Home | Community | Message Board

Kratom Eye
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Kraken Kratom Shop: Kratom Capsules for Sale

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Offlinelonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall
    #4938557 - 11/15/05 06:42 PM (18 years, 2 months ago)

Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall
Tuesday November 15, 4:25 pm ET
By Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer
Pension Insurance Agency Reports $22.8 Billion Deficit for 2005


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal agency that insures the private pensions of 44 million workers said Tuesday that its deficit was $22.8 billion in 2005, as big airlines in bankruptcy dumped their pension liabilities.
ADVERTISEMENT


The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. disclosed in its annual financial report that as of Sept. 30, it had $56.5 billion in assets to cover $79.2 billion in pension liabilities.

There has been an explosion in recent years in the number of big, ailing companies -- especially in labor-heavy industries like airlines and steel -- transferring their pension liabilities to the PBGC. With billions of dollars flying out of the agency's door, concern has been mounting in Congress and elsewhere over its financial footing.

"Unfortunately, the financial health of the PBGC is not improving," the agency's executive director, Bradley D. Belt, said in a statement. "The money available to pay benefits is eventually going to run out unless Congress enacts comprehensive pension reform to get plans better funded and provide the insurance program with additional resources."

The PBGC's $22.8 billion deficit for fiscal 2005 takes into account both the pension liabilities the agency has assumed and those it expects to take over in the future. It is slightly narrowed from the $23.3 billion shortfall it reported a year ago, which was a record. If events such as companies terminating their pension plans that occurred after the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 had been counted, the 2005 deficit would have been $25.7 billion, the agency said.

Without a legislative overhaul of the private pension system, the PBGC eventually will run out of money to pay the pension claims of the retirees of companies whose plans it has assumed, some experts predict. That would mean that people retiring from financially troubled companies would have nowhere else to turn for their promised pension payments -- raising the possibility of a taxpayer bailout.

Traditional employer-paid pension plans, giving retirees a fixed monthly amount based on salary and years of employment, are now estimated to be underfunded by as much as $450 billion. That could jeopardize the retirement security of millions of Americans, lawmakers have warned.

Tuesday's disclosure by the PBGC "serves as yet another troubling reminder that Congress needs to act on comprehensive reforms to our nation's traditional pension system this year," said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. "I'm committed to completing work on comprehensive reform to protect workers, retirees and taxpayers."

United Airlines and US Airways used bankruptcy earlier this year, with judges' blessings, to slash costs by dumping their employee pension liabilities -- a combined $9.6 billion -- onto the PBGC.

Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines, which both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 14, may seek to do the same. The pension plans of Delta and Northwest, the nation's No. 3 and No. 4 airlines, are underfunded by an estimated $16.3 billion.

And there is speculation that auto parts maker Delphi Corp., which filed for protection from creditors last month, also could terminate its pension plan and transfer liability to the federal agency.

For months, lawmakers have been grappling with an overhaul of the rules governing company pension plans to tighten controls over employers with underfunded plans and shore up the PBGC's finances. Legislation cleared a key House committee last Wednesday, advancing what could be the most important retirement issue Congress will address this year as Social Security's overhaul has faded into the background.

The full House could take up the bill as early as this week.

Democrats generally oppose it. They say it could lead some employers to drop their pension plans or switch from traditional so-called defined-benefit plans to less expensive defined-contribution programs, such as 401(k) plans -- in which employers contribute to a retirement fund and workers receive only what the investments have earned.

Many companies are replacing defined-benefit pension plans with defined-contribution plans. The PBGC only backs defined-benefit plans, which are most prevalent in older industries such as automobile manufacturing, steel and airlines -- now reeling from record fuel costs, historically low fares and cutthroat competition.

The agency was created in 1974 as a government insurance program for traditional employer-paid pension plans. Companies pay insurance premiums to the agency, and if an employer can no longer support its pension plan, the agency takes over the assets and liabilities and pays promised benefits to retirees up to certain limits.

Some employees do not receive their full pension benefits when the PBGC takes over a plan. The maximum annual benefit for plans assumed by the agency this year is $45,614 for workers who wait until 65 to retire.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.: http://www.pbgc.gov


my wallet has a bad feeling.....


