Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20141212

You can make comments on social media. Join the conversation on facebook. Com cspan or send an email to journal at cspan. Org. House narrowly passes bill to avoid shutdown. 1. 1 trillion in spending. Vote. 6 was the inside the New York Times story, the final vote was a blow to nancy pelosi. Elizabeth warned lead the dodd frank rollback. Led thebeth warren opposition to the dodd frank rollback. Postponing action on the spending bill until next year would not have been good for either party. Republicans were eager to get the package behind them so they can start 2015 with a fresh agenda. It Steve Scalise said the boat set the stage for the battle with the president over his immigration action. We want to hear from you this morning. What do you think the senate should do . What do you think of the house passed bill . Cq roll call, what is happening in the senate today . Now that there was the agreement that you just discussed and the house has mnibus the socalled cro spending bill, what we are one what we are going to see first, there is going to be some end of the year business. We are looking forward to the ,arewell speech from carl levin the democrat from michigan, the Armed Services chairman who is retiring. Notee starting off on that by the looks of it this morning. His last big bill, the Defense Authorization is going to be the first matter of floor considerations. Late last night, after the house had completed its work and we knew the way forward for the senate, there has been an agreement struck at three clock p. M. By three clock p. M. Today, a3 00 p. M. Series of votes that will lead to the passage of the Defense Authorization bill. Once that happens and that passage sends the bill to , then we obamas desk are in the end of the year tootiation on time and how press time in order to get the best of the work done. When it comes to the federal spending bill, what are the chances this will pass the senate . Will listen and be in on saturday to get this done . Caller that is the big deal. There will be a series of negotiations between all 100 senators to figure out whether has to gory reid through the process of filing cloture in order to cut off debate on that big spending bill. If that is the case, it would not pass until that she would not have the cloture vote until sunday you would not have the cloture vote until sunday. Because there is only a two day continuing resolution, the saturday, they will get the rest of the work done. Actually reach a point where all of the procedural andles were in place deployed by critics of the bill, the house would have to come in nominally to do another shortterm continuing resolution in order to keep the government open. Sanders says he is going to oppose the federal spending bill. Have other senators come out opposed to it as well . Caller there are senators on the left who are vehemently opposed to the inclusion of the language regarding the swaps provision from the dodd frank regulatory overhaul. Elizabeth warren of massachusetts is the leading charge on that one. There were senators on the right who are against the fact that the bill does not take specific action to try to stop president obamas executive action on immigration. Of theselear how many onele have objections to piece or other of the bill which might actually hold up its actually vote against it. That is the touch and go and we will see this afternoon after the defense bill passes. Of these objections turn into actual problems . Host thank you for your time this morning. Now, to your calls. Malcolm in washington on our democrats line. Would like to say thank you to cspan. I watch it every morning. About the paragraph writer that was added in late tuesday night. Which overruled an initiative for the legalization of marijuana that 71 of the novemberwho voted in put an initiative to legalize marijuana. Republicans and democrats in congress in both houses we are not a state. You have over 600,000 citizens who do not have a representative in congress to represent us and vote for us. We pay federal taxes and fight in federal wars and it is very frustrating that we dont have the same rights as all the other citizens of the other 50 states. It is not a democrat or republican thing. We just dont have a representative. Georgia. S is ed in republican line. I want to tell the last caller that nobody is keeping him in d. C. He can move over the border and he is all set. I do believe the democrats are going to try to stop the bill. If they do that, they will be the ones blamed for closing down the government. Let them do it. Host richard is an independent in jacksonville, florida. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I opinion about the bill is would like to congratulate everyone in the United States. We will let richard go to find his phone and move on to stephanie in california. Democrat. Caller good morning, cspan. I am so against this bill. This bill is not good for america. I dont think its good for the United States or its citizens. There is nothing in this bill that is good for the middle class. I hope that everyone voted for this bill is on record voting for the bill and will be voted out of office because they are not standing up for the United States citizens. This will destroy our economy even further. T a tweet back to the New York Times article. Liberal face of the Democratic Party led by Elizabeth Warren found itself in an Unlikely Alliance with the party wings the tea party wing. Last year, 70 House Democrats voted for a bill that included the very change to the dodd frank regulations that their leadership opposed this week. Voteead up to thursdays demonstrated the strength and limitations of their conferences. Harry is in pittsburgh. Republican. Go ahead. Amazed at the hypocrisy going on here with the democrat party. 1. 