Illinois Taxpayers stuck with $56 Billion in unfunded retiree health care costs

Taxpayers are so Screwed

A new study forecasts that health insurance for retired Illinois state employees will cost billions of dollars more than previously thought. That makes efforts to control those costs more urgent than ever.
In most states, retired government employees pay about half the cost of their health insurance.

In Democrat run Illinois, though, those retirees pay less than 20% of the cost of a very rich health plan with very small co-pays. A new study — completed before Gov. Quinn’s recent cost control efforts — finds taxpayers face a staggering $56.4 billion in unfunded retiree health care costs, up from $54.2 billion estimated in 2011. One reason: state workers may retire at age 55 with full benefits reports Fox News Chicago.

“If you’re looking at a retiree in their 50s, the state pays more than $14,000 a year for this unheard of benefit. The retiree is paying less than $1,000,” The Illinois Police Institute’s Kristina Rasmussen explains.

For the first time ever, many retired government workers last year began to pay health insurance premiums: ranging from 1% to 2% of their annual state pension. Together with other reforms, it has reduced taxpayer costs by more than $100 million a year. But facing $80 billion in unfunded pension costs, and $56.4 billion in unfunded retiree health insurance, taxpayers here are on the hook for more than $136 billion in unfunded retirement benefits.

Analysts at the Illinois Policy Institute said reforms adopted by Democrats in Springfield don’t go far enough.

“And now looking forward we need to make some tough choices,” says Rasmussen. “It’s not fair to ask union members in the private sector to continue working — the plumbers and the steamfitters — until they’re 67 so someone else can retire in their 50s with gold-plated health insurance.”

Students must ‘sit and stare’ if they opt out of Common Core

You must "Sit and stare."

• New York administrators and teachers seek revenge on students if they dare opt out of the Socialistic Common Core program.

The controversy surrounding the new Common Core-aligned standardized tests is causing some New York school leaders to act as childish and immature as the students they are supposed to be leading.

13WHAM.com reports at least 16 school districts in the Empire State have implemented a “sit and stare” policy for students who’ve been opted-out of the state assessments by their parents.

Such students “will have to sit at their desks without any other reading or testing materials, while all the students around them take the 60- to 90-minute exams,” the news site reports says EAG News.

It’s not difficult to read between the lines here. The “sit and stare” policy is a way petty and vindictive school principals and superintendents can get back at parents who are pushing back against the Common Core experiment.

The parents are making the school leaders’ lives more difficult, so they’re going to return the favor – by making the children pay.

That’s not just our interpretation of what’s happening; the leader of the state’s largest teachers union sees it the same way.

“This (‘sit and stare’) policy aimed at students whose parents elect to ‘opt out’ their children from state standardized testing is unconscionable,” said Richard Iannuzzi, president of the New York State United Teachers, in a February press release.

Obey Your Big Government Masters
Democrat or Republican, it just not matter as both Socialist parties grow a massive, unconstitutional and centralized "education" system where the Feds dictate what children will be allowed to learn.
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The "small government" GOP Congress under Bush accelerated the Federal education takeover with No Child Left Behind, but it continues under Common Core. 

Milwaukee & SEIU target government contractors to raise minimum wage

Too stupid for words

Milwaukee County raises minimum wage for all

non-SEIU government contractors

(Poor Richards News)  -  Yeah, this seems constitutional. The city of Milwaukee is raising the minimum wage…for almost everyone with whom it does business. That’s right. Every government contractor whose employees are not members of SEIU will be required by law to pay their employees a new, higher minimum wage of $11.33 per hour.

Can’t afford to pay your employees that amount? No problem. Simply force your employees to join the SEIU and you can keep paying the same rate.

From The Washington Examiner:

Mobsters making offers that can’t be refused typically do so in the bluntest possible language, but SEIU leaders in Wisconsin are running a close second. 

Gov. Scott Walker’s landmark reforms — including guaranteeing workers the right not to be forced to pay dues to a union they don’t want to join — is costing SEIU thousands of members.

