DJ White House Opposing Pension Relief Sought By Airlines

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)

The White House is opposing pension funding relief being sought by the airlines in Congress.

The measure would help businesses in a number of industries with substantially underfunded pension plans, but is being sought by a coalition of airlines, second only to the auto industry in its pension woes, Congressional aides and lawmakers say.

A spokesman for the Air Transport Association had not returned a request for comment.

There is general agreement that Congress should relieve companies of some of the pension contributions they will be required to make over the next several years.

The current technique for measuring long-term liability is growing steadily out of date. The measure uses the 30-year Treasury bond for calculating a pension fund's likely return on its assets, but the rate on that security has fallen steadily since Treasury stopped issuing it. ---

Go to the Store!

Get an Excelent ’04 Party Hat!

[denverbill]

1. Here's an idea.

Instead of taxpayers bailing out the airlines for their stupid decisions, how about suing the executives of these companies who walked away with multimillion dollar salaries and private funded protected pensions. They are the ones who should be made to pay.