I’m sure that by “fight back” they don’t literaly mean “fight” back, it’s just a turn of phrase. Like “take these son of bitches out,” words, just words.
And when it comes to the pension system in Rhode Island, which is on the brink of collapse, “fight back” means make sure that there are no reforms implemented which would save the system… oh wait.
As reported by The Providence Journal:
“Politicians at the Rhode Island State House are at it again — and your pension is in serious jeopardy.”
That is the theme of a “fight back” campaign launched Friday by eight of the state’s public-employee unions, working together as the “Rhode Island Retirement Security Coalition.”
By the end of the day Friday, the coalition had sent a mailer containing a “you are about to get steamrolled unless you fight back” warning to more than 30,000 households. It has also posted a 10-minute YouTube video on its website….
There was no response from legislative leaders or the governor, but a Raimondo spokeswoman said the treasurer remains committed to presenting a reform package “that creates an affordable, sustainable and secure system for retirees, active employees and taxpayers.”
State GOP chairman Ken McKay said: “I don’t recall union leaders — who are all lobbyists that spend a ton of time in the State House while the budgets are crafted — screaming about under-funding pensions while they were doing it. By the way, a couple of those bosses are officers of the state’s Democrat Party.”
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I am sure that when union goons were beating up Kenneth Gladney, they wern’t really beating him up (as the great intellectual Whoopie Goldberg might say, it was a beating, but not a beating-beating). No doubt the unions were actually engaged in a symbolic act to bring attention to the problem of global warming or the Dominionists who lurk under every American bed.
That unionites would rather trash the system than make it work speaks to their immaturity, lack of responsibility and elevated levels of selfishness. How do these imbic@ls even qualify for public service positions? Especially in RI&PP?
This somehow seems like this Sprint commercial.
It’s my little way of sticking it to “The Man”
But .. You are “The Man”
Fighting back against whom? Stories of union thuggery bring to mind some medieval battle wherein a horde of barbarians charge screaming into a foggy moor only to find an empty battlefield with no enemy in sight. In this case, the fog represents the vast, amorphous Tea Party machine. Exposed, surrounded and defenseless, their enemy is an ideology that fights its battles in the voting booth.
Yeah, that’s it cause unions have such a reputation for peaceful demonstrations.
Ha! I love the repeated references to it “not being the workers fault,” when they kept electing liberals for the express purpose of making such deals with them. Who is at fault? Who cares the public has to pay, “because a promise made should be a promise kept,” no matter the unholy and nonsensical alliance that produced it FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE of extorting the public, right?
Back in 1973 I went to work for a company that had a private pension. Had being the operative word. At that time the government put their oar in and took over the regulation of such pensions. They did this because the unions were stealing pension benefits from their members. See, nothing ever changes. Needless to say, a majority of the companies with these pensions opted out of the system. It was my job to ease my company out. Are unions and the federal government great or what? I would be sitting on a nice little nest egg if this had not happened. A nest egg, I might say, I contributed to. I might be wrong but I am guessing this was when pensions became the government’s responsibility instead of the unions. Worked out well, didn’t it?
My take on this is SS is not going to be there for a majority or maybe any of its contributors in a few years. Why the heck should these public union pensions be there with no cuts for those members who up to the present time have not been contributors at all?
I’m still at a loss to understand public unions who feel that their pay should always go up, even when tax revenues don’t and can’t.
If the municipality, county or state has declining revenue then why should the public bear the cost of an increase in pay that the taxpayers didn’t see? If my income isn’t going up why should theirs?
The cost I have to bear as my contribution for medical coverage went up yet my local county employees think they deserve a raise to cover THEIR having to finally contribute to a medical plan.
To repeat: I’m not taking home as much money because I have to put more money into medical. The county wants to increase my taxes to pay their workers more so it balances them having to pay in for their benefits. I get taken to the cleaners ON BOTH ENDS.
If the economy sucks we ALL have to tighten our belts, public and private to make ends meet. Being a public employee should not make you immune to the effects of the bad economy.
Ya gotta love RI politics… That’s why I moved to Texas twenty-one years ago.
I really don’t expect much of a change unless bankruptcy is involved. Then the chips will fall where they may.
The union mentality that pervades in the state are counter productive in all aspects. Unfortunately, it will probably continue on and on and…
I made three smart decisions in my lifetime.
1. I married my wife.
2. I decided to go to West Point instead of staying in RI to be a fireman.
3. When the Army sent me to Fort Hood I bought a house in Texas and became a legal Texas resident and I plan to retire here.
Why Texas? I don’t personally know every registered Republican in Texas, I’m pretty sure I knew all seventeen Republicans in RI (hell, I’m related to three of them). In Texas the guy I vote for usually wins, in RI not so much (though to be fair I’m from Lincoln, so Burt Stallwood, Sue Shepard, and Joe Almond for Town Administrator are exceptions to that rule). In Texas I bought a brand new 2,400 sq ft 4 bed/2.5 bath house, with a limestone exterior for 169K. My sister bought an 1,100 sq ft 3 bed/1 bath house built in 1948 for 316K. In Texas I pay no state income tax, in RI I paid $450 a month. In Texas I pay no property tax on my car and truck, in RI I paid over $400 a year. In Texas I carry a loaded pistol to the movies, in RI half the stuff in my gun safe is illegal.
Texas is about small government and individual freedom. Heck, Ann Richards was more conservative than any RI Republican. RI is about Government By The Unions, Of the Unions, For the Unions. Just ask the folks in Central Falls how that’s working out for them.
Obviously, that woman is not a math teacher…
A 6 Billion dollar pension hole versus 200 million dollars in tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations means that keeping tax rates high would fill the pension hole in 30 years.
I do like that jab at defined contribution plans, where she discusses how those plans rely on the worker’s investment decisions (which is bad apparently, stupid workers can’t manage their own money). That is followed almost immediately by the statement of how high the RI workers contributions to the pension plan are and how the State failed to make their contributions for the past 50 years.
My take from that video is that the workers should have fought for a defined contribution plan with employer contributions right up front.
As soon as the taxpayers realize that they are helping the unions by electing the politicians who are in the back pocket of the unions, they will come to understand the exact nature of their problem. Of course, it may be too late to avoid the consequences. Until then, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.”