The 8,385 members SEIU has lost since the reforms became law are solid evidence that before Walker came along the union depended upon force, rather than consent, to keep the dues revenue stream flowing. 

So the union’s leaders have come up with a backdoor way to force employees to fork over the dues money. It’s a novel variation on the Living Wage/Minimum Wage campaign. 

Here’s how it works: Milwaukee County officials approved a living wage requirement for local government contractors to pay at least $11.33 per hour. SEIU’s Wisconsin Jobs Now campaign was the main backer of the requirement. 

But the new law includes a convenient way for contractors to avoid having to pay the living wage — they can agree to force their employees to join SEIU.

Read the Rest (H/T: WZ)

Look, when the government gets to pick winners and losers, liberty is diminished. Every. Time.

But I’ll give the progressives credit. When the chips are down, they simply get creative, never mind what the Constitution says. The difference is, us small government types generally adhere to principles over pragmatism. And it’s awfully hard to win when you’re the only one playing by the rules.

Police State: County censors employee who dared to criticize Obamacare

 

Democrats Ban Free Speech

SEIU workers get to wear pro-Obama clothes to work,

but anti-Obamacare speech in banned.

The People's Republic of California  -  A Democrat run California county has banned a veteran employee from criticizing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because a coworker who overheard the criticism was "offended".

The employee is Norina Mooney, who has logged some 20 years of work experience with Santa Clara County, the epicenter of Silicon Valley.

According to Mooney’s attorneys with the Pacific Justice Institute, she made some water-cooler talk with a fellow employee about the high number people who have had their insurance policies canceled under Obamacare.

Later, a supervisor called Mooney into a private meeting and allegedly dressed her down for the attempt at chitchat because an unidentified person had overheard the small talk and been offended reports the Daily Caller.

In the future, the supervisor said, Mooney must exit the government building should she have anything adverse about Obamacare or otherwise political to say.

Mooney’s attorneys noted that this edict is an odd one considering Mooney’s claim that the office environment is replete with pro-Obama paraphernalia. She noted that her coworkers openly wore Obama campaign attire to work at election time as well.

The longtime employee currently works for the child support enforcement division, which doesn’t involve the promotion or implementation of the controversial heath insurance legislation.

Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus noted the obvious, numerous concerns with the way Mooney was treated.

“Just when we thought the disastrous ObamaCare rollout couldn’t get much worse, the county of Santa Clara is compounding those problems by claiming that criticism is off-limits,” Dacus said. “Liberals and conservatives alike should be able to agree that this type of censorship is chilling and unconstitutional.”

Mooney’s attorneys have sent a letter to Santa Clara County officials demanding answers and seeking an affirmation of public employees’ rights to comment on matters of public concern. Several weeks have passed with no response.

They are now contemplating legal action.  The Pacific Justice Institute is a conservative legal defense organization.

California to tax workers for a new state retirement account

Opening ceremony for the People's Republic Legislature.

Taxes, taxes and more taxes.

Now the Socialists want to get government control over 

billions of new tax dollars to "invest". 

The People's Republic of California -     Leftist California lawmakers are pushing a controversial, first-in-the-nation plan that would FORCE private-sector employers to remove 3 percent from every worker's paycheck and send it to the People's Treasury where it will be "invested" for their retirement years.

The money would go into a new state fund with a Government guarantee that all withheld funds plus investment gains will be available for distribution at retirement age.

Even Wall Street investment funds do not guarantee results.  To finance that "guarantee" means tapping into the bottomless pit of State Treasury tax dollars.

The idea behind the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, which got preliminary approval, is for it to be a state-run supplement to Social Security, but only for people who don't have traditional workplace retirement plans (which means most people these days).

Naturally unionized government workers are exempt because they have government retirement plans.


For an estimated 6 million working Californians, the benefit of a pension or 401(k) is out of reach -- so state lawmakers are trying to implement the new mandatory retirement fund for private sector workers reports Fox News.



