Guys this is not personal. I grew up in a civil service household, both parents. I have many close friends that are civil servants. This is just common sense for the situation we find ourselves in.
Here’s a comparison. In the 1990’s when the government decided they wanted to use their oversight powers to do away with legacy airline pay and pension benefits, to achieve low cost airfare they pushed and encourage airlines to use bankruptcy to achieve it. And they did. What it resulted in was 20% plus pay cuts, and no cost of living raises for the next 20 years. But more importantly the loss of our defined pension plan, no matter how long you had been working there. They directed us to the “government” PBGC insurance program, were only a percentage of it would be covered. And it’s not really guaranteed, the PBGC has funding issues like the rest of our government. We were told we would have to join a 401K plan going forward and pick up all the risk that go with it. And in our case contribute 60% of the money going into it from our now reduced pay check. We also lost any pre Medicare retirement healthcare benefits. What that meant was if we retired at age 55 or 59 ½ we had to go to the ACA for healthcare and see if we qualify for a “government” subsidy. There you add all your retirement income sources together including social security, any annuities (PBGC), rental income, part time work income and see where you stand. With any luck you get a subsidy. If not you pay $1200 per month for an individual health plan until you hit Medicare.
The other day some blue states started sniffing around the “Care Fund” to get us tax payers to fully fund their over promised, way underfunded public sector pensions. When Senator McConnell said no, use bankruptcy, you would have thought he shot someone mother.
Public sector pay and especially pensions need to be brought in line with the private sector they serve. In my opinion they should do something similar to what they did with us. End public sector defined pensions, use the same formula they did with us to insure some of it. Put them into a 401K. Extend their full retirement age to 65. And if they want to early out use ACA healthcare until they go on Medicare, like the rest of us.
Okay have at me. I know how you feel, I've been there