Retiree
5/20/2012 If you get a chance, please take the time to read page 4 of the spring 2012 Journal about health care. It can show how politicians can manipulate what we have bought and paid for over our working life time. Also I would like to include a link to a similar story on Social Security. http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2012/05/04/social-security-is-not-going-broke/ The point is simple, we have already proven that insurance companies do not want to take on risk and this is why they lobbied years ago to have the government run elderly health care. Medicare works very well or it would have not been around so long. Do not be fooled by the political smoke and mirrors that distracts from the reason that we have a national system at present.’ On the Social Security issue, once again we have paid over our working lives for an insurance benefit that belongs to every person that paid into it. Tell your politicians that because you spent our benefit unwisely, that it does not mean they can void their obligation just because big money put them in office. If reading the SS link some of the blog reading is spot on and these are just regular people that do get it. As I write this if you are retired, you do have the time to read and also we owe our knowledge to our younger generations.
4/29/2012 Freeing Boomers From Social Security Cuts Blows Up Math By Brian Faler - Apr 26, 2012 12:01 AM ET Young people may be the biggest casualties of the U.S. Congress’s unwillingness to fix Social Security. Retiring Baby Boomers are swelling the program’s rolls, with 10,000 turning 65 every day, according to the Pew Research Center. By 2035, there will be only two workers paying taxes to finance benefits for every retiree. While lawmakers have no solution, they generally agree they can’t make significant cuts for those in or near retirement.
“It’s like a seesaw -- if one side is up, the other side has to be down,” he said. “Nobody wants to do the actual things you have to do so you don’t screw your kids on this stuff.” The Social Security benefits math is an illustration of the price of failing to address the long-anticipated retirement of the Baby Boom generation. The eldest of those 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 became eligible for Social Security four years ago. The basic problem with the benefits math is the number of retirees in this generation is growing much faster than the number of workers supporting them through the Social Security payroll tax. Decades in the Making The trend has been decades in the making. In 1965, for example, 81 million workers were supporting 20 million beneficiaries -- about a four-to-one ratio. That will shrink this year to a ratio of 2.8 workers, according to an annual report released this week by the Social Security trustees. By 2035, the ratio will decline to 2 workers, the trustees said, with 186 million workers and 91 million Americans receiving benefits. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have a plan to fix the problem. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s 2013 budget proposal calls for overhauling the government’s other major retirement program, Medicare, while suggesting that policymakers offer ideas on Social Security. President Barack Obama has expressed support for shoring up the program without proposing specific solutions. The last major cuts to the program were made in 1983. Some lawmakers who have resisted making changes said the trustees’ report, which showed the program’s trust fund will run dry in 2033, emphasized they have time to consider solutions. 20 Years More “The program will be fully funded for more than 20 years, so we have time to find smart ways to improve it,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat whose panel has jurisdiction over the program. The trustees said once the trust fund is depleted, incoming revenue will be enough to cover only three-quarters of scheduled benefits. That means if Congress doesn’t act, after that payments would be cut by 25 percent for all beneficiaries including “the poor 95-year-old widow,” said Chuck Blahous, one of the program’s trustees. Lawmakers generally agree it’s unfair to make significant cuts for current retirees because they’ve planned around the current system and don’t have time to rebuild their nest eggs to make up the difference from any cuts. According to AARP, the advocacy group for the elderly, Social Security checks kept 35 percent of seniors out of poverty in 2010. ‘Over a Lifetime’ “People make their decisions over a lifetime -- they do a certain amount of saving, they do a certain amount of spending on the assumption that they’ve earned this particular benefit,”Blahous said. “We should strain every nerve and muscle to make sure that the people already in retirement, whatever their income level, don’t lose benefits they planned on.” That’s one reason why Ryan’s Medicare overhaul wouldn’t take effect until 2023 and would apply only to those currently younger than 55. The chairmen of Obama’s debt-reduction commission called for changing Social Security’s benefit formula only for those retiring after 2016. They also proposed raising the retirement age -- starting in 2027. If lawmakers wait until 2033 to act and decide to exempt those already on the rolls from cuts, they couldn’t make the program’s finances balance even if they began eliminating benefits for younger Americans, according to Blahous. “That’s how crazily out of balance it is by then,” he said. “The options before us in 2033 are just not feasible.” Part of the reason for lawmakers’ inaction, even as they debate overhauling Medicare, is that it’s politically more difficult to cut Social Security, said Marc Goldwein, policy director of the Washington-based Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Differences From Medicare That’s because with Medicare there are middle men. The government pays doctors and hospitals and others to care for seniors. If Congress cuts payments to them, seniors may not notice. By contrast, with Social Security, there is just the government and a check, and it’s harder for beneficiaries not to notice the cuts. “With Social Security, everyone is very clear on exactly what they’re getting,” Goldwein said. “With Medicare, it’s much more abstract.” The irony may be that the longer Congress waits to address the issue, the more wrenching the changes will need to be and the more likely lawmakers will have to accept solutions they don’t want, Blahous said. “If you delay long enough, neither side gets what they want,” he said. “If you delay long enough, then you have to swallow tax increases that conservatives don’t want, and if you delay long enough, you have to abandon a lot of the benefit protections that progressives want. So everybody loses.” To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net
4/27/2012 Stern Advice: Countdown to Retirement By Linda Stern | Reuters – Wed, Apr 18, 2012 3:00 PM EDT
Usually, when people talk about someone "going through a stage" they are talking about a 2-year-old or a teen. But there's another age at which people go through a key transitional period, also marked by angst and rebellion: Call it pre-retirement.
