The Official Blog of National Taxpayers Union
In Case You Didn't Know Where They Stood
Posted by Jeff Dircksen - January 28, 2005From the National Education Association's email newsletter, the
Education Insider:
Because Social Security is the cornerstone of our nation's safety net for retirees, protecting and strengthening the program is critical for those NEA members who will rely on Social Security to help maintain a decent standard of living when they retire. NEA's three priorities for any Social Security legislation remain the same:
- Oppose any efforts to privatize Social Security;
- Ensure that public employees who are enrolled in and have paid into other retirement security plans are not mandated to participate in Social Security; and
- Repeal unfair offsets - the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision - that deny earned Social Security benefits to many public employees.
Can anyone explain this? If Social Security is such a great deal and is so critical to NEA members, why doesn't the NEA support forcing all public employees to pay into and participate in Social Security? Gee, those employees outside of the system wouldn't be sitting on huge, personal retirement nest eggs, would they? Nah, that couldn't be the reason.
Add Comment -
Fred Mangels said on Jan 29 2005 at 7:59am
You wrote: "why doesn't the NEA support forcing all public employees to pay into and participate in Social Security?"
I could be wrong but I believe most, if not all, public employees DO pay into social security, they just have their own separate pension plans. You may have gotten the idea from that rumor that's going around about congresscritters not paying into social security. They do, but have their own much more lucrative retirement plan.
I read somewhere that there is a way to opt out of social security, should one choose to do so. Hey, I'm a Libertarian. Not defending social security, just hoping to clear up some misconceptions, assuming I'm right.
Stanley Davids said on Jan 31 2005 at 9:29am
I agree with Fred. I had read something in Parade Magazine once where this guy Pete Sepp (or Stepp or something like that) explained it. I'm not sure how to reach Mr. Sept but if you can find him he might be able to clear it up.
Jeff said on Jan 31 2005 at 10:24am
The simple explanation, according to the Washington Post, is this "About 6.7 million state and local government employees are currently exempt, virtually the only workers not covered by America's retirement system. Instead these employees are covered by plans operated by their employers." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58834-2004Nov17.html
Members of Congress do pay into the Social Security system. Answers to that and other questions about Congressional pay & perks is available here, http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=52
Spaulding said on Feb 02 2005 at 9:12pm
It's always so hard to guess where NEA will come down on an issue. See if you can guess how NEA would answer the following (don't peek - answers below).
Q1: Does NEA support throwing yet more money at education (despite the current record-breaking levels)?
Q2: If a teacher is grossly incompetent but has always paid his union dues on time, would NEA support their firing?
A1: Hell yes!
A2: Hell no!
General Feed
