Saturday, January 15, 2011

Them's Fightin' Words

Via Susie Madrak, from Pensions & Investments:

Gingrich seeks bill allowing state bankruptcy to avert bailouts
Move afoot to help states escape benefit obligations
By Doug Halonen
January 10, 2011, 12:01 AM ET


Former House Speaker and possible GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich is pushing for federal legislation giving financially strapped states the right to file for bankruptcy and renege on pension and other benefit promises made to state employees.

Proponents of the measure — which include Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington lobby group that fights tax increases — said the legislation is desperately needed to clear the way for struggling states to slash costs before they go belly up, and should be regarded as a preemptive move that could preclude the need for massive federal bailouts.

“It's in the short-term and long-term interests of government workers and taxpayers to start those reforms now, rather than having to pick up the pieces after a crash landing,” ATR President Grover Norquist said in an interview.

“We are working with people inside and outside of Congress on this issue,” said Joe DeSantis, a spokes-man for Mr. Gingrich, whom Mr. DeSantis said is considering a bid to be the Republican presidential candidate in 2012.

...
I paid into Texas Teacher Retirement System until I vested... back in the day, that was 10 years of hard labor for the great State... and now Mr. Gingrich wants to permit Texas to say "Sorry, Steve. We were just fooling when we told you that was for your retirement. We're gonna absquatulate with all of it."

Mr. Gingrich has no idea who he is tampering with. No idea.

4 comments:

  1. I am livid. If I say anymore, I'll forget that I'm a lady and totally anyone's thought that I ever was one. I think Newt just got what my dear, departed Daddy would call "too big for his britches" and will pay dearly to put it mildly. Can we get a couple others his ilk in on this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kay, my Dad said the same thing (occasionally about me, but more often about a public figure), and I'm determined to prevent Newt's grand reverse-Robin-Hood plan from ever taking effect. What kind of bastard would even think of such a thing?

    ReplyDelete
  3. He doesn't care that he wants to screw the people who've counted on their pensions. He's rich. He doesn't care about people who aren't rich. What an a*****e! The states need to figure out how to get out of the red another way. One suggestion: legalize pot and prostitution - that should bring in the tax dollars. Pot/hemp could be used for all the many things it had been used for before it became illegal, and the cops wouldn't have to do all those stings on prostitutes and johns.

    ReplyDelete

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