But critics wonder how the state with a turbulent record of budget keeping and a much-ridiculed public worker pension system can be counted on to protect people's money.

"I think you'll find out that what is promised in the (Secure Choice plan) is not possible to deliver," lobbyist Marc Burgat contends. "If you could deliver guaranteed returns with less than one percent costs, no employer liability, no government liability -- that's a fantasy."

There is also concern that this is another example of government do-gooders trying to force better behavior by its citizens.

But for years, financial experts have warned that people shouldn't solely depend on their Social Security benefits for retirement income. The average California retiree only collects $14,000 per year in Social Security. Advocates of this new effort say the supplemental savings plan will provide a needed boost to retirement needs.

"There are pros and cons to the various approaches," behavioral finance expert Shlomo Benartzi explained to Fox News. "But I think the critical ingredient is to make it easier for people to save for retirement."

Fox News talked to several California workers whose employers don't offer them retirement benefits -- the exact people the Secure Choice program is designed to help. Each liked the idea.

"Most people can't save money and then to save it for when you're retired is very hard. It would be like saving it for 50 years," said Coty, a waitress.

Employers who don't conscript workers into the program are subject to fines, though they will not have to provide any matching funds . . . yet.

Burgat wonders if that requirement will soon follow.

"So for the employer in California, it becomes another huge burden in a state that CEO magazine is already calling the state that is the hardest to do business in America. It just becomes another opportunity for liability. Another opportunity for a lawsuit and yet another burden we're placing on the employer," Burgat said.

The California plan is the first in the nation, though other states have expressed interest as well as lawmakers in Washington. Before Secure Choice can go into effect, it must get approval from the IRS and U.S. Labor Department. Lawmakers must also vote on it again once a feasibility study is complete. That is expected to happen next year.

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Hate California taxes?  Nevada is waiting for you.

Hawaii sinking into an ocean of debt

Former Hawaii Governor Ben Cayetano wants to bring back
sanity to Hawaii's insane spending, pensions and debt.

A One-Party Democrat State where spending and debt can bring all your liberal dreams to life

• There is only one Republican in the State Senate and only seven Republicans in the 51 member lower house.
• The Congress enables insane spending at city and state levels by providing Federal funding for every possible liberal wet-dream program.

"When the special interests becomes too powerful...the voter only has the collective conscious of the people who are in public office," warns former Hawaii Governor Ben Cayetano.

Cayetano was a popular two term Democratic governor of the state of Hawaii. In 2012, after witnessing out of control spending and special interests threatening the city's future, Cayetano came out of retirement in a failed bid to become Honolulu's mayor. 


Spending, Debt, and Public Sector Unions:  Former Governor Ben Cayetano of Hawaii

Cayetano was opposed to the city's $5.26 billion rail project, which he says would cost too much and not solve Hawaii's traffic problems.

Hawaii already has huge unfunded liabilities and deteriorating infrastructure and Cayetano saw rail as a political win for big business and powerful labor unions, but a poorly designed transportation project. "They are going to end up raising taxes... or the city will go bankrupt," Cayetano explains.

In a wide-ranging conversation, the 73-year-old Filipino American discusses the Aloha State's fiscal mess, the trouble with Hawaii's one-party government, and why he believes social issues are distracting voters from more pressing economic problems.

A $5.26 Billion dollar rail system
for a state swimming in debt.

Pearl Highlands Station Rendering
The Honolulu Rail Transit Project was established in 2005 with the support of state and local officials to provide an efficient and reliable transportation alternative for Honolulu's congested urban corridor. The rail route runs from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center, with stations at 21 key commuter and visitor destinations, including Aloha Stadium, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu International Airport and downtown Honolulu's major core commercial and business centers.

The Looters & Moochers demand more of your money

A wake-up call for the United States.
Cutting spending saw riots and demonstrations across Europe.
Do American politicians have the balls to cut even one cent of spending
in the face of massive organized protests?