It sets in by the time workers hit their late 50s, even though they are told they should work for another decade or so to maximize their retirement security. But it hits for real about five years before an expected retirement date. It's the period that Prudential Financial Inc calls "the red zone" and another insurance company, Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, calls "the transitional phase." Both of those companies talk about that pre-retirement period in the context of selling annuities -- insurance products that offer tax benefits and lifetime income in exchange for large sums of money. But buying insurance or some other financial product is the easy part of retirement planning; the hard work should happen first. Here are some guidelines for getting through that phase with a minimum of stress and strain. Get specific about life planning. This can be the most challenging part of the exercise; the rest is just numbers. What are the activities you really care about? Where do you want to travel and need to travel? What kind of lifestyle do you think you will have? There are ways to get help with this. The University of North Carolina at Asheville runs "Creative Retirement Exploration" weekends (http://ncccr.unca.edu/creative-retirement-exploration-weekend). A variety of books and websites claim to be able to help with lifestyle planning. Mutual fund company T. Rowe Price has a new interactive online exercise called "Ready 2 Retire" that walks older workers through some of these questions. Become a Social Security savant. The program is complicated, but will make a significant contribution to almost everyone who retires in the United States. There are a series of strategies you can use to maximize your benefits, especially if you are married. Couples can tag-team their benefits, claim them and suspend them, defer them and more. It makes sense to get a good numbers person, an actuary or an accountant, who understands all of this, to help you figure out which strategy is best for you. At least one company, Social Security Solutions (http://www.socialsecuritysolutions) claims to have all of that down to a science. For a fee, it will come up with a comprehensive benefits plan for you. Do a health-care plan. Private health insurance will change over the next few years, regardless of whether the Obama healthcare reform law is permitted to stand. And it's impossible to predict the future in the way that some companies ask you to. For example, T. Rowe Price asks: "Where would you prefer to receive long-term care? At home, adult day-care center, assisted living facility, nursing home?" But you can figure out if you're covered for gaps before Medicare kicks in at 65 and afterwards. How is your health? Do you need to be near certain medical facilities? What drugs do you take regularly? Will they be covered under Medicare? What are your personal priorities in a gap-filling policy and how cheaply and reliably can you fulfill them? Take inventory of all of your assets. Retirement accounts, savings, company retirement plans, the value of your home and more. Take the time between now and actual retirement to decide, either on your own or with expert help, which of those assets will fund your early retirement and which will fund your late retirement and how much they will allow you to spend. Study taxes, too. Learn about the tax properties of those various baskets of money. Which ones will provoke taxable events when you withdraw money? Does your state and municipality offer any property or income tax breaks to retirees? How much could you save on taxes if you moved in retirement? Taxes are just one line item in a family budget, but retirees have a lot of options for managing their tax bills. Get real numbers. Ask your employer and the Social Security Administration exactly how much you have coming to you in retirement benefits at various years. Organize your debts. It may be okay to go into retirement with debts, especially something like a very low interest rate mortgage. But not if you have to withdraw tax-deferred money to make payments on high interest loans. Furthermore, once you are retired, it may be harder to line up a home equity line of credit. So prepare to pay off the loans you don't want to keep, and lock in the ones you do. Think about getting help. The most expensive, dangerous decision you can make at this stage is choosing the wrong financial adviser and turning all of your money over to him or her. Don't rush to consolidate all of your money with one person, even if you eventually move in that direction. Figure out what aspects of retirement financial planning you do or do not need help with. Learn about the different kinds of financial advisers and what they specialize in. Talk to several before choosing your favorite. Survey retirement services. Big discount brokers and mutual fund companies will do a lot for a little in terms of organizing and automating retirement withdrawals for you. Local nonprofits and governments offer many services and activities to retirees at free or reduced cost. Line up your next gig. Do you want to go cold turkey, working full-tilt one day, and be fully retired the next? If not, use the last three or four years before retirement getting ready for the next phase. Take classes, set up a side business or start laying the groundwork for Phase II, so that when retirement comes, you're ready. It also helps to spend money while you are still earning it. Outfit your retirement wood-shop or art studio before you stop working; the expenses will be easier to bear. Start doing lifestyle experiments. If you intend to dramatically change your life in retirement, use your vacations between now and then to live a little. Travel to the places where you expect to spend time. Immerse in weekend activities like the ones you think will take up your days when you're done working. You may even change your mind about retiring, but you'll have fun on the way. (The Stern Advice column appears weekly, and at additional times as warranted. Linda Stern can be reached at linda.stern@thomsonreuters.com.)