5 years ago when republicans voted against the spending, ms. Warren was calling them traitors. They were better. Bitter. Nancy pelosi helped write this bill and all of a sudden she is against it. Who will shut the government down this time . I was listening yesterday when democrats wanted to shut down the country. One. 5 years ago, they were blaming republicans for everything. Peoplet call one traitors and Everything Else and you one year later decide want to do the same thing now. Host from the Washington Post this morning, Elizabeth Warner showed up this week that she already holds significance play sway onsignificant capitol hill. Pelosi went from a muted view of the legislation at the start of the week to opposing it an encouraging other members to vote their conscience. Alice is in tampa on our independent line. Ivoted republican caller voted republican for them to not fund obamacare. I voted republican for them to we should do an amnesty bill but not until our borders are covered. If they dont pick it up when they come back, i will have to consider voting tea party because republicans and democrats have done a disaster to this country. I have watched them destroy this country, both parties. It certainly cant hurt to go tea party. Host the senate takes up the measure today. From the hill this morning, obama signs funding measure. President obama signed a shortterm resolution that will keep the governmentfunded two additional days. He signed that early friday morning. The continuing resolution which will allow the senate to extra two extra days to consider the 1. 1 trillion vending puck funding package. Partial, democrat in georgia. Go ahead. , democrat in georgia. Go ahead. Our househe and senate are not educated about American Society and the politics about it. Host jacob in washington. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to talk about the bill, all of its negativity. I think its miniscule when you look at the type of agreement thats going on between republicans and democrats in the proposition of this bill. In whole, its exciting thing to watch because you see republicans and democrats looking into agreeing with each other. Iis something i think look forward to seeing. In the last decade, Party Polarization has crippled this country. This is a step in the right direction for the house. Host jacob in spangle, washington. This is from the Huffington Post this morning. Nobody wants to take blame for on this Campaign Finance rider. A provision dramatically raising the caps on donations people can make to national party. Ommittees current limits allow a donor to give 32,400 per year to the democratic or republican general election funds. Limit at would set the 97,200 per donor per year. Ruth in waco, texas. Democrat. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. This bill they are passing now, im not a political person, but dodd frank situation they have going on, im disappointed the president signed off on all of that. He worked so hard to get that put in place to put people back when he gotposition into office. Im disappointed about that. It seems like the republicans have one and its kind of scary. Last electionthis and gave satan more power. Host from the business section of the New York Times is this article. For over moved to aid big banks furor over bill banks inid big funding bill. Marcia is a republican in fort lauderdale. Go ahead. Im rather caller rather disappointed in this bill. Republicans were voted into stop the obama agenda. The theme after the election was the change was to collaborate with the democrats for bipartisan agreements. To stop the obama agenda and i think most of the other republican votes were the same. I dont think this bill does anywhere near doing that. Getid that vote to republicans life. The country to go in a different direction and to stop whats happening now. This bill does not go anywhere near far enough to do that. Host richard, democrat, san antonio, texas. Caller i would like to make a couple of comments on the calls earlier talking about the spending bill. That nancy pelosi wrote the bill. This was the work of paul ryan earlier this year. Hearing about president obama violating the constitution. And part ofe senate the Supreme Court has violated it by keeping you need to keep separation of church and state. To keep allowing the church coming in, that needs to be kept out. They are violating the constitution. Caller Washington Times lead editorial about the bill. The compromise that could be worse. The cromnibus is better only than the alternative. Compromises never please everyone and the architects have uncomfortable explaining to do. Hoping to convince the they put enough sweetener on the compromise to make the medicine go down. Instead of focusing on what they could not get, disappointed conservatives should consider what they did get. If its not nearly enough, it is considerable. The compromise legislation prohibits increased obamacare funding while requiring the government to explain improper payment of the Obamacare Tax subsidy. Finally, the editorial says the compromise speaks harshly and effectively to the Obama Administrations abuse of the tax laws, cutting the budget of the Internal Revenue service and tells the irs that it cant any longer target taxpayers to punish them for their politics. The compromise legislation begins the process of cutting possibility to cripple business development, it liberates smallbusiness Business Owners from abusive leg regulations. A bit from their editorial. Nigel is an independent in the bronx. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me today. Say, im pretty disgusted with both parties at this point. They are putting our country to shame. Everything our Founding Fathers have built this country on is slowly beginning to crumble. I do not know what they are covering up, but i will say this, they need to fix it because they are putting the American People as a whole in a great deal of danger. I hope they fix it before it gets too late. Host what is it about the bill that you did not like . Voted independent i usually vote democrat. I voted independent this year because the whole Obama Health Care is a scam. Its a big scandal. Has paidnow if anybody attention to whats going on in this country today, but it is time to open our eyes and watch whats going on in front of us. Host clive in new jersey. Democrat. Caller good morning. This sounds like round two with the republicans and democrats in the house and senate. Thats all i have to say. They are hurting American People by doing this. In peg tweets richard is here in laurel, maryland. Independent line. Caller thank you. Saying, im sure you heard it a million times, follow the money. Powergives you power and gives you more money. Disclosureto have a that showspie graph you where all of this 1. 