Socialism In Action

• 50% unemployment in Spain for those under 25 years old, 25.8% for the general population.
• 11.1% unemployment in the European Union.
• 10.5% unemployment in France.
• 25.4% unemployment in Greece.
• 15% unemployment in Ireland.
• 10.2% unemployment in Italy.
• 15.7% unemployment in Portugal.
• 23% youth unemployment in Britain.

The tree of Socialism is producing its poison fruit of unemployment, massive debt, more taxes, an unsustainable cradle-to-grave welfare state and a huge Big Government of Leftists who could not give a crap about business and economic growth.

Now the Looters and Moochers of society are demonstrating in the hundreds of thousands for even more tax money to prop up failed policies.

Everyone wants to suck on the teat
of the Public Treasury.

Hundreds of thousands of Europe’s beleaguered citizens went on strike or snarled the streets of several capitals Wednesday, at times clashing with riot police, as they demanded that governments stop cutting benefits and create more jobs.

Workers with jobs and without spoke of a “social emergency” crippling the world’s largest economic bloc, a union of 27 nations and half a billion people.

The protests were met with tear gas in Italy and Spain, but were largely limited to the countries hardest hit by the austerity measures designed to bring government spending into line with revenues. Wealthier nations like Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark saw only small, sedate demonstrations reports the Washington Post.


Anti-austerity action takes Europe by storm

Over 100,000 people march against UK's austerity plans 
Hundreds of thousands of people have marched across Britain to protest against the government's austerity measures.

Governments backing the line of stringent austerity were not impressed by the show of force.
“We must nevertheless do what is necessary: break open encrusted labor markets, give more people a chance to work, become more flexible in many areas,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “We will of course make this clear, again and again, in talks with the unions.”

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos spoke of “a long crisis that has meant sacrifice and uncertainty,” but said: “The government is convinced that the path we have taken is the only possible way out.”

To combat a three-year financial crisis over too much sovereign debt, governments across Europe have had to raise taxes and cut spending, pensions and benefits. As well as hitting workers’ incomes and living standards, these measures have also led to a decline in economic output and a sharp increase in unemployment.

(Washington Post)

Demonstrators march in Rome, Italy, as protests and strikes over austerity measures
were held by people across Europe.

Democracy is abolished in California - Soon in America

California is now ruled by a corrupt Oligarchy of Billionaire
Cartels of labor unions and the super-rich.

Democracy Vanishes  -  California only illustrates where the entire nation is going

• The so-called "elections" are totally controlled and funded by corrupt Billionaire Cartels of Labor Unions and the Super-Wealthy. 
• Labor Union Cartels make up a tiny slice of California voters, but their massive campaign money has purchased the Democrat Party from top to bottom.
• Super-Rich Cartels of Billionaires are personally funding statewide propositions and candidates for office.
• The average voter who is not a union member or a Billionaire is totally fucked by corrupt Big Money buying the election.

The Billionaire Cartels  -  The Associated Press reports that the campaigns for and against the 11 initiatives on California's November ballot have raised an astonishing $350 million so far on causes ranging from leftist Governor Jerry Brown's tax increase to a labeling requirement for genetically modified food.
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Californians have seen a corrupt handful of billionaires, millionaires and labor unions jamming the airwaves and mailboxes with a barrage of advertising. In many cases, the opposition campaigns are spending even more than supporters as they seek to kill initiatives that threaten their political power.
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The initiative attracting many of the biggest donations is one targeting the political power of unions. Proposition 32 likely will end up with more than $120 million in spending for and against it.

The $350 million figure was compiled by MapLight, a nonpartisan group that seeks greater transparency in campaign spending, based on reports filed with the California secretary of state's office through Oct. 25.
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The state's printed voter guides contain outdated information and few details about the money behind initiative campaigns. It's not just any voter who can put a proposed law before all Californians. It takes a lot of money, and so it's the wealthy individuals and interest groups that determine the 11 propositions that Californians are all voting on.

