Rand Paul Falsely Claims That Public Workers Don’t Contribute To Their Pension

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Rand Paul Falsely Claims That Public Workers Don’t Contribute To Their Pension And Health Care Plans
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/30/rand-paul-public-workers/

All across the country, right wing legislators are taking aim at Main Street Americans by attacking their collective bargaining rights. These lawmakers are stripping public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights and/or slashing their wages, benefits, and retirement funds.

Yesterday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on Fox Business Network to continue this war on labor rights, using his time on the station to attack unions and claim their pay and benefits are too high. At one point during the interview, the senator began attacking “government unions,” saying they are “going to have to” contribute to their pensions and health care plans, just like Paul has to as a senator, and that Kentuckians back home don’t have any sympathy for government union workers because they pay for their retirements:

PAUL: Federal employees have almost double the compensation that private employees have. <...> Maybe these government unions are going to have to contribute to their pension, maybe they’re going to have to pay something for their health care, like I’m having to pay, so when I hear regular taxpayers in Kentucky they don’t have a lot of sympathy because they’re paying high insurance premiums and they have to pay for their own retirements.

Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/30/rand-paul-public-workers/

The problem with Paul’s assault on public employee unions is that it’s based on a false premise. Public workers at all level of government have to contribute to their pension and health care plans. Federal employees contribute to the Federal Employment Retirement System (FERS), which requires them to contribute to the fund at a rate equivalent to one percent of their yearly salary. Meanwhile, their health care, just like Paul’s, is covered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program, which also requires employees to share the cost with their employer, usually 25 percent of premiums according to the Office of Personnel Management.

[Blue_Tires]

1. shit like this is why I laugh when the Paul boys are exhalted

as some paragons of "individual freedoms" or any of the other buzzwords they spit out like a broken record...

[opihimoimoi]

2. Amateur knowledge leads to fuck ups...and this dude wannabe prez? not a chance

[Angry Dragon]

3. Facts?? ........ What are they??

[Scuba]

4. Rand Paul has never let a little thing like the truth deter him....

...witness his "board certification" in opthamology.

[gratuitous]

6. I hear he's a certified pension analyst

From the Rand Paul Board of Certification of Analysts of Pensions. I suppose Rand can't be faulted for thinking he'd hit a triple because he was born on third base. Also, when everything in life has been handed to you on a silver platter, it's tough to imagine why anyone else has to struggle. Here's hoping some life lessons get taught to him real soon, and that the people of Kentucky finally wake up to the fact that voting rich nitwits into office isn't the path to a better society.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

5. AN RAND PAUL DOESN'T KNOW HIS ASS FROM A HOLE IN THE GROUND

[TahitiNut]

7. Rand Paul gives "sophomoric" a bad name.

It's obvious he's using "inductive reasoning" ... choosing an opinion and inducing facts to support it.

[Zoeisright]

8. Repuke = Liar

That's an equation that's been proven over and over and over and OVER again.

[ItNerd4life]

9. My spouse doesn't, so he's partially correct.

My spouse doesn't contribute any to the pension fund. None of the teachers do at this school or the previous school worked at.

It doesn't mean he's not partially wrong, but he is also partially correct.

[Ratty]

10. For most of my career I didn't contribute to my pension

For decades the fund has made more money in its investments than it ever paid out, so neither employer or employee contributed. Only in the last year do we have to start paying a percent of salary toward our retirement. That's more an issue of letting the fox into the chicken coop though, rather than the stock market crash. With the Republican governor packing the board, the long time pension manager with a stellar record of success was fired and one of their cronies was brought in who then proceeded to drive the fund into the ground. Now we have these huge scandals involving kickbacks, bribery, investment "middle-men" commanding huge commissions - you name it. The lesson to be learned is don't let Republicans anywhere near your pension funds. BTW we've always had to pay toward our own health benefits. In fact my payment doubled this year.

I would love to hear Paul actually name an example of a government union whose members don't contribute to their pension. If any still exist it would be because sound, non-Republican investment strategies keep the fund self-sustaining. I'd love to hear of a case where the taxpayers foot the bill and workers pay nothing.