4/24/2012 The Great Recession hammered investments across the board. But perhaps no one was more devastated by the economic downturn than retirees or those on the verge of retirement. People who already retired were no longer working, so they had no chance to earn back the money lost. People close to retirement were left scrambling to regain losses quickly or delay retirementaltogether. It's no coincidence that around this time, a new kind of scam emerged that targeted financially stressed retirees. These scams take many forms, but perhaps the most common is what is known as a "free lunch" scam. Here's how it works: An advertisement is placed in a newspaper or online promising a high-reward, low-risk investment that directly benefits retirees. It also promises a free lunch at a local restaurant, where a more expansive sales pitch can be made. At the lunch, a polished broker promises market-beating returns. All the retiree has to do is roll over his or her 401(k) account into an account run by the broker's firm. There's some talk about risk and fees but with high returns, those fees would be nominal. Desperate to make up the money lost in the bear market, the retiree agrees. Once that money is under the broker's control, it disappears. The retirees are told that unforeseen market fluctuations caused steep losses in their account. According to the broker, there's little to nothing left. The retirees are left broke; the broker most likely walks off with the money. These scams have become so common that the American Association of Retired People (AARP) started a No Free Lunch campaign to increase awareness. "We have people who are concerned about lack of credentials, high-pressured pitches, promises of high returns, and virtually no risk," says Sally Hurme, a lawyer and project manager with AARP education and outreach. "We want them to report their concerns back to us in an easy reporting form available at this site." Wide range of scams. Free lunch scams are hardly the only ones that target seniors. In "mystery shopper" scams, people receive a large check from what appears to be a government agency with instructions to deposit the check into a checking account. There are also instructions to spend a portion of the money at a particular store, keep a bit in the account, and wire the rest overseas. Sounds like easy money. But the check is bogus and the money being transferred out of the account belongs to the victim. Then there's medical fraud, in which seniors are targeted for unneeded tests, and a relative-in-distress fraud, in which a person calls claiming to be a long-lost relative in need of money. There are also Ponzi schemes, made famous by Bernie Madoff. Money raised from new investors is used to pay old investors. Sooner or later, the scheme collapses and everyone loses their cash. Other fraudsters sell unregistered securities, like promissory notes or sales in microstocks. According to Katherine Hutt, director of communications at the Council of Better Business Bureaus, these are just a sampling of the scams aimed at seniors. "During retirement specifically, there are so many different scams that targets seniors," she says. "There are a lot of scam artists that fly under the radar." Fraud warning signs. Gerri Walsh, vice president of investor education at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), says a scammer's primary way of targeting a victim is through persuasion. To gain trust through persuasion, he or she uses five primary methods: Promises of phantom riches. "They dangle something that you want but can't have--guaranteed returns and promises of untold riches," Walsh says. Source credibility. "This is the idea that we all want to work with the person who is the expert. We seek out the person who is knowledgeable," according to Walsh. "A con man looks the part of the authoritative figure, but authority can be faked. Diplomas you claim to have, accolades you have gained--it can all be made up." Social consensus. "Everybody is doing it, and you don't want to be the one that's left off the bus. You want to be with the 'in' crowd," she says. Reciprocity. "The idea behind this is the concept of 'I do something nice for you, you do something nice for me,'" Walsh says. "There's been a lot of research that's been done that shows when you give someone something, that person is more likely to give back to you." Scarcity. "It's used to create a false sense of urgency--something is time-limited. They might say it's quantity-limited. They also might claim something is exclusive," Walsh says. "This is the idea that this opportunity is only available to a select group of investors, and you are one of them." According to Walsh, the best scammers will use these tactics on a mark without the mark realizing that he or she is being targeted. How to fight back. Walsh says the best weapon against cons is simple: Ask a lot of questions. "The process is designed to weigh you down so that you're in an ether and not making a rational decision--you're making an emotional one," she says. "The best way to avoid this situation is to ask questions. If you make the con's work difficult, they'll back away." "You've got to do your own independent research," adds AARP's Hurme. "You have to verify the info and not let the glitter and glamour of a brochure that is not a regular prospectus get in the way of prudent caution." 8 Potential Money Pitfalls for RetireesMoney Traps Facing the Older Set By Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell | MainStreet – Thu, Mar 15, 2012 10:27 AM EDT
For many Americans, retiring means entering a new realm of financial realities, from learning to live on a pension or Social Security checks to downsizing to a smaller home. Unfortunately, while retirement can be a great time to enjoy the later years of life, there are several pitfalls to watch out for to guarantee your money lasts.