• Atop the list of the wealthiest donors this election cycle is Molly Munger, a Los Angeles civil rights attorney and heir to a fortune accumulated by her father, a partner of Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett. She has given more than $44 million to her campaign for Proposition 38, a broad-based Marxist re-distribution of the wealth increase in the state income tax that would funnel billions of dollars into government.

• Her half brother, Charles Munger Jr. give more than $36 million. That has gone primarily to support the initiative to curb unions' ability to collect contributions for political activities and to oppose Brown's proposed increase in the sales and income taxes, Proposition 30.

• The California Teachers Association labor union which represents more than 300,000 public school employees, has given $32 million supports Brown's proposed tax increase to funnel billions into their retirement accounts.

• Proposition 37, which would require disclosure labels identifying foods containing genetically modified organisms.  $41 million in donations from international food and chemical conglomerates such as Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co. are buying air time to defeat the prop reports the Daily Democrat.

Voter Fraud is Coming.
In California you can now register to vote online and then cast an absentee ballot.  Translation  -  No human being will ever see you register or vote at a polling place.  Over time what percentage of the "voters" will even be real people? 

California online Voter Registration 

• Democrat passed online registration has flooded the voter rolls with semi-literate "mouth-breathers."  People so clueless and disinterested about public affairs that they could not manage to register to vote the normal way.  In other words, they are the perfect Democrat voters.

Democrat enacted onlive voter registration has pushed up the number of Californians who can now vote to record levels — passing 18 million for the first time — a leap that could affect the outcome of contests across the ballot next week.

More than 1.4 million new voters have signed up, nearly 50% of them online under a new law that kicked in six weeks ago allowing electronic registration. They tend to be younger and more left-leaning than the state's general voting population, according to Political Data Inc., a bipartisan firm that analyzed county reports.

That gives Democrats, who already dominate state politics, a big boost; they outnumber Republicans among the new voters by more than 2 to 1. The highest number of registered voters until now was 17.3 million, in February 2009 reports the Los Angeles Times.

 

These new and uneducated voters could have a serious impact in Gov. Jerry Brown's push for tax increases, which is teetering in the polls. Brown has been pitching Proposition 30 to college students lately in a blitz of campaign appearances and social media outreach efforts expected to last until election day.

Independent voters, whose numbers also have risen, are considered key to Brown's effort. A third of those who recently registered did so without a party preference or with a minor party.

The fresh registrants also could tip the balance in congressional races where Democrats hope to make gains in their uphill battle to retake control of the House.

In more than a dozen House districts, Democratic registration rose slightly. And the new voters could help Democrats seeking to secure the state Senate and Assembly supermajorities required to raise taxes.

The United Bankrupt States of America

Bi-Partisan Insanity  -  The bankrupting of the United States

• Like a drug addict, both parties are addicted to massive government spending in order to buy votes from the people back home.
• Democrats are certifiable lunatics.
• But even the so-called "Conservative" Paul Ryan budget plan will add $4 to $6 Trillion to the national debt over ten years.

By Gary;
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The United States is bankrupt.  We are living off the wealth created by past generations, off pretend monopoly printing press money and off loans from other nations.  Someday soon the money teat will run dry and the shit will really hit the fan.  (That is a technical economic term.)

Even the Socialist confiscation the wealth of the upper classes would do almost nothing to cover the insane bi-partisan spending of Congress.  Both parties have their assorted supporters lining up to drain the US Treasury.  It's all for the public good you know.

Congressman Paul Ryan has become the latest hero to so-called deficit hawks. Twice now, the Republican-led House has embraced his austere budget plans.  But it is all smoke and mirrors no matter which party is proposing a budget.  Spending is beyond the out of control stage.
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The Ryan plan would not balance the federal budget for another 28 years at least, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

That means the federal debt would continue to rise every year.  That's partly because the tax cuts take effect right away while the Medicare cuts kick in later, as people now 55 hit retirement age.

Even the GOP Ryan budget projects to add another $4 to $6 Trillion to the national debt over ten years.  Why is it considered a "Conservative" budget plan when the debt is still piling up to the moon?

