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Edited on Thu Jul-16-09 03:37 PM by wroberts189
"pensions ranging from as little as $14,165 a year for six years' service"
That will cover my health care bill for a while...where do I sign up for a job where you get a pension after 6 years?
"Barely 20 percent of the American workforce has pensions comparable to congressional pensions, according to the independent Employee Benefit Research Institute. Almost no one in the private sector has the kind of cost-of-living escalators that keep Capitol Hill pensions moving upward.
Lawmakers have "paved a smooth path for their golden years," said John Berthoud, president of the National Taxpayers Union, a 350,000-member conservative advocacy group that campaigns for lower federal spending. "Too bad taxpayers are supplying most of the gold."
Retired lawmakers routinely go on to lucrative jobs in private industry that can pay more than $1 million a year, while continuing to receive congressional pensions."
They don't even need FEHB ...but they take it anyway.
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Congress generous with pensions -- their own
Social Security debate puts public eye on politicians' guaranteed retirement plans
Stewart M. Powell, Hearst Newspapers
Sunday, April 3, 2005
(04-03) 04:00 PDT Washington -- While the White House and Congress explore ways to fix Social Security -- whether to cut benefits, raise taxes or impose a higher retirement age -- one segment of the 52 million Americans who get retirement benefits is likely to remain untouched: the lawmakers themselves.
There are no serious proposals for Congress to cut its own pension plan or raise the retirement age or years of service required for senators and representatives to qualify for benefits that are beyond the reach of most working Americans.
Members of the House and Senate, who earn $162,100 a year, haven't taken a hard look at their own pension program since 1983, when Congress brought lawmakers into the Social Security system for the first time.
While congressional payouts are puny compared to some corporate executives -- Franklin Raines, recently ousted as head of the Federal National Mortgage Association, gets a pension of $114,393 a month -- many Americans would eagerly welcome the pensions available on Capitol Hill.
Presidents and justices
For example, former presidents with as little as four years in office qualify for pensions of $180,100. Retired Supreme Court justices whose age and years of service total 80 receive pensions equal to full pay -- $208,100 for the chief justice and $199,200 for associate justices.
"Those who can take care of themselves -- do," says Graef Crystal, a longtime corporate compensation expert who writes a column for Bloomberg News. "Congress can write the legislation, and CEOs can have their papier-mache corporate boards OK their retirement deals."
Retired senators, representatives and staffers are eligible to receive a traditional pension, Social Security benefits and payments from a 401(k)-style Thrift Savings Plan built up by employer and employee contributions to a tax- deferred investment account.
It's impossible to estimate individual Social Security benefits or 401(k) payouts because of the many variables involved for each individual. But pension payments are a different story.
Range for lawmakers
Lawmakers who left Congress last January are receiving pensions ranging from as little as $14,165 a year for six years' service to as much as $114,102 a year for more than 30 years' service.
Inflation-adjusted pensions based upon the highest three years of salary are available to lawmakers as early as age 50 with 20 years' service. Lawmakers with less service qualify for full pension benefits starting at age 62. The retirement package includes automatic inflation adjustments and guaranteed access to post-retirement private medical insurance in addition to Medicare protection provided all Americans.
Barely 20 percent of the American workforce has pensions comparable to congressional pensions, according to the independent Employee Benefit Research Institute. Almost no one in the private sector has the kind of cost-of-living escalators that keep Capitol Hill pensions moving upward.
Lawmakers have "paved a smooth path for their golden years," said John Berthoud, president of the National Taxpayers Union, a 350,000-member conservative advocacy group that campaigns for lower federal spending. "Too bad taxpayers are supplying most of the gold."
Retired lawmakers routinely go on to lucrative jobs in private industry that can pay more than $1 million a year, while continuing to receive congressional pensions.
For example, defeated South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, 57, the former Democratic leader in the Senate, left Congress in January with an estimated pension of $121,233 and joined the Washington office of Atlanta-based Alston & Bird to provide strategic advice to the law firm's legislative and public policy clients.
Former Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., 61, the former chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with jurisdiction over the drug industry, retired in January with an estimated pension of $85,726 and now heads the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America at a salary reported to be almost $2 million.
Backers of fiscal restraint want Congress to re-examine lawmakers' pension benefits as part of the burgeoning political debate over the future of Social Security. But Gary Ruskin, of the Congressional Accountability Project, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, is skeptical that Congress will share any of the pain.