Reducing the bite of pet care costs By Stephanie AuWerter @Money April 13, 2012: 5:05 PM ET
(MONEY Magazine) -- Jinkies, a great dane, was just 10 weeks old when she was stepped on by another dog, breaking the fibular growth plate in her leg. Her owners, Scott and Ronda Warywoda of Twentynine Palms, Calif., were determined to nurse their pet back to health. After getting the diagnosis -- and learning that the injury could prevent the dog from growing normally -- Ronda drove 65 miles to an orthopedic specialist for experimental surgery to remove part of the bone and to cushion the area with fat from the pup's abdomen. Total tab, including three months of physical therapy: about $8,000. Those bills put a strain on Scott and Ronda, an X-ray technologist and administrative assistant. Still, she says, "we'd do it all over again." Americans invested a record $13 billion on vet care in 2011 -- up 89% from a decade ago, according to the American Pet Products Association. Fueling the surge is the fact that domestic animals can now undergo everything from MRIs to stem-cell treatments. Sales pro finds dogs make better clients"These days, pets have the same medical opportunities as humans," says veterinarian Emily Pointer of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As a result, over the life of an animal you can now spend into the tens of thousands, particularly if your pet develops a chronic illness. And many owners -- the Warywodas among them -- find it difficult to say no when their furry friend's health is at stake. Here's how to manage your pet's care costs, without ending up in the financial doghouse: Keep Fluffy healthyMany health problems can be avoided with preventive care. That starts with keeping your pet fit. Today 53% of dogs and 55% of cats are overweight or obese, reports the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. "Lassie used to be running around saving people, but now she's collapsed in front of the TV watching Animal Planet," jokes Idaho veterinarian andVetstreet.com columnist Marty Becker. Just as with humans, extra pounds can lead to costly health problems, like high blood pressure and diabetes. So shoot to keep your pet at the weight he was as a young adult, says Becker. Get a pooch "panting tired" every day; make sure your feline gets daily play. Weight-reducing pet food can be effective, but it's costly; for most animals, old-fashioned portion control should do the trick. Pointer advises visiting the vet at least once yearly -- twice as your pet gets into midlife -- to keep small problems in check. Dental disease, for example, can lead to kidney, liver, and heart problems if not caught early. Be a patient advocateSome 43% of pet owners feel their vet often suggests treatments that are beyond reasonable and necessary, found an AP-Petside.com poll. For help on when to say when, put these questions to the doctor: What's the prognosis after care? A cat treated with chemo for large-cell lymphoma, for example, may live only nine to 12 more months, notes Pointer. What's the alternative? A good veterinarian will give you a range of options. What will it cost? Besides in-office costs, be sure to find out about follow-up expenses, such as medications. If the cost is prohibitive, shop around among other vets for a better price. Create your own Fido fundWith pet-care spending skyrocketing, it's no wonder that pet-insurance sales have followed: They're up around 44% since 2009, reports research firm Packaged Facts. Is a policy worth the price ($25 to $75 a month)? Probably not, says Carbondale, Ill., financial planner Jeff Rose. Many plans have caps on what they'll pay out; others reimburse you only after a per-incident deductible has been met. Plus, preexisting conditions are generally not covered, and genetic problems are often excluded as well, although some plans offer coverage via a higher premium. Questions about pet insurance? Ask The Help Desk.Instead, Rose suggests, start a savings account for your pet's health: "It's like setting up a college fund when your kids are young. You know that eventually they'll need it." Pointer says $3,000 is a good goal, enough to cover at least one Buster-ate-a-sock emergency. Do you know a Money Hero? Money magazine is celebrating people, both famous and unsung, who have done extraordinary work to improve others' financial well-being. Nominate your Money Hero. 4/8/2012Is Gasoline Busting your Budget?I’m pretty lucky that I only have a 3 mile commute to work and $25 worth of gas usually lasts me a week. The last time gas prices spiked in 2008, I had a 40 mile round-trip commute and spent $75 per week on gas. I commuted for 25 years and it was an expensive proposition. When gas hits $4 per gallon, it costs me $100 just to fill up the tank on my F150. That’s a real budget buster. We’re Getting Ripped Off
Image by Kevin Dooley I read an article last week that estimated 15% of gas prices are caused purely by speculators. So, even though domestic use of gasoline in this country is down from 2008, oil prices aren’t. Investment banks and hedge funds are bidding up the prices and taking a tidy profit, even though they have no use for the oil futures. Oil companies are making record profits based on the speculation, so they are happy with the scam. Don’t expect them to give up any of this money anytime soon. Another way we are getting ripped off is by retail control of pricing. Oil companies are quietly forcing out independent filling station owners and running the stations themselves. This allows them to set the retail prices, which is why gasoline prices remain high even after oil drops. Plus, they have consolidated the number of refineries, which gives them control of the supply of gasoline. The government is a big part of the problem. Not only do they need the tax revenue from energy, they have misguided energy policies that hurt consumers. President Bush was an oil man and everything his administration did benefited the oil companies. President Obama is for alternative energy and his administration believes high gas prices will move consumers away from oil. Either way, they are picking winners and losers. We are the losers. What about Peak Oil?There are some estimates that Peak Oil (the maximum amount that can be produced per year) may come as soon as 2015. I don’t know if this date is accurate and to be quite honest nobody really knows when peak oil will hit. But, there are major production drops in some of the world’s largest oilfields, including those in Mexico and Iran. The major oilfields in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been pumping for over 60 years, so they will likely run dry, just as they did in Texas. This could be offset by oil shale and deep-water reserves, but this oil is much more expensive to produce.
