Pensions

Lobbying for Pensions in Springfield
By Jim Vail


There were four buses and a bunch of vans and cars that drove current and retired school teachers to Springfield on Wednesday to stop the cuts to pensions.

We visited state rep and state senator offices, and distributed literature that pointed out pensions are the only form of retirement income teachers have because we get no social security.

Flyers also stated pensions are good for the economy when retired people spend their hard-earned pension money.

We spoke to State Rep Jaime Andrade of the 40th district who voted against our pensions. He claimed he also voted against corporate tax breaks that could help generate state revenue.

But I said, then you should have abstained rather than just make the poor state workers pay for the state's financial woes, knowing the corporations are not paying it. 

It was an unethical vote, I pointed out. But Andrade knows what his job is in Springfield. He told me last summer that most of his time is spent meeting lobbyists, not voters. 

Wall Street wants those guaranteed retired teacher dollars rolled up into risky 401K plans (that were never meant to be for retirement income). So they buy the politicians to make sure retirees are forced into a pension contribution plan or 401K, rather than a defined benefit plan with guaranteed retirement income.

The private sector already robbed its workers of their retirement monies, so the next logical step is to take public workers money next.

The political game is a joke. Most of the democrats voted for SB1, the latest cut to pensions, under the orders of the machine and speaker of the house Mike Madigan.

Then you have the republicans who voted against it, not because they like pensions, but because the bill didn't go far enough to destroy public sector worker pensions.  

The SB1 bill that passed was focused on the rest of the state - Chicago is next.

Corporations fund the politicians to cut our pensions so they do not have to pay taxes. 

This is the system we have, and currently there are no challenges to it.

In fact, it is down right silly to take a bus to Springfield, and lobby politicians who vote against our pensions.

They ain't gonna listen.

Well, I take that back. There is machinist Toni Berrios, in a tough state rep race with CTU sponsored Will Guzzardi, who actually voted to not cut the pensions. But why do you think she did it?

I had an interesting conversation with Aaron Goldstein who is running in a crowded field to replace state rep Deb Mell who moved on to replace her father as an alderman.

I asked Goldstein since all his views seemed too good to be true for the democratic party, why he didn't run on the Green Party ticket.

He said there is no way you can win. People just don't believe a third-party candidate can win.

People want to back a winner.

The funny thing is - they are backing winners who make the people losers.

But those who paid for them the biggest winners of all.