End Government Pensions:
Congress and ALL government employees should pay into Social Security and retire with SS & Medicare . Stop giving Congress and government employees different benefits than the public. This is unconstitutional.
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Perhaps a bit of clarification. Military personnel are Gov’t employees. They pay into SS and Medi-Care. If they retire w/ 20+ years I think they have earned it. If their disability rating is under 60% they pay their own disability dollar for dollar from their pension.
Now, have you noticed on your tax forms a thing called “Railroad Retirement” ??
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Yes, I have seen the RR retirement.
I completely agree with this proposal. The difference between congress and military retirement in a nutshell.
The armed forces are not an elected, they don’t create policy, nor do they get to retire whenever they like; many may not realize there are certain windows where retirement occurs, based on their rank and fulfillment of their duty. They must also make it known their intentions snd complete a retirement package, which based on the current needs of the mission may, but not often, be rejected. Their retirement system has already been overhauled to allow those serving less than 20 years to receive a retirement portion equal to their time in service, a program called a blended retirement service.
Congress should get the same retirement option. Term limits, as proposed numerous times already, would aid in this policy shift. It’s called public service for a reason.
I’d like to take this further and get rid of the legalization of lobbies, which don’t represent the interests of the people. Our government is elected by the people, for the people, not pay for play for desirable committee positions.
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I will leave the Politicians and Agency Political Appointees out of my response as I tend to agree with you. However for all other government employees and public employees I do not see a reason to not offer pensions. Govt employees already pay into Social Security and Medicaid and they pay into their portion of the pension contribution. Pensions are like any HR tool of benefits that attract and retain employees. I would argue that private companies should go back to offering pensions rather than advocating for the elimination of them. Often when pensions are provided the pay rate is less than what one could earn in the private sector in terms of take home pay. This is a major reason why, and it is the choice of the employee to decide where to work relative to the benefits offerred. There are jobs in the Fed govt for which there are no or minimalist public forms to compare civilian pay and benefits. E.g Federal Law Enforcement, Air Traffic Control and others. Most of these dedicated civil servants are not political types and their jobs do not involve politics. Separating Airplanes and having a mandatory retirement age 55 is not political and having a pension for people who served their county is not a bad thing. Don’t throw the baby out of the bathtub of dirty political water by association to the politicians that run the government.
Amen.
I know higher grade government employees rake it in and get large bonus’, but lower grade employees like me have basic a basic pension. After 20 years at GS 6, I’ll be lucky to get $1,000 per month.
If Congress was forced to live like the public we would have government services that actual helped.
-Congress must utilize the same healthcare options available to the general public. If you are over 65 you must use Medicare.
-No Dual citizenship. Your loyalties should be 100% to America.
-No lifetime retirement. Your salary will support your IRA, not the public.
-Your income will be audited.
-Hold congress to their oath of office. You violate and its treason.
-No more slush funds for inappropriate behavior.
-No paid trips out of the country.
-Utilize public transportation.
-No second homes in DC. Since you are representing your state there is no reason to live in DC.
-Unable to come back as a lobbyist.
-Unable to vote yourself a raise in salary.
-You’re only going to be in office for a maximum of 8 years so don’t get used to living the high life.
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I disagree, but I think you have a valid argument. It isn’t that government employees should not have a pension, it’s that all working Americans should have a pension. We need to require employers to offer pensions to their workers, and set harsh penalties for leaders who mismanage the pension funds. The 401k was never designed to be the sole source of retirement, neither was Social Security. These two programs were supposed to supplement pensions - as in three legs to a stool (pension 401k, & SS) that supports you during retirement.
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