Hot Topics: High Stakes on Health-Care ReformBy Patrick J. Kiger , March 30, 2012
This week's news was dominated by the U.S. Supreme Court's hearings on a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, the cornerstone of the Obama administration's health-care reform law. Much of the debate focused on the law's most controversial provision -- the individual mandate, which requires Americans to buy health insurance. But a bigger question is whether the court will go on to overturn the entirety of Obamacare, as both opponents and supporters of health-care reform call the law. As Forbes.com reports, much of day three of the hearings delved into whether the individual mandate could be severed from the law, or whether eliminating the provision would necessitate junking the entire program. While liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that a "salvage job" would be more prudent, the court's conservative stalwarts, Justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia, seemed to focus on whether Congress would have passed health-care reform in the first place without the mandate. That leads to this question: If Obamacare is overturned, how would the reversal affect Americans in their forties, fifties and beyond? Retirement Revised's Mark Miller writes that if the Affordable Care Act is overturned, many families are going to lose significant benefits that they've already received. That includes:
Those popular parts of the law may end up being discarded along with the controversial individual mandate, which requires all Americans to obtain health insurance. Miller characterizes the latter as the "secret sauce" that makes it possible financially to extend near-universal coverage to Americans at affordable rates. Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber, a key figure in shaping both Obamacare and the 2006 Massachusetts health-care reform legislation championed by former governor and present GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, offers this analysis of the pocketbook effects of health-care reform at The Daily Beast. Gruber argues that the individual mandate actually would help to cap Americans' health-care insurance costs so that no one would have to pay more than 9.5 percent of their income for coverage. 3/31/2012
Congressman Paul Ryan, just give this to the rich as more than 85% of Americans will need to rely Social Security for their retirement needs. And by the way Paul also signed the Grover Norquest anti American Pledge of thou shalt never raise taxes (on the rich). Do not let it happen to you, your children or grand children. All that is required, is to remove the cap and a small tweak up in the future will take care of SS. Do not fall for the sky is falling stories of the Republican Party, they are still looking for their weapons of mass destruction, several years later and added trillions of dollars to our debt of which we are now paying all the interest to China on. Should you ever doubt what I say here, go to Fox News, they as they are fair and balanced and control the Republican Party and love Unions and American workers that do not interfere with profit margins, power or elections.
3/25/2012 Thought for the week: Austerity has failed the people but the goal of international corporations is to gain control of governments and resources. From their aspect the current trend has been spectacularly successful. They have succeeded in lowering wages, breaking unions and destroying peoples' faith in government. The idea that governments exist to serve and benefit the governed has now been cast aside and replaced by the idea that governments exist to ensure corporate profits. Ross Perot was correct about the 'giant sucking sound' of money draining out. NAFTA has been a gigantic error in the way it has been administered. Spending on unnecessary wars was criminal. But so were massive tax cuts and the outsourcing of jobs.
