Comments

1
In defense of Tom's constituents, inheriting wealth is back-breaking work.
2
Lead by example.

If Republicans want to cut the budget, they should start with their own compensation, including healthcare and retirement benefits.

In fact, why are they rewarded with a paycheck when they fail to pass a budget and force yet another special session.

Rewarded behavior is repeated.
3
Rodney Tom was my real estate agent when I moved here in 1991. Hard to believe that he became such a schmuck. To use the old Southern-ism, "I wouldn't piss on him even if he was on fire."
4
Just to be clear, the 48th District (which Ross, Rodney and I represent) includes Lake Hills and Crossroads in Bellevue, north and south Rose Hill in Kirkland, a good portion of the Avondale corridor in Redmond. Actually, about 115,000 people OTHER THAN the maybe 3,200 in Medinak. But still, Goldy, a good snarky comment, if somewhat out of context. :=)
5
...and you're ignoring the real question about whether we should be paying public employees to retire in their 50s
6

This is the pacific northwest...don't young people come here to retire in their 20s?

Seriously...you call it work?

7
You know WHY some of your constituents can't retire with decent pensions in their late 50's Ro_ney? Because fucking greedy Republican corporatists have gutted, eviscerated, and generally annihilated private-sector employee pension plans, that's why.

This comment is essentially suggesting, "We took all the benefits away from OUR workers, so what makes THESE other workers think THEY deserve them?"

THAT is what Republicans mean when they say "level the playing field"...
8
Why do we want people to retire young and healthy? Because that's where a lot of our volunteers come from. So, yes, having someone retire at 55 can pay tremendous dividends to the community.
9
It might be driven by greed, but you can't deny the demographic shift and how that impacts costs. If you retired at 55 and died at 62 that's a whole lot different than retiring at 55 and living to 85. 30 years of tax payer funded pension is getting pretty close to the value of the work that person performed for their whole career.
10
@8, I think 95% of those hit the casinos, the links, or the road in their motorhomes, but yay for the maybe 5% who volunteer in their communities or abroad. I don't know where else we'd get them unless we had a well-supported national-service option for young people.
11
Hey, I'm as anti-Republican as the next guy, but the growing disparity between public and private retirement plans grates on me too. Income disparity, retirement plan disparity...not good for anyone but the few who are on top.
12
I agree with @10, but what's with this cult of "hard work"? It seems very virtuous on its face, but this "virtue" is usually propagated by very rich people who do relatively little work and are very well compensated by exploiting the labor of undercompensated workers. Unless you're working for yourself or doing something you love, I don't see giving away your weeks until less than a decade before the end of your one and only life as something to be proud of. Henry David Thoreau famously wrote about this. So if we, as a society, find a way to allow ourselves to spend the last 1/5 of our lives in leisure, I'd say we'd be doing right for ourselves. There's nothing "lazy" about enjoying our lives.
13
@11 How about raising the standard, not lowering it? If jealousy is getting to you, why not advocate for benefits as good as those you're jealous of, as opposed to "leveling the playing field" by bringing down all the workers to our misery? Should we all be equally screwed? Should we let the wealthiest hoarding an increasing percentage of the national wealth to turn us against each other? I'll believe all those political lackeys braying about an "equal playing field" when it means that the wealthiest get to pay an equal proportion of their income in taxes and living expenses (including healthcare) as the rest of us do. I'd like to see them walk up to a public service worker with a mortage, car payments, a family, and health issues and tell him/her that he/she is making too much money. "We can't have that here."
14
Goldy will not rest until Seattle is indistinguishable from one of those hyper-taxed, bankrupt, east coast shitpiles like Philly. Can you imagine what insatiably greedy and entitled public unions would do to the taxpayers of this without 1053? Also Goldy, why should they retire at 55 with a generous pension? You didn't explain that yet.
15
Floater is spot on.
16
These people DO realize that the state retirement system prorates one's retirement, yes? Are they afraid people are retiring at 55 with full benefits?
Because that's not how it works. Not even close.
17
Not only the social Darwinists are very busy regurgitating conservative think tank propaganda about public employee compensations but they now also want to tell people when they should retire. A level playing field between public and private sector workers would imply raising public employee compensations since, on average, they make less than comparable workers in the private sector.
18
@16: "These people DO realize that the state retirement system prorates one's retirement, yes?"

Of course they know what reality is. They just claim whatever they want regardless, because they're assholes.

Please wait...

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