( Did you hear President Obama called Kanye West a jackass? Kanye West might have the most memorable line from last week but the President said what much of America was thinking.Is this the real video of his comments?)
Thursday Night Interviews:
I am scheduling interviews for Thursday nights with local elected officials, candidates, and activists. If you are interested send me an email and let's schedule it quickly.
Memorable Comments:
Here are some of my favorite comments from the last week ( and from the recent past):
While so many comments are the same personal arguments over and over again on a different entry Scott Blough focused his thoughts and questions on specific policies that don't have an easy liberal or conservative answer:
Andy and GS: It is my understanding that many teachers, who worked in the private sector prior to being public school teachers, paid FICA taxes into social security and lose out on social security benefits once they become public school teachers. Some have even fulfilled their full "quarters of credit" obligations under the program indicating they would be eligible for full benefits if they were disabled or reached the age requirements to draw on the program. Many teachers also may work side jobs during the summer or in the evenings and pay social security taxes. If they met the contribution metrics, should they be eligible for social security or not? I would think they should be.
Scott Blough
Nobody wrote the funniest comment of the week while plugging another blog:
"Yo Brian, I'm really happy for you, I'll let you finish, but Marie Lakin has one of the best blogs of all time. One of the best blogs of all time!"
Nobody West
Owen and I see many issues differently but we both agree on the merits of this painting:
That is one of the greatest paintings in world history.
Owen
After his comment there are a few funny barbs back and fourth that are memorable. Check it out here.
The picture form Norman Rockwell takes place a town hall meeting. Rep. Capps had a town hall forum on healthcare and Rep. McKeon has scheduled an event. Rep. Gallegly hasn't announced any plans to hold a town hall meeting on healthcare.
Eric Ingemunson and GS had an interesting discussion that showed their commonalities were greater then their differences but the policies are so arcane most people aren't going to read through their discussion. This blog is for people that are really interested in politics so go check it out.
Thanks for reading my blog.I would appreciate your input on my recent interviews. You don't need to register to comment but keep it classy.
RE:Andy and GS: It is my understanding that many teachers, who worked in the private sector prior to being public school teachers, paid FICA taxes into social security and lose out on social security benefits once they become public school teachers
They get reduced social security benefits.....and they have teams of taxpayer paid lobbyists in washington fighting these offsets....let's not forget private sector social security recipients lose most of their social security retirement checks if they continue to work...while teachers can take another job after they retire at 55, and not lose a penny from their teacher retirement checks....
Avg teacher retirement for teachers retiring this year is over $50,000 yearly, while max social security for the private sector is in the range of $21,000 yearly...
But that is minor compared to the outrage that california's 300,000 active teachers and 190,000 retired teachers go thru their teaching careers without paying a dime of social security and their government drawn checks....
14 states across the usa exempt all teachers from social security as well as many other public employees including cops and fire bringing the total to 5 million public employees across the usa who don't pay their fair share...what an outrage....even illegals pay, and they can never collect when they use fake or stolen social security
numbers....
p.s all teacher retiremnet money comes from investments in wall street, foreign markets, and real estate....california teachers retirement system, CALSTRS, is the second or third largest government run investment house on earth
I'm actually glad you're responding with info, rather than the same question.
In SOME cases they get a portion of the benefits they had earned, depending on whether or not they were grandfathered in to the CALPERS program under the law changes. Newbies do not get SS.
I'm not aware of any taxpayer paid lobbyists working for any teachers' unions. Where did you pick up that claim?
Every private employee with a pension plan can draw their pension AND work another job and/or draw SS. So why are teachers singled out for criticism?
Are you saying that a professional that worked 25 years shouldn't be allowed a pension? If teachers were all fired today and replaced with private sector professions we'd still have to compensate then with salaries and benefits. Aren't you simply assuming that private sector teachers would be paid less and receive smaller pensions?
The only outrage I can see is why you even think teachers should contribute to a SS program that they can't benefit from. What do you propose they get in return for contributing?
Andy, you're pulling phacts out of your arse. Along with stocks and real estate, the teachers' collective contributions to their retirement fund are also heavily invested in US TBills, local infrastructure projects, businesses and even artwork. And unlike most fund managers, the folks that manage these funds have done so very well; protecting its assets even as they've enabled steady growth. Maybe Cals teachers' union should be given the job of overseeing SS.
Andy,
I teach in a high school and I don't see people retiring at 55. Where are you getting that figure from?
I believe SVUSD teachers can begin drawing retirement funds at the age of 60 (I think it's gone up from 59), if they'ved had at least ten years in the system. So any unemployed persons around the age of 50, thinking about entering teaching, should think carefully because they'll lose all or most of the SS benefits they've accrued during the previous 34 years and walk away with about 20% of their teacher salary after 10 years...much less than SS would provide.
GS: Where are you getting the information on how well run the pension system is?
I too am interested in reading about these taxpayer financed lobbyists. Please elaborate.
I'm curious with readers opinion of H.R. 484 Social Security Fairness Act of 2009, which will "repeal the Government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions."
The bill has 306 cosponsors including local Congress members Capps and Gallegly.