his merciless, cut throat, ultra liberal payback for those six years of torment. I read that in a 200- rec thread just yesterday. So it must be true

My rec wasn't on that list.

Saving 'em up

they say so

I tried to un-rec that, but then realized I hadn't rec'd it. Didn't matter… my head banging began half way through...

and then he goes and does this:

'twas a time it was posted multiple times per day.

It's always been continuing resolutions.

Stockholm syndrome at this point.

The bill does not cut anyone's pension by a dime. It allows certain types of pension plans (union managed) that are failing to petition to cut some payments (not to those 80 or disabled) in order to keep from going completely broke. It was placed in the bill by George Miller (D-CA), one of the most liberal members of Congress, in an attempt to save these plans.

Those attacking this provision either have no idea what it says or they are being dishonest.

These things are all well and good in the abstract, when it becomes concrete and personal is when people get upset.

The only pension plans that can make an application are those which are 20% unfunded and are expected to go broke within 15 years.

An example of one that might make an application is the Teamster Central States fund. There are currently 5 retirees for every worker in that fund. That is unsustainable and it will go completely broke.

vulture capitalists and they decide to make it more "profitable" don't they usually give themselves a dividend for being so smart, cut employees and then claim bankruptcy due to the burden of the pension plans they inherited?

Then they sell off the rest of the company pocketing the proceeds and giving themselves bonuses for being so smart.

The smoke and mirrors are just coming out in the open at this point, or I've been misreading what's been going on.

Those are employer pensions. This bill only covers multi-employer pensions -- that is pensions that are managed by unions. If a pension plan is going broke it will the union that makes the application, not an employer or venture capitalist.

I appreciate that knowledge

On the other hand the law wouldn't have been passed if someone's pension wasn't going to get cut.

sign bill?...... must...attack....Obama....must....attack....

strange math.

Let them go broke so the retirees receive nothing?

those who have proposed a solution. BTW, members of Congress are paid a nice salary but hardly a "fortune".

It does not. It allows a certain type of pension plan to petition to cut some payments if it is going broke. The unions who manage these plans make the determination to apply. What is your solution? Nothing? Let them go broke?

This whole Cromnibus thing has so much in it that is nothing more than our elected Representatives rubbing it in our faces that as far as they're concerned, we bottom 99%'ers can all just go fuck ourselves.

Does this law mean that now everybody driving on roads in America is sharing them with an over tired and over worked possibly amphetamined truckers?

Semi's need permits after 80,000 lbs. And if they have a lot of axles, they can weigh up to 150,000 lbs. (All weights approximate and poorly researched) 110,000 lbs is FIFTY FIVE TONS.

So the truck you're passing on the Interstate at 75 mph may be driven by somebody that hasn't slept in two days? Or more! How on earth can you have an eighty hour work week and not be sleep deprived?

I'm looking forward to a law someday soon that mandates that 747 pilots are allowed to fly planes up to 80 hours a week.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

And who could have forseen anything dangerous about such laws?

-90% Jimmy

First of all, forget the amphetamine nonsense, OK? Drug use in the industry which I have been a member for over 25 years is not a problem in the slightest. It brders on urban myth these days.

Here's how that scary "82 hour week" actually would pan out;

Current rules allow me to drive up to 11 hours in a stretch and work a total of 14 hours after which a 10 hour break is mandatory. The current limit is 70 hours total in an 8 day period.

So lets say I work 14 hour days.

I start at 6 Am and work till 8 at night, beginning Monday. By Friday at 8PM I am at my 70 hour limit (5 X 14 = 70). I have to take a 34 hour "reset" (which means my logbook goes back to zero accumulated hours) which MUST include two periods between 1 AM and 5 AM.

So....I finish work at 8PM friday night. 24 hours later it is 8 PM Saturday and ten hours after that it is 6 AM Sunday. That covers the required two 1 to five Am sections and now I am free to work 14 hours on Sunday. THAT'S how it works out....'

BUT.....it doesn't happen in real life, certainly not by but a tiny few drivers nationwide.

I am about to get behind the wheel as I type this, driving from Atlanta back to Detroit, so I don't have time to go further, but the idea you have put forth of scary, sleep deprived ("hasn't slept in two days!" OH NOOOO!) IS BULLSHIT.

Sure, there are idiot drivers out there who overdo it, but they are a tiny minority.

The entire hours of service thing has been debated for years, with the original rules being instituted in the 1930's. Changes had to be made and the industry is still struggling with how to do it properly.

I'm already scared of trucks because I know the drivers and companies skate the existing rules.

As for the IRS, they can abolish it AFAIC.

It was unacceptable.

Humans are an anomaly of infinite probabilities.

It makes perfect sense that none of us are perfect.

The IRS wants both taxpayers and its staff to know this: It’s only going to get worse.

After absorbing a $346 million budget cut, IRS officials are warning taxpayers not to expect their phone calls to get answered or their refunds to be delivered quickly. Employees shouldn’t count on overtime pay, or for empty staff slots to be filled. And lawmakers seeking to reduce the deficit should assume the agency will collect far less revenue than it could have.