And if you believe that Congress can control its spending for decades into the future to meet Ryan's or anyone else's budget goals then I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you.
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Ryan himself concedes that his plan would not balance the budget this decade, predicting it could be balanced by the "mid-to-early 2020s" because his plan would ignite rapid economic growth.

Like his onetime mentor, Jack Kemp, the 1996 Republican vice presidential nominee, Ryan argues that the key to economic growth is not balancing the budget but lowering tax rates, but at the same time Ryan admits the national debt will keep growing.

But what happens if economic growth does not happen or is only very modest? What if there is little to no increase in tax revenue?  Japan is experiencing that type of sluggish economy combined with endless demands for more government spending.  The Japanese national debt keeps increasing.

Under Ryan's plan, which has passed the Republican-controlled House twice in slightly different versions, the Internal Revenue Service would tax the wealthiest Americans less, but many of the poorest ones more; Medicare would be transformed; Medicaid would be cut by about a third.
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Mitt Romney has made a point of saying that he's running on his own budget, not Ryan's, but even before choosing him as a running mate, he had adopted much of Ryan's plan. Romney's tax plan would reduce tax rates by less, but closely resembles Ryan's, and so do his plans for Medicare, Medicaid and other safety-net programs.

Even though national bankruptcy is here, the eternal Democrat vs Republican spending wars keep going on and on.  Each side is doing its best to reward members of their voting blocks with money taxed from other people.
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(Boston Globe)           (Los Angeles Times)


Ron Paul on the Paul Ryan budget plan
Paul points out that the national debt will increase by trillions.

Spain: €3 fee when students bring their own lunch

Big Government Insanity  -  Spain may charge students €3 to use the school cafeteria when they bring their lunch from home

• Massive protests as the public teat starts to dry up.

As the economic crisis in Spain deepens, several regions are considering charging students who bring lunch from home up to €3 to use the school cafeteria, the latest in a series of reforms that critics claim are hurting the most vulnerable.               

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There are no savings too small to count as Spain struggles to make its way out of economic crisis. Looking to reduce spending wherever it can, schools – and by extension, students – have become the latest target of drastic cost-cutting measures reports France 24 News.

With the start of the academic year just around the corner, many regions in Spain are considering charging even those students who bring lunch from home to use space in the school cafeteria.


Spanish protest spending cuts
Spanish police have fired rubber bullets and charged protesters in central Madrid after a huge demonstration against economic crisis measures.

It is not the first time Spanish authorities have gone to surprising lengths to rein in spending. Earlier this year, the Catalonia region’s ministry of education introduced a toilet paper quota in state schools.

Apparently, extravagant toilet paper use was costing enough that the government decided to clamp down. And so a rule was introduced limiting students to 25 metres (82 feet) of toilet paper per month.
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However, asking students to rent space in school lunchrooms goes a step beyond simply rationing resources.

Authorities in Catalonia have already announced plans to charge students as much as €3 per day for the right to eat with friends in the school cafeteria, despite the fact that those bringing lunch from home are often those who already cannot afford to pay for school lunches. Education officials in the regions of Valencia and Madrid have said they will put similar programmes in place.
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Madrid’s regional ministry of education has also announced plans to slash food subsidies to families in need from €29 million to €16 million.
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(France 24 News)

The teat of Big Government is finally starting to run dry

With the Communist flag front and center Spanish
protest against spending cuts.

The $4 Trillion Public Pension Time Bomb

A $4 Trillion Pension Bomb  -  Free Money for Everyone

• States and cities have lied to the voters about how un-funded the pension system is.
• Both political parties have sold out taxpayers in return for peace with labor unions.
• It appears no one in government has ever heard of 401K plans.