3/23/2012 
The GOP’s assault on labor rights: What is happening in the states?By John Logan, professor and director, Labor and Employment Studies,San Francisco State University - 03/22/12 02:53 PM ETThe past 15 months have seen a remarkable assault by the GOP on federal labor rights. Republicans have introduced numerous bills designed to undermine the National Labor Relations Act, all with wonderfully deceptive names suggesting they would strengthen the rights of ordinary workers: Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act, Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act, Employee Rights Act, Jobs Protection Act, Employee Workplace Freedom Act, Secret Ballot Protection Act, National Right to Work Act, Truth in Employment Act, National Labor Relations Reorganization Act, and others. Republicans on the federal level have also attempted to defund and abolish the National Labor Relations Board, subjected its Democratic members to repeated subpoenas and requests for information, protested President Obama’s recess appointments to the board, joined lawsuits by corporate and anti-union organizations and threatened Congressional Review Acts – which could happen within weeks – to block the implementation of new board rules streamlining union certification elections and requiring notice posting on federal labor rights. Rarely, if ever, has the board, and the rights it enforces, been subjected to such relentless attacks. And the attacks continue. While impressive, this assault on federal labor rights pales in comparison to what has been happening – occasionally in full view, but mostly with little notice – at the state level. Almost everyone knows about the 2011 legislation stripping public sector workers of collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and Ohio, and Indiana’s 2012 “right-to-work” (RTW) legislation, which outlaws union security agreements.
However, the sheer number of anti-union bills supported by GOP-controlled legislatures demonstrates the breadth and depth of the party’s anti-unionism. So what is happening in the states?
In addition to Indiana, at least 18 other states have considered RTW measures. South Carolina and Tennessee passed bills strengthening RTW legislation that has been on the books for six decades, while another RTW state, Virginia, attempted to write RTW into its constitution. And last week, the New Hampshire House passed a RTW bill identical to one vetoed last year by the state’s Democratic governor. Other states that may act on RTW this year -- sometimes over the wishes of the GOP establishment -- through legislation or ballot initiatives include Maine, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio.
In addition to high-profile bills in Wisconsin and Ohio, at least 13 other states have considered legislation that would eliminate or restrict public sector collective bargaining. New Jersey eliminated public sector bargaining over health benefits, Oklahoma outlawed collective bargaining for municipal employees, and Tennessee replaced bargaining for public school teachers with “collaborative conferencing.” And at least 14 states have considered legislation that would ban public employers from deducting union dues from employees’ paychecks, thereby making it difficult for unions to finance their basic activities. Last week, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a measure prohibiting public schools from deducting union dues from the paychecks of teachers and other employees. Many Republican legislatures have promoted bills that, while not directly attacking labor rights, are clearly intended to weaken unions, including unions in the building trades and public schools. 14 states have introduced legislation restricting Project Labor Agreements, and 11 have bills attacking prevailing wage laws, both of which protect building trades standards. At least 28 states have considered charter school and voucher bills that would weaken public school unions, and others have bills privatizing most schools services, along with bills privatizing transportation, water supply, port authorities, airport security, liquor distribution, prisons and prison medical services, Medicaid delivery, state park vendors, kindergarten development and evaluation, and every municipal service imaginable. At least 10 states have introduced so-called “paycheck protection” measures, which are designed to place strict limits on the use of union dues money for political purposes, while placing few, if any, restrictions on corporate political spending. Alabama, Arizona and North Carolina passed paycheck measures in 2011 – though all three bills have been challenged in the courts – while California and New Jersey have upcoming paycheck ballot initiatives. Deception dominates in the messaging on state bills. California’s paycheck ballot initiative is ludicrously misnamed “Stop Special Interest Money Now." Backers of the bill, the ultra-conservative Lincoln Club of Orange County, co-produced “Hillary: The Movie,” which led to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The Lincoln Club welcomed Citizens United as a “victory for free speech,” but now claims that its measure is a balanced effort to remove all special interest money from state elections, to the extent allowed by federal law. In reality, it would undermine the ability of unions to engage in core political activities but have almost no impact on corporate political spending. This type of obfuscation is central to Republicans’ anti-union strategy. If the party were unable to hide behind deceptive messaging, it would be exposed as a front for the American Legislative Exchange Council and other extreme organizations. And finally: not one new job has been created by this tsunami of anti-union legislation. 3/18/2012 This link is about claiming Social Security and it is very good reading. The point of the article is to show different ways to claim and the best ways of possible benefiting you and your spousal claim. http://www.theolympian.com/2012/03/12/2026511/eileen-ambrose-facts-you-might.html 3/11/2012 Rick Santorum is so conservative, when he goes to KFC, he only orders the right wings....so anti-gay that he doesn't even want pirates touching their own booty...so anti-gay that he won't even order a Hershey bar if it has nuts...he's so conservative that he thinks a Labradoodle is the result of a same sex marriage. 3/2/2012 If you copy this link it will get you to the Boston College retirement web site. They have a great amount of good info. This is part of an article on fraud. CYAhttp://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Briefs/IB_12-5.pdf• Look too good to be true.• Offer a very high or “guaranteed” return at “no risk” to the investor.• Require an urgent response or cash payment.• Charge a steep upfront fee in return for making more money on an unspecified date.• Suggest recipients do not tell family members or friends about the offer.• Lure prospective investors with a “free lunch.”• Come unsolicited over the Internet, are of unknown origin, or come from overseas.• Instill fear that a failure to act would be very costly.• Cannot be questioned, inspected, or checked out further.
