Pensions Under Attack
By MARK VORPAHL | CounterPunch | July 13, 2012
On Friday, July 6, President Obama signed into law a bill that would renew transportation programs and extend low interest rates on student loans for one year. While this minimal gesture resulted in, no doubt, sighs of relief from those burdened by student debt, tucked away within the bill’s pages was a little-noticed proposal to further erode the funding of workers’ pensions. The bill was a brilliant sleight of hand where what it appeared to be giving with one hand distracted the public from what it was taking away with the other.
Aside from the more publicly known parts of this bill, it also reduced the amount that corporations pay into an already grossly underfunded pension system. The way it achieved this is with a complex equation factoring in interest rates, changes in how businesses calculate what they must contribute to retirement premiums, and how these contributions are tax deductible. The end result of this opaque process of number crunching is that, according to the Society of Actuaries, employer pension contributions will be reduced overall from a mandatory $80 billion to $45 billion this year alone. Next year this amount will be slashed by $73 billion. (1)
While the amount of company pension contributions would increase afterwards, there is no guarantee that this can be counted on to make up for the short-term cuts. Without a fundamental change in the political climate, it can be assumed that this distant increase will be reversed.
Some have said that these employer pension payment deductions will not amount to much given the $1.9 trillion employers have already invested into these plans over the decades. Yet the political importance of this bill cannot be calculated by arithmetic alone. It is another example of a pattern of how politicians have enabled corporations to minimize their responsibility towards their employees’ pensions to the point where the entire system is in danger and the dream of a comfortable retirement is approaching collapse.
How far has the pension system fallen into disrepair? According to The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), the quasi-government agency responsible for retirement funds, the public employees pension was being funded at 103 percent in 1999. The pension funds for the private sector were likewise robust.
By 2008, according to the Pew Center, the public sector pensions were short $452 billion. By 2009 the PBGC reported a funding shortfall of $355 billion and a shortfall of $407 billion for “single employer pensions.”
Why this dramatic change? The corporations, their politicians, and media lay the blame on growing pension costs (though many have been frozen) and an increased number of workers retiring. This is turning the reasons behind the pension system’s shortfall on its head. Fundamentally, the reason for the growing threats to retirement is corporate greed, backed up by their political power, as well as the effects of the economic crisis.
There are numerous examples of how big business and their two parties, the Democrats and Republicans, have colluded to erode their legal responsibility to fund pensions. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 enabled pension funds to partner with high-risk speculators, resulting in massive loses to the system in 2008-2010. Corporations have been allowed to declare phony bankruptcies in order to dump their pensions on the PBGC. They are also allowed to divert funds that should go into pension funds towards covering health care costs as well as buying back company stocks and making dividend payouts to stockholders. The list could go on for the ways the political system lets the corporations off the hook at the cost of threatening workers’ retirement. The effect of these measures is to starve the pension system in order to fatten corporate profits.
In addition, the Great Recession has also had a debilitating effect on pension funding. A jobless recovery means fewer workers able to contribute. If corporations were adequately taxed on the trillions they are hoarding to finance a real jobs program, this would not be a problem. Instead, the corporations and their politicians are pursuing the opposite course. They are using the bad economy to justify making the problem worse by cutting away at company obligations to their workers and their pensions.
The provision of the bill Obama signed into law on July 6th regarding pension funding demonstrates the bipartisan priorities geared towards benefiting corporations at the expense of workers. The public justification for this scheme is that the economy is bad and it wouldn’t help workers if these companies went broke as a result of trying to cover the pension shortfalls.
This is a variation of the same line of argument used to justify all austerity measures. Playing on the assumption of common cause between the economic elite and workers, corporations plead poverty and sermonize on the need for “shared sacrifice.” The truth, however, is that big business isn’t broke. There is plenty of money to assure a comfortable retirement for all workers, not to mention universal health care, social security, and full employment. The problem isn’t fiscal, it’s political. The corporations do not want to pay their fair share, and they own the political system.
Solutions to the pension crisis will not be found within the Democratic or Republican Parties. It will take the force of an independent social movement to make the rich pay. Such a social movement could start with the demands of “Jobs – Not Cuts” “Tax the Rich.” From this starting point, it could mature to take on other issues that unite workers such as a solution to the pension crisis.
What kind of solution could be proposed? A demand that a mass movement can get behind. In order for this to happen the demand would have to solve the crisis, be easily understood to inspire, and make a clear demarcation between the interests of the 99% and 1%. To do this a social movement around the pension crisis should call on the federal government to takeover pensions with a heavy tax on corporations that would ensure that they are fully funded and fine those who have willfully failed to properly pay into their pension funds. Then we could demand that Social Security be strengthened so that it could gradually replace the precarious pensions offered in both the public and private sectors. But demands around pensions should be linked to the more immediately pressing demand for most workers, namely a massive jobs creation program. In this way working people will be united and in a position to mount a massive campaign.