Drop your pants and bendover.  The taxman is coming, and he is going to do the deepest colonoscopy you have ever seen.
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J.P. Morgan went out and studied the public pension problem and found it was indeed as acute as feared.
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The result wasn’t something J.P. Morgan, the largest underwriter of municipal debt, expected.  The report was completed in March 2011 and showed that the problem with pension funds was indeed real: States and big cities had amassed trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities for their public pension systems reports Fox Business News.
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The J.P. Morgan study, labeled “strictly confidential” was authored by a trio of analysts in its municipal markets strategy group.

Everyday is Free Money Day when
it comes to tax money.

The accounting rules used by most state and local governments allow public officials to significantly understate the true costs to fully fund their public pension funds, the report said. This so called unfunded liability “is roughly five times larger than the amount reported on public balance sheets,” according to the report obtained by the FOX Business Network.

Under the accounting rules used by most states and municipalities, less than $1 trillion in unfunded liabilities exist. But the real number, the report stated, is closer to $3.9 trillion because governments are not “setting aside sufficient assets to prefund these benefits.”
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The solution, J.P. Morgan said, is pretty straightforward, though difficult for cash-strapped cities and states burdened by the after effects of the financial crisis with lower tax revenues and bloated governments: Fairly significant tax increases, drastic benefit cuts or a combination of both depending on the state or city.

J.P. Morgan decided that it would keep the study largely under wraps, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Only its best hedge fund clients and large institutional investors would receive the report. The cities and states at the heart of the analysis wouldn’t be informed, nor would most public investors.
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J.P. Morgan didn’t include the report’s findings about rising pension costs -- one of the risk factors for any municipal bond -- in the disclosure documents of the state and city bond deals, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. A review by the FOX Business Network of some these disclosure documents for bond deals underwritten by J.P. Morgan shows that, despite language involving unfunded pensions, the results of the study were not included.
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That decision to hold back the study from broad public distribution was a “business decision,” according to an executive at the firm. “We didn’t want the public theatrics” where J.P. Morgan would be at the center of a debate over a looming national crisis, this executive said.
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Another executive with knowledge of the report said “the firm was worried about offending municipal issuer clients and then losing business.”
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(Fox Business)

Republicans lose Wisconsin State Senate

Democrats cannot stop suckling the public teat.
Greedy voters love the flow of "free" tax money from the public teat and can't make up their minds.  They did not want to recall the Governor of Wisconsin, but at the same time they voted to put Democrats back in power in the State Senate.

Socialist Democrats Win  -  Demos pick off GOP State Senators one by one in recalls to retake control.

• Non-Marxists have their work cut out for them.  The public is totally addicted to re-distributing the wealth from those who produce to the teat sucklers of society.

The 2012 election is far from over.  Almost half of American society will vote for any red flag waving Marxist who promises them free stuff paid for by some other guy.  While Republicans are doing a victory dance in the Governor's recall the Democrats appear to have retaken the State Senate from the GOP.
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Unofficial returns from Tuesday's election in the 21st Senate District showed Democratic challenger John Lehman leading incumbent Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard by less than 800 votes with all precincts reporting. Democrats needed Lehman to win to gain a one-seat majority in the Senate and save at least some face after Republicans easily turned back five other recall bids reports Real Clear Politics.
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Lehman, who held the seat until Wanggaard defeated him in 2010, was quick to declare the grudge match a victory. Democratic Senate Leader Mark Miller, meanwhile, issued a statement declaring himself the new majority leader.

"We have won, yeah," Lehman said Wednesday. "We're happy to have prevailed."

Democrats and their allies ousted two GOP senators in recall elections last summer. Over the winter they gathered more than enough signatures from the public to force Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four more GOP senators, including Wanggaard, into Tuesday's recalls.
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One of the four senators, Pam Galloway of Wausau, quit her post ahead of the elections rather than campaign. Her resignation left the Senate divided evenly between Republicans and Democrats, 16-16, and gave Democrats hope of taking the chamber back. All three incumbents had to hold their seats and a Republican had to win Galloway's open seat to give Republicans the majority; Democrats, on the other handed, needed to win just one seat.   (Real Clear Politics)

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Vote Democrat and you too can get tons of FREE govenment shit paid for by people who work for a living.