The Pension story, why you need to care

[TayTay]

There are two good Senate hearings this morning that both have a claim on Sen. Kerry's time. One is the SFRC hearing on the nomination of a new ambassador to Iraq. It's obvious why this is important, and it is not inconceivable that DSM might come up IN PASSING. (Not a big speech, in passing as a real reference to past events.) Coverage of this hearing is on C-Span 1. http://www.c-span.org/watch/index.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS&ShowVidDays=30&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=30

The Pensions hearing over at the Senate Finance Committee are also extremely important. I have a background article that can fill you in at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/business/07pension.html?

In brief: Companies are underfunding their pension liabilities. Workers are not getting what they were promised to retire. The US Government, under the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corp has to pick up the pension fund obligations that get dropped. (United Airlines just dropped a potential $8.3 BILLION dollar bill onto the taxpayers.) The last estimate I heard was that the number of pension funds that are underfunded could drop $600 Billion on the taxpayer. (And undercut another leg from the support structure for American workers.) This is a very, very big deal, a huge potential scandal and a massive fraud being perpetrated on the taxpayers. You need to give a damn on this one. You can pick up the hearing here: http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearings.htm

That said, I am going to watch the Iraq hearing. I watch these hearings at work and get to see 30-60% of them. I really want to 'watch' the Finance hearing, so I will watch it later on the web when it can have my full attention. I am roughly familiar with the Iraq outline, so I can afford to sort of watch it at work. Your mileage may vary.