out when requesting the King of England please stop oppressing the colonies, we will find out by requesting the TSA and our government to stop oppressing us, their response is, "why should we? Make us."
Funny how no one ever perceives things stated by founding fathers as having been context-specific and appropos only of their situation at the time.
So we should toss the Constitution as being malapropos here in 2011? Or are we supposed to pick and choose the clauses that one subset of our present society thinks are worthwhile?