• Are so complex that they are difficult or impossible to understand
3/1/2012 If we measure the difference as a dollar amount and Federal Spending is per Dollar of Federal Taxes. Than a figure of $1.00 means that a particular state received as much as it paid in to the federal government. Anything over a dollar means that the state received more than it paid into; anything less than $1.00 means the state paid more in taxes than it received in services. The higher the figure, the more taxes are given to a state. Of the twenty worst states, 16 are either Republican dominated or conservative states. Let's go through the top twenty.
2/27/2012 Sorry to say this guy was a governer in the state of Mass. I hope that unions across the country pull together and destroy this tea party movement. This political movement is designed to spilt the middle cass workers. It also makes the rich more powerful and creates a larger poor population; thus the elimination of the middle class.
Mitt Romney Bashes Unions Now, But Praised Them During 2002 Olympics
http://www.ibew.org/articles/12Daily/1202/120224_Romney.htm
2/25/2012 I just wanted to get these links to everyone as they are about what we did and how we can save big money. Please try calculator and see the savings from insulation. The other site is our marketing campaign that we are trying to get off the ground.
http://www.mechanicalinsulators.com/
http://www.wbdg.org/design/midg_calculators.php
Hope you like the videos. 2/21/2012 I hope that everyone is doing well. I will be at the Union hall tomorrow. Work is still very slow and I hope that work will really pick up. This is like a repeat of the early 90's but much longer in duration. Thankfully we have good trustees on the pension fund. On the Annuity Fund, effective 1/1/2012 there has been some added flexibility in regard to the withdrawals. Enjoy the winter without snow. Sorry about the loss of the Super Bowl. Let us look forward to more good games ahead. We do not need to wear bags over our heads and they have been in seven Super Bowls over the years. From the Union Meeting last week Brothers Bob Yaris and Jim Donato both retired. Good luck and thank you for all of your years of work. 2/6/2012.
2/20/2012 Sorry about the order but I am lucky to get the photos installed (two computers and help from my son). Have a good presidents day.
2/18/2012 (Ken Murphy, I am getting help from my son today)
Devins1
2/17/2012 One contention of the Republican party is that Democrats don't understand business and are bad for business. GOP front-runner Mitt Romney has basically built his entire campaign on the theory that he knows how to run an economy and the Democrats don't. Given this, why does one of the most successful business-regions of America overwhelmingly vote Democratic? And if Democratic "big-government" and "high taxes" choke off innovation, investment, and incentives, why have so many companies located in high-tax, highly regulated California done so extraordinarily well? We put these questions to Reid Hoffman, who is one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors in the country. A partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock, Reid has invested in Facebook, Zynga, and many other companies. He is also the co-founder of one of last year's standout IPOs: LinkedIn. In Reid Hoffman's opinion, Silicon Valley's success comes despite California's regulatory environment and "big government," not because of it. Silicon Valley, Hoffman says, is powered by its amazing ecosystem of investors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, along with more than a half-century of start-up culture. And the Valley's overwhelming support of Democrats, Hoffman suggests, is due as much to the Democrats' social views as their economic views. But Silicon Valley is a big fan of the Democrats' efforts to help start-ups, Hoffman says. And Hoffman ridicules the Republican argument that increased taxes would make him and other investors and entrepreneurs work less hard.
2/15/2012
They’re Messing With Your Medicare, Ma
HB 1560 is rather innocuous sounding bill allowing the State of New Hampshire to join with another or other states to form a Health Care Compact. Congress would need to recognize this compact and send each of the members states the federal dollars otherwise allocated to the Medicare program. Although supporters of this bill claim it would allow the state to offer better healthcare programs, the bill specifies that “…funding shall not be conditional on any action of or regulation, policy, law or rule being adopted by the member state.” In other words, folks, “give us the money and we’ll decide what we want to do with it.” For the gamblers out there, want to wager whether New Hampshire’s seniors will be better or worse off with the custom-made program from the same folks who stripped our hospitals of money??
2/14/2012
Attention all Presidential Candidates:
We have had the first election since the Supreme Court Case “Citizens United”, and this election was the best that money could buy. It does not matter which party won or lost, we now have our voting influenced by special interests with contributions unknown, spending billions of dollars to influence you. If we look back at past campaigns, you can clearly see the contributors. Also, what was obvious, was that company ABC contributed to both parties. This is a business decision that is like betting for both teams, the only guarantee is the cost of both bets. However in business 101 thou shall only spend a dollar that shall return more than that dollar. Will the pay back for election campaigns of billions of dollars trickle up to the big spenders or trickle down to average consumers and taxpayers? I think American voting in the future will go the way of the buffalo. It may return in the future packaged as a frozen bison burger from China sold in a large retail box store. With the economy in the dumpster, presidential candidates please bring large sums of money to the 2012 primary election.