"Support for high compensation packages is broad and deep and absolutely bipartisan in Congress as well as at the White House," Ruskin said. "And I don't foresee cutbacks."
Dallas Salisbury, president of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, says political pressure on Congress to trim its own retirement benefits could ratchet up if California and eight other states decide to cut pension benefits for newly hired state workers.
Take plan to voters
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to keep that issue front-and- center by vowing to submit his pension-cutting plan to voters in a referendum this fall unless the California Legislature ends traditional pensions for state employees hired after 2007.
"If voters decide state employees can keep their defined pension benefits, that will take the pressure off Congress to re-examine federal pensions," said Salisbury.
Several lawmakers have opted out of the congressional pension system altogether to drive home their contention that benefits are too costly. One of them, Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., 74, has been in Congress for 20 years and could qualify for an estimated pension benefit of more than $45,000 a year.
"I do not believe the taxpayers of this country owe me a congressional pension because I have chosen to pursue a career in public service," said Coble, a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative who tried unsuccessfully in the mid-1990s to get Congress to phase out congressional pensions by eliminating pensions for newly elected members.
Even though pensions for retired members of Congress and staffers represent only a tiny fraction of annual federal spending, Congress has taken care to bury the numbers in the federal budget.
"Congress writes the laws and gets to choose whether the cost is made public," said Ruskin. "It's always been treated like a state secret."
The result is that independent analysts are forced to estimate lawmakers' hypothetical pension benefits without specific information about a particular lawmaker's participation in the pension plan or contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan.
$19 million in pensions
Pension payments for 400 retired lawmakers receiving benefits as of Oct. 1, 2004, totaled more than $19 million, according to the Office of Personnel Management. The National Taxpayers Union estimates that taxpayers will begin paying $1.5 million more in pension benefits this year to cover the 22 lawmakers who left Congress in January and qualified for immediate pension payments.
With so many private corporations trimming benefits for newly hired or younger workers, Salisbury predicts a widening gulf between congressional and private sector benefits as Congress protects its own package of benefits.
"We're going to see a larger and larger gap," said Salisbury, an employee benefits specialist since 1978. "There's always been a gap between Congress and ordinary Americans -- but now we're seeing a gap between Congress and the largest, most generous enterprises, as well."
Pensions for some federal officials and California lawmakers Top federal officials
Here are pensions available to top federal officials:
-- A former president: $180,100 annually, tied by law to the inflation- adjusted salaries of Cabinet officers. The pension is paid without regard to whether the former president served one or two terms.
-- A former vice president: $27,653 annually after eight years' service, paid for congressional duties as president of the Senate.
-- A former chief justice of the United States: $208,100 annually (full salary), after reaching age 65 with 15 years' service. Associate justices receive $199,200.
-- A former Cabinet officer: $14,072 for eight years' service in two terms. A Cabinet officer has to be at least age 62 and serve for at least five years to qualify for a federal pension under the Federal Employees' Retirement System. After five years' service, a Cabinet officer would qualify for a pension of $8,797.
California lawmakers
The estimated pensions for the California lawmakers as compiled by the National Taxpayers Union. The calculations rely on the same mix of estimates and assumptions used by NTU for calculations on January 2005 congressional retirees:
-- Dianne Feinstein: $34,726 in 2007, based on 14 years of total service.
-- Barbara Boxer: $121,185 in 2007, based on 30 years total service (House, Senate and two years as a congressional staffer).
-- Nancy Pelosi: $53,989.
-- Lynn Woolsey: $38,584 in 2007, 14 years total service.
-- Barbara Lee: $23,896 in July 2008, 8.67 years total federal service.
-- Ellen Tauscher: $18,822 in July 2007, 10 years total service.
-- Tom Lantos: $95,117 in 2007, 26 years total service.
-- Anna Eshoo: $38,584 in 2007, 14 years total service.
-- Mike Honda: $14,884 in 2007, 6 years total service.
-- Zoe Lofgren: $25,301 in 2007, based on 12 years congressional service.
-- Sam Farr: $34,726 in 2007, 14 years service.
-- Richard Pombo: $24,310 in the year 2017, reduced 30 percent for early retirement at that time.
-- Pete Stark and George Miller would both "max out" under the Civil Service Retirement System by 2007. Their starting pensions would each be $119, 934.
Source: Hearst Newspapers
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