Is it the federal retirees' lawsuit that has people so paranoid about our pensions? A Forum letter writer had not done his research the previous time federal pensions were addressed in this newspaper (Sept. 3). Now the editorial writer has not.
Did anyone on the Deseret News staff follow up on the federal pension "underfunding" report in the Washington Post, or did you just take it to be "gospel" simply because it was in the Post?First, it is not entirely "a taxpayer obligation." It is more a federal employee obligation as well as a federal employee benefit.
Second, COLAs, those nasty cost-of-living-adjustments you say "ought to be eliminated," have not kept pace with increases in real-world costs.
Since my retirement in 1986, I have received 168 percent increase in health insurance premium deduction (with no corresponding increase in health benefits) that I pay (the government does not) and a 55 percent increase in my life insurance premium deduction. During those same seven years, I received a whopping 4 percent COLA increase in my monthly gross income. Who says we "don't have to worry about" our "pensions being wiped out"?
I'm not griping about it, just clarifying the issue for those of you who seem to think that we retirees are some sort of onerous burden. One last item: We paid taxes then and we still pay taxes now, just like the rest of you. It's not a free ride.
Tod Young
Sandy