“We’re well beyond cutting out any fat,” John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, told reporters after his agency saw its budget slashed for the fifth consecutive year. “And we’re now into cutting, as people say, muscle headed toward bone.”



http://thehill.com/policy/finance/227764-irs-warns-were-nearly-crippled

We keep thinking the next Democrat will be the answer. Obama was sold to us as the man who would make big changes, here to take back the country from the corrupt, rich bankers. The joke's on us-they helped finance his campaign. He's better than the Republicans, but then how long have we been voting for the "better than the Republican" candidate?

It would threaten millions of people why rely on public assistance for food and other necessities.

You might remember that the Republicans resisted passing the last several budgets, and when their bluff was called, Congress just ok'd "spending resolutions" which in effect kept the budget working on 2-3 day increments, until they got done fighting about the budget.
They did that whole sequester thing, but the essential services that were not touched were Soc. sec. and other assistance programs.

All pensions depends on more money coming in than going out.
Yet, looking ahead to the huge mass of Boomers hitting retirement down the road, people were warning something would have to change at that point.
Plus, all pensions are modeled on investments paying out X % a year, and crashed were not built into the formula.

the bankers got to use our growing retirement funds to play with, and just as we were approaching retirement age and needed the money,
the economy tanked, in 1999 dot.com bubble and in 2008.

Now there is talk of making it mandatory to pay into a retirement system, which the Gov. says it will keep for you until you need it.

I do not think people will be fooled again, but you never know.

Its a Crimenibus!

Stuffing roll-backs to "must sign" bills will guarantee that the labor movement dies, pensions wither on the vine along with the rest of the elements that make up the earth. Meanwhile, corporatists will continue to control congress.

Hey, would it be better for these tools if we all died off quickly, or suffer little by little? What's that, Mr. Obama… ? It sounds like whispering from inside a cave… You didn't even threaten with a veto?

Hello?


Hello?


You can't spelunker much better than that, chief!

We had a law that kept the banks from using depositor's money to gamble with.
Clinton canceled the law.
The banks became investment banks and did all the greedy things we have found out about
so Dodd-Frank was passed to curtail some of the greed, a few years ago
and now this bill cancels out important parts of Dodd Frank.
In the space of a few years we are right back where we started when the banks crashed the economy.

… while it's obviously not quality sleep - their short term memory missed bailing out the too-big-to-fails for $700B. That's our money and we had no say...

Biden promises we're gonna be out of Afghanistan… Obama promises we're gonna reform Wall Street. He's gonna put comfortable shoes on. More will walk with a growing number of desperadoes daring to occupy Wall Street if they don't put a final stop global financial terrorism. Does anyone want to once again, "pay up suckers, or the economy's going to hell"?

Does anyone want one more conglomerate like General Electric and others to keep holding their profits overseas as a strategy to avoid paying taxes or pay no taxes?

Meanwhile, a single mother who's student loan is not paid because her son's needs came first has 15% of her pay check garnished. I thought Dodd Frank was a weak attempt to correct Wall Street, but now it's even more of a joke.

We're more than right back where we started… because more and more have less and less reason to believe this ever can get better.

Mmm-mm-mmmmm.

If memory serves, Saul Alinsky (yes, Saul Alinsky of the 12 Rules for Radicals) once said words to the effect that the American people will not be motivated until the front of their stomachs touch their backbone. We are not quite there yet.

During the last three elections we Democrats allowed Republican state governors to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of us. For those of us still eligible to vote, a vast majority of us sat on our couches and did nothing, thus allowing a bunch of cranky Christians and Republicrats to sway the election. As a result of our "who cares" attitude, the U.S. (and the World) is going to pay a terrible price.

Maybe, after the next two years, we will finally rise up, stiffen our spines, and choose someone who will advocate for us. Someone like a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren! But, in all likelihood, we will elect another Republican Lite like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. Most likely it will be Hillary Clinton. I lived through the Nixon era. The aforementioned 3 Amigos would have been quite at home in Nixon's Administration.

Oh, and if you are going to hit me with the argument that Obama, of late, has been "unchained," well, wait until he triangulates a fast tracked TPP (Shafta -Southern Hemisphere American Free Trade Agreement) up your hiney and we lose our autonomy as a nation to the corporations. Or if you happen to be on Social Security or Medicare, you will probably witness your benefits reduced through chained CPI or outright legislation.

The 3 Amigos are master illusionists. They have distracted us with their left hand time and time again, while their right picked our pockets for their Wall Street Overlords, all the while, whispering sweet Progressive ideas in our ears. Hilly has had two master prestidigitators to mold her. So if you believe that in electing her things will change, well then my fellow Democrats, we HAVE met the enemy, and he is us.

Cannot disagree with what you said.

Speaking of TTIP and TISA giveaways...I posted links to downloads of both of those documents. Very few folks seem to have noticed, so there was no discussion.

Meanwhile, lots of pom poms for Hillary.

Sigh.

When I lived in the NW, it was quite left...but, that was more than a few years back.

This is all bad but cutting pensions on current pensioners is as low as you can go and should be illegal. It is just so unjust and unfair. People play by the rules, get to retirement that was promised, then have the rug pulled out from under them.

passed. You can't say the White House defended the Budget bill. They fucking wanted the bill and all those things included in the bill and actively worked to get it passed.