--------------------
America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"

We have "reckless fiscal policies"

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better

Barack Obama


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinekilgore_trout
Stranger
Registered: 10/17/03
Posts: 1,607
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
Re: Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall [Re: lonestar2004]
    #4938626 - 11/15/05 06:56 PM (18 years, 2 months ago)

i wonder if they would let pensions for workers fall apart while defecit spending on military.


--------------------
"I didnt fight a secret war in nicaragua so you could walk these streets of freedom bad-mouthing lady america in your damn mirrored sunglasses."


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinekilgore_trout
Stranger
Registered: 10/17/03
Posts: 1,607
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
Re: Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall [Re: kilgore_trout]
    #4938628 - 11/15/05 06:57 PM (18 years, 2 months ago)

perhaps i shouldnt have said "i wonder". You all prob got it though.


--------------------
"I didnt fight a secret war in nicaragua so you could walk these streets of freedom bad-mouthing lady america in your damn mirrored sunglasses."


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinelonestar2004
Live to party,work to affordit.
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 8,978
Loc: South Texas
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
Re: Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall [Re: kilgore_trout]
    #4938763 - 11/15/05 07:24 PM (18 years, 2 months ago)

i would vote "not to bail them out". (if we get to vote) and yes for military spending.

i am not counting on anyone to take care of me when i am old. i continue to work hard to build personal assets.

So why should i have to suffer because people lacked the cognitive ability to think about the future.

I bet even right now there are employees at General Moters who think that the company will take care of them when they retire.


--------------------
America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"

We have "reckless fiscal policies"

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better

Barack Obama


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinekilgore_trout
Stranger
Registered: 10/17/03
Posts: 1,607
Last seen: 15 years, 6 months
Re: Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall [Re: lonestar2004]
    #4938997 - 11/15/05 08:11 PM (18 years, 2 months ago)

:shake:


--------------------
"I didnt fight a secret war in nicaragua so you could walk these streets of freedom bad-mouthing lady america in your damn mirrored sunglasses."


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineRedstorm
Prince of Bugs
Male

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 10/08/02
Posts: 44,175
Last seen: 3 months, 10 days
Re: Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall [Re: lonestar2004]
    #4939004 - 11/15/05 08:13 PM (18 years, 2 months ago)

The government has no responsibility to bail out private companies or their workers.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleGabbaDjS
BTH
 User Gallery

Registered: 04/08/01
Posts: 19,679
Loc: By The Lake
Re: Pension Agency Reports $22.8B Shortfall [Re: Redstorm]
    #4940262 - 11/16/05 01:30 AM (18 years, 2 months ago)

Quote:

Redstorm said:
The government has no responsibility to bail out private companies or their workers.




But they did bail out the airlines...
Several airlines simply stopped paying into the pension plans and when the unions sued, the government forgave the airlines and said that pensions fall under their bankruptcy agreement.

People who were once collecting pension benefits after several decades of loyal service suddenly found themselves pennyless.

I have a pension plan through my union.. Im suposed to get a generous retirement check, every month when I retire..









I dont plan on that ever happening.


--------------------
GabbaDj

FAMM.ORG             


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Kraken Kratom Shop: Kratom Capsules for Sale


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Iraq: 22-55000 dead, health crisis for "generations"
( 1 2 all )
Xlea321 1,640 21 11/17/03 03:59 AM
by st0nedphucker
* Migrants reported found in desert Los_Pepes 1,038 5 10/24/05 04:41 PM
by bukkake
* Whistleblower Explodes 9-11 Commission Report SquattingMarmot 735 2 08/05/04 09:25 AM
by Learyfan
* CIA asks Justice Dept. to review prisons report lonestar2004 368 0 11/09/05 09:09 AM
by lonestar2004
* Ex-CIA says sacked for not faking Iraq WMD reports
( 1 2 3 all )
LearyfanS 4,357 56 12/14/04 04:23 PM
by Imagican
* Newsweek disavows Koran desecration report that led to riots
( 1 2 3 4 5 6 all )
zappaisgod 7,588 105 07/09/05 06:14 PM
by lonestar2004
* Scathing Oil-For-Food Report Draws Denials RandalFlagg 1,123 16 10/31/05 04:39 PM
by exclusive58
* Yet Another Agency in Charge of Domestic Intelligence? Skeptikos 381 0 02/19/06 11:55 AM
by Skeptikos

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Enlil, ballsalsa
631 topic views. 3 members, 6 guests and 6 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.023 seconds spending 0.006 seconds on 14 queries.