Right Change: $100K Lifetime Pensions for Government Workers When We’re $16 Trillion in Debt

We keep hearing Obama and the Democrats say that Republicans are pushing their radical agenda of spending cuts and they will fundamentally change America back to what it used to be: a nation that lived within it’s means. They say we need to preserve government workers, energy loan programs, and food stamps in order to grow the economy. While that may sound nice and even logical to some, we have a huge problem: we can’t afford it. 

In almost every private sector company, you contribute your own money towards your retirement plan. In the public sector, taxpayers fund most of your retirement. You can decide for yourself whether or not we should finance those that work for the government for a lifetime, but the real issue is whether or not we can afford it. Because we have let government expand its role in almost every sector of our economy, we have incurred $16 trillion worth of debt. One of the largest contributing factors to our debt is public sector benefits and pensions. The latest report from USA Today tells you all you need to know:

“More than 21,000 retired federal workers receive lifetime government pensions of $100,000 or more per year, a USA TODAY/Gannett analysis finds.

Of these, nearly 2,000 have federal pensions that pay $125,000 or more annually, and 151 take home $150,000 or more. Six federal retirees get more than $200,000 a year.

Some 1.2% of federal retirees collect six-figure pensions. By comparison, 0.1% of military retirees collect as much. The New York State and Local Retirement System pays 0.2% of its retirees pensions of $100,000 or more. The New Jersey retirement system pays 0.4% of retirees that much. Comparable private figures aren't available.

The six-figure pensions spread across a broad swath of the federal workforce: doctors, budget analysts, accountants, public relations specialists and human resource managers. Most do not get Social Security benefits.”

Government workers already get paid double what private sector employees get paid as well as receive automatic raises regardless of their productivity. There is no reason that federal workers should be immune to the recession when the private sector is financing their job. All of this wouldn’t be a problem if we could afford it, but we can’t. Obama can argue all he wants that these cuts are harmful, but the economy is going to get worse if we don’t control our debt.

Republican VP nominee, Paul Ryan, plans to reform this bloated government workforce by requiring that federal employees contribute 5.8% to their retirement over five years (they currently contribute a measly .8%) as well as a 5% pay cut. He has also proposed cutting the federal workforce by 10% (210,000 employees) over three years after Obama grew the government sector by 11.7%.

It’s time for everyone to participate in the shared sacrifice Obama has called for. Everyone else has, it’s time for government workers to as well.

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