Madeline
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- #81
Ohio and most other states are in financial difficulty because revenues are down.
Sales taxes are, I don't doubt, down considerably in OH, just like they are everywhere else.
So the Rs come in promising not to raise taxes.
Okay I can understand why they don't want taxes raised. Nobody does.
But Ohio has obligations to pay its debts.
Among those obligations are the pensions of people who served the state of Ohion and they had a CONTRACT with the state, too, didn't they?.
How does one who claims that he is a conservativem and one who believes in personal responsibility simply say that the solution is to blow that CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION off?
That doesn't sound like conservatism to me.
That sounds like you're telling the State of OHIO not to honor its contractual obligations.
And if the state of Ohio doesn't pay its debts why should any of the citizens pay their debts
ARe you guys really sure you're conservatives?
You read more like anarchists to me.
You know what anarchists really are, right?
They're criminals who have a philosophy of selfishness that informs them that they have no obligation to obey laws of society.
FYI contracts are legal documents.
I am aware a contract is a legal document, editec. As I have said, impossibility is always a defense to breach. I'm UNWILLING to divert the ginormous number of dollars into the state pensions it will take to fund the failures of years past to contribute realistic amounts. I am UNWILLING for the state employee to be elevated above any other citizen, including the poor. I am UNWILLING to continue to promise a retirement standard of living to state employees that most citizens cannot even aspire to during their working years.
And before you call me any more names, it's my ox getting gored. This crisis also exists in Florida, where I spent my working life and where my pension is paid from state funds as well.
That's right, buddy -- I am advocating for a slash and burn back to realistic levels of state employee retirement benefits even though I'll be a burn victim myself. I knew when I retired the state could not sustain the level of payments it promised and I have been making plans accordingly......we ALL need to adapt, not just state employees.
But they are certainly not immune from the new economic realties, either.
Mad it isn't just Ohio facing this problem.
Every state local and Federal government employee has good pension benefits.
ARe they or are they not entitled to what they WORKED for?
If you say no, then really...is any contract worth keeping?
If that pensioner isn't entitled to his pension is he free from paying his contractually obligated debts, too?
Incidently, I don't have a pension. Never have.
And I have long comp;ainted that government workers (state local and federal) has contracts that were too generous.
But those contracts were signed, people worked according to them and now we shouldn't honor those obligations?
These are WORKING people you're screwing, you know.
I know who I'm suggesting take the pain, and I'd be willing to make enlarged contributions (of some modest size) to keep pension benefits at a higher level than would be possible just with cash on hand, especially for low-paid workers. But editec, it is time to face the music: the unions over-reached, the legislators lied, the actuaries lied, and the stock market tanked....things are not as they once seemed, decades ago.
We need change and that change will hurt government workers. I admit that freely -- but we still need it.