Mark Vorpahl is an union steward, social justice activist, and writer for Workers’ Action – www.workerscompass.org. He can be reached at Portland@workerscompass.org.
Notes.
(1) “New law gives US companies a break on pensions” by Alan Fram. http://www.dailytribune.com/article/20120709/FINANCE01/120709544/new-law-gives-us-companies-a-break-on-pensions&pager=full_story
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US worried by Russia ‘foreign agent’ bill for NGOs
Press TV – July 12, 2012
The US says it has been worried by a Russian bill that would force non-governmental organizations (NGOs) financed by other states to register as “foreign agents.”
“The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve the right to be heard and have a voice in government. That’s why we’ve raised our concerns about the potential passage of this new NGO legislation,” said Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the US Department of State.
The comments came after Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has passed the bill in its first reading.
The bill, if passed in the second reading of the state Duma on Friday, would force the NGOs to publish a report of their activities twice a year and carry out an annual financial audit.
The founders of the non-governmental organizations would face four-year jail sentences and/or fines of up to 300,000 rubles (USD 9,200) if they failed to comply with the law.
The legislation is expected to be reviewed by the Federation Council upper house on July 18.
The use of the term of “foreign agents” in the law was equivalent with “spying and treason” in the Soviet era.
Disputes over who has been funding Russian NGOs have increased after some controversial remarks made by the US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul who said in April that the Obama administration would like to set up a ‘civil society fund’ in Russia.
Rejecting reports about US involvement in anti-government protests that hit Moscow during the country’s presidential elections, McFaul said the US government funds no organization in Russia except independent NGOs.
South Sudan activist found beaten into a “coma” after disappearance
Sudan Tribune | July 8, 2012
JUBA – The Chairperson of South Sudan’s Civil Society Alliance, Deng Athuai, who is a prominent anti-corruption and human rights activist, was found by the side of a road in Juba on Saturday tied in a sack and severely beaten, according to military sources.
A military intelligence source told Sudan Tribune that Athuai was found “crying inside sack along the road side” between Kabur-tit and Gumba forest by the South Sudan security services.
Athuai is reported to have been taken to the Juba Teaching Hospital and is in a “coma”, according to a nurse who did not wish to be named.
“Athuai is suffering for internal wounds in his stomach, head, eye, feet and throat”, the nurse told Sudan Tribune.
The executive director of the Civil Society Alliance, Biel Boutros Biel told South Sudan Radio on Friday that Athuai had disappeared after leaving his residence at the Beach Hotel in Juba on Wednesday.
Boutros, who heads the South Sudan Human Rights Advocacy Association (SSHRAA), said that he suspected that his colleague, who has been instrumental in anti-corruption campaigning and other issues, had been kidnapped. He refused to speculate over who could be responsible.
Athuai was among the activists that marched to South Sudan’s parliament demanding the government publish the names of the officials alleged to have stolen a total of $4 billion since 2005.
South Sudan celebrates it’s first year as an independent nation on Monday 9 July, having voted to secede from Sudan after decades of civil war. Greater human rights, better governance, freedom of expression and association were among the causes the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) stated as it’s aims during the 1983-2005 conflict.
The SPLA is now South Sudan’s official army, while the SPLM is the country’s ruling party. Corruption, human rights abuses and insecurity are some of the major internal issues facing the young nation.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir wrote to 75 senior officials on 3 May asking them to return stolen money.
“We fought for freedom, justice and equality,” President ’Kiir’s letter reads. “Yet, once we got to power, we forgot what we fought for and began to enrich ourselves at the expense of our people.”
Human Rights Watch and other groups are taking the opportunity of South Sudan’s first independence anniversary to urge the SPLM to mark the occasion by freeing all unlawfully detained prisoners, guaranteeing freedom of speech, and accelerating ratification of key international human rights treaties.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others of called on Juba to take steps to ensure that security forces are held accountable for human rights abuses.
Major General Mac Paul, the deputy director of military intelligence for South Sudan, told Sudan Tribune that he did not know what had happened to Athuai.
World Bank pays $22.3 million to PA budget
Ma’an – July 4, 2012
BETHLEHEM – The World Bank on Tuesday said it paid $22.3 million to the Palestinian Authority to help with a budget crisis.
The funds are from a trust paid into by the governments of Australia, France, Kuwait, Norway, and the UK, the World Bank said in a statement.