2/13/2012- A good article about healthcare: . I get so po'd when reading US politicans scare voters with the spector of "socialized medicine". We don't have socialized medicine, we have single-payer with one insurance carrier. In Alberta that's Blue Cross. Husband and I have "complex" medical needs and as a result we go to a specialized clinic nly five minutes from our home. Our regular doc's appts are an hour in length. To begin with we saw her every two weeks! Some provinces are better than others but we've had wonderful care in Alberta and BC (most western provinces). This included orthopedic surgery (for him) and surgery where 2/3rds of my liver was removed due to a tumor. Cost to us =$0.00. We no longer pay premiums (seniors) but family premiums are $134 month. That covers doctor's and ER visits, and hospital stays. Ambulance rides are $50, as seniors those are covered. We also are covered for eye exams and glasses, $5,000 dental for each three years, and 85% of prescription costs, but never pay more than $25 a prescription.
Still under construction, as I am working on making this part of the web-site an active place for us retiree's. Maybe posting day trips, or other gatherings. Stay tuned, as things will get very active shortly!
Testing as we are trying to get this page up an going 2/2/2012.
Having tech problems, will keep trying, 2/6/2012/
Test: The answer is simple. Ronald Reagan started the mess by going after the unions. This effectively left people without health care. He lowered the top tax rate from 70% to 32%. This took the burden from those that could afford to pay and left it on those who couldn't. Between 1950 and 1980 arguably the best time in our recent history the top tax rate on income was between 70 and 94%. What is it that you don't understand? 2/7/2012
Just like you and me, Mitt Romney saved for his (401K and IRA between $20,700,000 and $101,600,000) retirement. However, unlike his campaign slogans of “Believe in America” and “We have a moral responsibility”, he has used foreign countries to avoid U.S. taxes. This is one reason why our country has such a large deficit. He and others like him either utilize offshore schemes or financially influence legislation for a trickle down taxation. While working class people struggle to survive, we should also think about the politicians that broken away from the pledge of allegiance to The United States of America and signed on with a very rich and influential lobbyist named Grover Norquest. This whole scenario reminds me of when Senator Scott Brown (MA) ran for office; he wore a construction workers jacket and drove an old pickup truck. He is a lawyer and votes along party lines; play or be played! 2/9/2012
Money is totally worthless when your health is no longer there.
People making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay. The White House has called that concept the Buffet Rule, named for Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor. It is unfair, Buffett has said, that he pays a smaller tax rate than his secretary. Debbie Bosanek, Buffett's secretary, joined Michelle Obama in the first lady's box during the State of the Union speech last month when President Obama laid out proposals to make the tax code fairer. Under legislation introduced Wednesday in the Senate, those whose incomes come mostly from investments or hedge-fund partnerships, now taxed at 15 percent, would owe more. Sen. Bernie Sanders is an original cosponsor of the bill that would make the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share and help reduce the national debt. "With a record-breaking $15 trillion national debt and a growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, it is absolutely absurd that the wealthiest people in the country are paying the lowest effective tax rate in decades," Sanders said. "There is no excuse for millionaires and billionaires to have an effective tax rate lower than middle-class families. If we are serious about addressing this deficit crisis, it is imperative that we have a tax system which is fair and which asks the wealthiest people in our country to pay their fair share." The Paying a Fair Share Act would apply to taxpayers with incomes of more than $1 million - including capital gains and dividends. Taxpayers earning over $2 million would be subject to a 30 percent minimum federal tax rate. The tax would be phased in for incomes between $1 million and $2 million, with those taxpayers paying a portion of the extra tax required to get them to a 30 percent effective tax rate. The bill includes language to preserve incentives for charitable giving. The chief sponsor is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. "As we continue working to restore our economy," he said, "it's more important than ever to make sure all Americans are paying their fair share toward our nation's success - and right now that just isn't happening. It's inexcusable that our tax system permits the wealthiest among us to pay a lower tax rate than a truck driver or a janitor, and this legislation would help fix that unfair system." In addition to Sanders, other cosponsors are Sens. Daniel Akaka, Mark Begich, Richard Blumenthal, Tom Harkin and Patrick Leahy. "As we grapple with large budget deficits worsened by the Bush tax cuts and two wars overseas, it is just common sense that those who have benefitted the most shoulder their fair share of the burden," Leahy said. An old saying we had on the job was what do you say when your young child asks you what you do for a living? The fear of the answer and the questions of piping? Confusion of you do what again and I can not understand, so, pass the same to your grandchildren as we are and always will be a great organization. 2/10/2012
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Retirement Party
Retirement Party
Retirement Party
