SAFETY NET REVISITED Weve had several folks share derogatory comments theyve read aimed at public servants. It reminds us of a post that Eva wrote in January 2013. We should stand up for ourselves and challenge such comments at every opportunity, especially when those comments are made by decision-makers. Here is the post: Greg Stumbo has used the term “safety net” at least twice recently when talking about our pensions -- on Kentucky Tonight and in an article in today’s State Journal. Language is powerful and the use of this term is deliberate. Stumbo is attempting to make us appear as public supplicants rather than as public workers who have earned a pension guaranteed by an inviolable contract. I’m getting ready to e-mail this: Message to Greg Stumbo: Stop using the term “safety net” in regards to earned government pensions. Safety net is a metaphor for welfare – non-contributory “social programs or assistance to protect the needy.” (“Safire’s New Political Dictionary” by William Safire, Random House, New York, 1993). Kentucky government retirees have earned their pensions through years of service and money taken from each and every paycheck. Repeating for emphasis: we EARNED our pensions. Sen. Stumbo equates our pension system with a “safety net.” Safety nets (Wikipedia tells me) are “NON-CONTRIBUTORY (emphasis mine) transfer programs seeking to prevent the poor or those vulnerable to shocks and poverty from falling below a certain poverty level.” I seem to remember pension contributions coming out of my paycheck twice a month. Stumbo says (beginning around 2:38): “If there’s a reduction in benefits, it would not be a large reduction. And if there is a reduction of benefits it needs to be triggered by a certain benefit amount. I don’t feel necessarily too sorry for government employees who might have to take a 5 percent reduction if their pension is based upon a salary of $70 or $80 or $90,000 a year. I do feel sorry and won’t support reducing for any amount those whose salaries are based on, you know, 20 or 30 or $40,000 a year. Those are the guys, the people, who need this SAFETY NET (emphasis mine) created by this retirement system.”
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:34:31 +0000
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