Pensions and other scary thoughts.

The L.A. Times Opinion section, yesterday, had an article about pensions, Day of Reckoning on Pensions, quoting the Little Hoover Commission'a  study on the future of pensions and how the cost of providing them will tax every single government agency. 
Scary.
I do not doubt its facts.

I doubt the conclusion that the only solution is to reduce the benefits that current employees are entitled to.

We have become obsessed with the idea that government ought to reduce all services and do as little as possible. Some people want to go back in history and get rid of all programs that we have put in place that support the least able among us, as well as programs such as Medicare and Social Security which are helping a majority of our people who, without these programs, would impose undue burden on their families.

After we just bailed out Wall Street?
After Wall Street took the government money and gave themselves bonuses?

Are we stupid or blind?

I can't talk about all government services, how efficient they are or aren't. The problems with Social Security, however,  would not be there at all. I remember there was a big surplus that was used to support other priorities. A surplus that should have remained in place to continue to grow.

The Republicans insist on Tax Cuts, tax cuts that strip the government from maintaining programs that are necessary and are part of our fabric of life.  We barely have enough regulations to keep us safe.  I do know that education, for all its costs, is not funded adequately. Just go look at how  school buildings have crumbled because there has been no new moneys for school buildings.

In my little town of Port Orford, buildings that were over 30 years old, were finally upgraded last summer, thanks to the stimulus package. Now, with new heating and ventilating system, fewer students will suffer from respiratory and asthma attacks.  And I can't even put a price on the pride factor in that school after the place was renovated.  Children have been forced to attend debilitated and crumbling buildings for decades. No. We do not fund our schools adequately. And the current budget is even scarier.

Yet, we have just extended Tax Cuts for the rich who can afford to send their children to a fancy private school anywhere in the world?  Who have money in Swiss Banks and will invest the same in off-shore business where they will not pay any more income tax?

The public sector are not the greedy ones.  They worked their whole lives, without bonuses, without fancy stock options, without the opportunity to use hundreds of loopholes to shelter their moneys. All they have is  a modest pension that was part of their compensation.  By the way, the pension is taxed!

So, they live longer than anticipated.  Fine, do the math, adjust the columns, and charge what needs to be charged to keep the programs solvent. 

But the government has no money?
It will, if we stop the tax cuts for the rich.
It can, if we demand that every body pays according to their income.
It should, if we want to continue to be a great nation, where all people live and grow old with dignity and respect.

We're are not an autocracy, or a money-grabbing-wild-west lawless desert.

We are a humane democracy, a beacon to people in the world.

Money should not  buy the  conscience of our legislators; working for the people does not mean working for  people that support you. 

Legislators work for all of us, rich and poor, young and old. They should promote and  insure our liberty, our prosperity, and our pursuit of happiness.

If they leave us behind, they have not done their Job.