It noted that the aid was slated to support education, health care and other social services and for the economic reforms undertaken by the West Bank government.
The Palestinian Authority labor minister said Saturday that due to the government’s worsening financial crisis, public sector salaries would not be paid on time in July.
Israeli and Palestinian officials told Reuters on Monday that Israel had sought a $1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund for the Palestinian Authority to prevent its financial collapse.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the IMF turned down the request because it did not want to set a precedent of one state getting a loan on behalf of a non-state body.
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PA security drive against Palestinians is its “basic role”, claim Israeli officials
MEMO | July 3, 2012
The Palestinian Authority’s extensive security and detention drive against Palestinian activists in the occupied West Bank has been described by Israeli officials as the PA’s “basic role”. It represents, they claim, “the extension of the PA’s sovereignty over all issues” in the occupied territory.
According to Israeli media reports, the PA began its campaign several weeks ago. Included among those detained by the PA security services are a number of its own senior officers who have refused to cooperate with the Israeli occupation authorities. This move has been well received in Israel.
As part of the campaign, the PA has confiscated more than 100 guns and arrested more than 150 “terrorist” suspects from the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus. Apparently, members of the former Al-Aqsa Brigades and senior PA military officers who have received special counter-terrorism training in the US and Jordan are among those arrested.
Israeli officials described this campaign as similar to that carried out by the PA in 2009 through which it tried to destroy the Hamas infrastructure in Qalqilya; six Palestinians were killed on that occasion.
More PA forces are to be deployed in the northern West Bank to follow-up on the latest developments. Israel’s Shabak intelligence service cooperates with PA officials, supplying them with detailed information on the whereabouts of suspects and fugitives.
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IMF refuses to give $1bn loan to the PA
MEMO | July 3, 2012
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has rejected a request from Benjamin Netanyahu to offer the Palestinian Authority a $1 billion loan, because the PA “is not a state”. The Israeli Prime Minister made the request via the governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, after discussions about the PA’s financial crisis with the Ramallah Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
If agreed, the loan would have been repaid through Israel. The IMF said that it rejected the Israeli request because it did not want to set a precedent of a state taking a loan on behalf of a non-state entity. It is believed that the request was made in April during the IMF’s annual conference in Washington.
Fayyad told Fischer that Europe and the US are unable to increase their financial support for the PA because of the economic crisis; Arab States are not transferring the funds they have promised; and Palestinian banks are refusing to extend any more credit to the government due to its inability to make debt repayments. Insider sources claim that Fayyad and Fischer are still discussing the financial problems in the hope of finding a solution and preventing the potential collapse of the authority.
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Columnist Clarence Page Spoke at Rally for Iranian Militant Group
By Justin Elliott | ProPublica | July 2, 2012
Late last month, syndicated columnist Clarence Page appeared at a rally in Paris in support of the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian group that has been lobbying Washington to be removed from the U.S. government’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.
Before a huge crowd waving portraits of MEK leaders Maryam and Massoud Rajavi as well as Iranian flags, Page called for the MEK to be removed from the official terrorist organization list.
Contacted about the appearance by ProPublica, Page said he has decided to give back his speaking fee for the event, as well as reimburse the cost of travel to and from France, which was paid for by a group called the Organizing Committee for Convention for Democracy in Iran.
“I thought they were simply a group of Iranian exiles who were opposed to the regime in Tehran,” Page said. “I later found out they can be construed as a MEK front group, and I don’t think it’s worth it to my reputation to be perceived as a paid spokesman for any political cause.”
Page said he was paid a fee of $20,000 and travel expenses and that he attended the June 23 event during vacation time. He said he just arrived back at work from vacation and has not yet given back the money. He did not have the text of the speech he delivered, but he told ProPublica he spoke in favor of the MEK being removed from the list of terrorist organizations, a move he expects to occur shortly.
The MEK, which fiercely opposes the current regime in Iran, has mounted a high-priced lobbying and legal battle to get off the terrorist list in recent years. The group was placed on the list in 1997 by the Clinton Administration, which cited its record of attacks against Iranian targets. The group also “assassinated several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran” in the 1970s when the U.S. was allied with the Shah, according to the State Department. The MEK says it has renounced violence. A federal appeals court last month ordered the State Department to decide within four months whether the MEK should remain on the list.
Groups supporting the MEK have paid millions of dollars to attract former officials and retired military officers to appear at events supporting the group in recent years. But because the MEK is an officially designated terrorist organization, it is illegal for Americans to accept money from the MEK itself. NBC reported in March that former officials had received subpoenas as part of a federal probe “focused on whether the former officials may have received funding, directly or indirectly, from the [MEK].”
