In our tell all society, there are still some things that the media is just not going to talk about. With all the argument over Paul Ryan's plan to eliminate Medicare, all the articles, all the analysis, there was virtually no discussion of the fact that Ryan proposes to spend even more on Medicare for those now 55 and over and cut taxes. So the debt would rise for another 30 years. And then cut Medicare funding far more than would otherwise be required for those 54 and under. There was one blog post quoting CBS news quoting the owner of this site quoting me. There was one brief New York Times column. A Wall Street Journal columnist wrote the exempting those over 55, the richest generations in U.S. history, from any "shared sacrifice" is what "everyone wants to do" because we need to pay for their promises to themselves. And that's it. No one asked why the same rules shouldn't be applied to the generations making the decisions as to those who will be sacrificed to pay off their debts.
And with all the argument over teacher layoffs, all the articles, blog posts, press releases and protests, no one else has mentioned the connection between falling resources for the classroom and soaring pension costs due to the 2008 deal to allow teachers to retire years earlier. Even with an independent actuary and a retirement research center both identifying the NYC teachers retirement fund as one of the most underfunded major plans in the country. I guess Generation Greed doesn't want to hear "we scored and future generations are screwed." And the mere truth has little standing in our society without some self-interested self promoter to speak it.
My question is this: when the City Council was grilling the new Schools Chancellor about teacher layoffs, did anyone ask about that retirement deal, even though that is the biggest change in the budget over the past few years? It certainly wasn’t written about. After all, allowing existing public employees with seniority to retire earlier and earlier on more favorable terms, and then cutting pay and benefits for new hires, then having the unions claim public employees cannot be expected to do a decent job because they are underpaid, is “what everyone wants to do.”
Almost everyone. And they don’t want to hear any argument to the contrary.