OF COURSE THEY DID -- New York State Pension Agrees To Borrow $6 Billion From Pension To Pay Pension

NY Governor David Paterson awards himself a silver cup for winning Daily Bail's Doofus of the Year for 2010.

---

Excuse me while I shift that future liability from over here, to over there.  Done.  Problem solved.  Future generations may kiss my NY State Comptroller Ass.

Repeat after me: 

• Extend.  Pretend.  Borrow.  And Spend.

Links, live video from the Talking Heads & David Byrne, and outrage are below.

---

Obama:

• "Hey, I just got a super idea.  Let's bailout the state of New York."

---

State Plan Makes Pension Fund Both Borrower and Lender...

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders have tentatively agreed to allow the state and municipalities to borrow nearly $6 billion to help them make their required annual payments to the state pension fund.

And, in classic budgetary sleight-of-hand, they will borrow the money to make the payments to the pension fund — from the same pension fund.

As word of the plan spread, some denounced it as a shell game and a blatant effort by state leaders to avoid making difficult decisions, like cutting government spending or reducing pension benefits.

“It’s a classic Albany example of kicking the can down the road,” said Harry Wilson, the Republican candidate for comptroller, who holds an M.B.A. from Harvard.

Pension costs for the state and municipalities are soaring, a result of enhanced retirement benefits for public employees and the decline in the stock market over the past two years. And, given declines in tax revenue and larger budget shortfalls, the governments are struggling to come up with the money to make the contributions.

Under the plan, the state and municipalities would borrow the money to reduce their pension contributions for the next three years, in exchange for higher payments over the following decade. They would begin repaying what they borrowed, with interest, in 2013.

But Mr. Paterson and other state officials hope the stock market will have rebounded to such a degree by that time that the state’s overall pension contribution burden will have been reduced.

---

Continue reading at the NYT  >>

Video:  Talking Heads -- David Byrne LIVE -- Stop Making Sense Tour -- 1988

• "Psycho Killer.  Qu'est-ce que c'est.  You better run run, run run away."

Comments

[RecoverylessRecovery]

Nice pic. I see 'pane et circenses' is still in vogue.

[Zarathustra]

The good people that are to be last to board that pension train better wake the f up and take the bus.

[Texas Dar]

Thats real smart. Its like sewing back on 3 fingers wile cutting the arm off at the elbo. But the fingers are back on, Aint They !

[RecoverylessRecovery]

"better run, run, run, run ...run away!"

[Ken]

@RLR

HOW CAN WE DREAM A REVOLUTION IN USA NOW?LOL

Bread and Circuses Gone Awry: Mindless Sports Fans Riot in LA

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
June 18, 2010
In Greece, workers riot against austerity measures imposed by the IMF. In 2009 major social unrest and riots erupted in Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria over the financial crisis and the prospect of drastically lower standards of living. The IMF has predicted “violent protests could break out in countries worldwide if the financial system was not restructured to benefit everyone rather than a small elite.”
http://www.infowars.com/bread-and-circuses-gone-awry-mindless-sports-fans-riot-in-la/

[DailyBail]

if we bailout new york state, all hell is going to break loose...

[S. Gompers]

This is how Goobermint pensions (including teachers) pensions get screwed up (borrowing from them), I was waiting for anyone to see the relevance. Every hour you work, money goes into the pension, before long the administrators, (THE STATE) see a large pool of money with which "loans" can be taken from and replaced with IOU's that have no terms of repayment. Soon there is nothing left in the pot but these worthless scraps of paper known as unfunded liabilities, and who do we blame?

The workers.

I know one private pension who "invested" in a jet that the administrators could fly around in, the jet crashed, no survivors, what an investment for the fund.

Many politicians see large pots of money as their personal playground, look at all the IOU's in Social Insecurity, healthcare will be the same.

And all politicians are guilty of putting their hand in the pot at one time or the other, and their respective herds love them for it.

After all, it is the workers fault right? Then pass the liability on to the taxpayer to cover the "theft", after all, that is what it is if you don't pay it back isn't it? That is why it is important for them to shift the blame to the workers.

And Americans love them for it, crabs in a pot...