Besides Page’s role as a columnist whose work is distributed by Tribune Media Services, he is also a member of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board. Page has not written about Iran in his column recently, but the Tribune editorial board regularly weighs in on foreign policy. Last month, the paper called on the Obama administration to “ratchet up the economic pressure” on Iran in the dispute over the country’s nuclear program. A spokeswoman for the Tribune did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Organizers assert that 100,000 people attended the Paris event last month, but that figure has not been independently verified. In a speech, Maryam Rajavi hailed the “unparalleled bipartisan coalition which has challenged the official policy” that labels the MEK a terrorist group.
Others attending the event last month include Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, former Bush administration official John Bolton, and several former high-ranking military officers.
“When I got involved with it, I saw the stellar list of VIPs who were also on the program, and I saw this to be another conference with another speech,” Page said.
Page said the invitation to the event last month came through his agent Janet LeBrun Cosby and Bethesda-based Speakers Worldwide.
~
Video of Newt Gingrich speech at the event:
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Shafiq flees Egypt after election loss
Press TV – June 26, 2012
Egypt’s defeated presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq has left the country just after a probe has been launched into his handling of funds under the former regime.
Shafiq, who lost the June runoff vote to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, flew to the United Arab Emirates in the early hours of Tuesday, AFP quoted an unnamed Cairo airport official as saying.
He was reportedly accompanied by his three daughters and grandchildren.
The departure of Shafiq, who served as the last prime minister under ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak, came hours after the country’s prosecutor general opened a corruption investigation against him.
The inquiry will look into allegations that Shafiq wasted public funds during the eight years he held office as the civil aviation minister under Mubarak.
Meanwhile, rights activists accuse the attorney general of making attempts to hold back some 35 corruption cases against Shafiq by re-transferring them to a military court.
Earlier, Egypt’s former intelligence chief and Vice President Omar Suleiman also left the country for the UAE.
Saudi regime to pay salaries of armed rebels in Syria: Report
Press TV – June 23, 2012
The Saudi regime will pay the salaries of members of the terrorist Free Syrian Army amid ongoing attacks carried out by armed groups inside Syria, a report says.
According to a June 22 report published by the UK newspaper Guardian, Saudi authorities will pay the armed rebels to encourage “mass defections from the military and… pressure” the Damascus government.
The plan has been discussed between officials from Riyadh and Washington, as well as representatives from a number of other Arab states.
US Senator Joe Lieberman also brought up the issue of the salaries during talks with Saudi officials in a recent trip to the kingdom.
According to Lieberman’s spokesperson, the US senator “called for the US to provide robust and comprehensive support” to the armed rebels.
Lieberman “specifically called for the US to work with… partners to provide” the rebels with “weapons, training, tactical intelligence, secure communications and other forms of support.”
Meanwhile, armed groups continue conducting attacks in Syria. The official Syrian news agency, SANA, said terrorists killed 25 civilians in the northern province of Aleppo on June 22.
The Guardian also stated that Turkey has allowed the “establishment of a 22-member command center in Istanbul which is coordinating supply lines” for the rebels inside Syria.
The report was published a day after the New York Times quoted some US and Arab intelligence officials as saying that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar pay for the transport of weaponry for the armed gangs in Syria.
On February 24, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said during a meeting of the so-called “Friends of Syria” group in Tunisia that supplying weapons to Syrian rebels is “an excellent idea.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on March 4 that the “international community’s message might be conveyed to the Syrian administration via certain methods including the arming of the (so-called) Syrian National Council (SNC).”
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree on Saturday, forming a new government under Prime Minister Riad Farid Hijab, the former agriculture minister who was appointed the Syrian premier on June 6.
The move was part of the reforms promised by the Syrian president.
Assad said on June 3 that the country is “facing a war from abroad,” adding that attempts are being made to “weaken Syria, [and] breach its sovereignty.”
“Standing up against the conspiracy is not easy, but we will overcome the obstacles,” he stated.
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Secret document reveals plans for civil war in Lebanon, Israeli false flags, and invasion
By Randi Nord | Geopolitics Alert | April 5, 2019
Beirut – During his visit with US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Lebanese President Michael Aoun reportedly received a US-Israeli document detailing plans for creating a civil war in Lebanon with covert false flag operations and possible Israeli invasion.
Although the source of the document is Israeli and created in partnership with Washington, no one knows who presented it to Aoun. The Lebanese TV station, Al-Jadeed, initially reported the document on Lebanese TV and a video on its website. Geopolitics Alert translated the report for this article. … continue
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