1 trillion is going. They should have added a wedge in that pie indicating the profit that some of these socalled spending bills give to the people who already have more than they need. That is my comment. Thank you. Host front page of the Washington Post today. The house passes 1. 1 trillion spending bill. I want to show you the picture next to it. Picture a big picture, a big teache staffers on the steps with their hands up. Elijah cummings is in there. Fold is this story, a post employee who died while on duty. Michelle captured images of sorrow and dignity. Winner ofthreetime the Pulitzer Prize for dramatic images of human struggle and triumph. He died thursday while on assignment in liberia. He was 58 years old. He collapsed while returning on liberiasa village in county where he had been working on a project. He was transported over dirt roads to a hospital two hours away but was declared dead on arrival from apparent heart attack. Inwon two Pulitzer Prizes the 1980s and a joint the post in 1988. Joined the post in 1988. He shared his third for an investigative series on the treatment of veterans at walter reed medical center. Is in chattanooga. What do you think about what the house passed last night . Caller thank you for taking my call. Closely asing very Elizabeth Warren has been a great watchdog in the past over taking on wall street and making sure they dont get anything re. Pped in their all americans should be grateful that she did that. Them their rightful credit for that. Line inrry, republican fort worth, texas. Caller i am calling to talk about the root, what i believe to be the root cause of what we are seeing going on in our government with our elected officials. In the early years of this country, it was left up to the pastors of the churches in the local areas to totally inform , who isngregations going to run for office and who these people were so they would know how to vote. They dont do that anymore because they got into the Tax Exemption for the churches. The seduction to take the power away from the local pastors to inform their people how to vote because if they dare talk about these people that are running , they lose their Tax Exemption. The churches are going to have to go back to doing it the way they used to and get rid of this seduction that has been put on their churches so that their people are wellinformed. Likeis how you keep people boehner and pelosi and all these people up there under handing us from getting up to that point in doing the evil they are doing. Tos up to the local churches inform the people how to vote. Host this is jan in minnesota. Interesting an point on what is going on in washington. It is going back to hamilton and jefferson times. Hamilton wanted the Big Government and influence and the money in public issues. ,efferson came back from france with thee poverty royals and the peasants, he wanted equality that we had for many years. Now, the American Voter forgot about the history and people just dont pay enough attention and dont watch what washington is doing. Thank god for Elizabeth Warren. I do hope she is going to be a powerhouse and i hope she is going to run because we definitely need a change in this country. Thank you very much. Host speaking of Elizabeth Warren, this is from the hill newspaper, support for treasury pick. Opposition to when Obama Administration Treasury Department nominee, meaning he will need multiple republican votes in order to be confirmed. Tammy baldwin told the Huffington Post on thursday that she will oppose the conversation confirmation. Anded on his record qualifications as a wall Street Investment banker, i dont have confidence he will work to even the Playing Field for middleclass families and Small Businesses who need a fair shot to get ahead. In fromalling frederick, maryland. Caller good morning. On inatching whats going our government, i have deja vu all over again. It reminds me of a book i read called animal farm. Is like watching it being played before my eyes. Governments are usually started by the will of the people. As government matures and autocratic, they oppose the will of the people. Animal farm all over again. Im an immigrant to this country. A citizen of this country. Am inrprised that i agreement with nancy pelosi. Have a good day. Republicans supported the house bill. 57 republicans opposed it. 67 democrats supported it. 139 democrats opposed it. Clinton exploring spring announcement. Formal announcement likely to be in spring of 2015 according to the Washington Post. Articleico, a political , romney more open to 2016 run. Supporters have said he should consider running again. He hasnt seemed uninterested has seemedtly uninterested until recently. The republican one of 12 nominee idea. Emed open to the 2012 nominee hasnt seemed open to the idea. Jamie on our democrats lie. Caller hello. My simple comment is i am totally outraged at how duped the American Public has been and havehe republicans totally undermined our country with this absurd bill that passed. I have a question about, is there anything that the senate can do tomorrow morning to overturn that or to not pass that . Is there anything that can be done to stop this absurdity that republicans pulled up yesterday . Host what is it about the bill that is absurd to you . Caller all the things that Dianne Feinstein talked about. All the things that Elizabeth Warren talked about. Frankning. Regulations, allowing tolionaires and corporations give much more money than they ever have two campaign organizations. Issue of pension stripping pensions. All the things that those two ladies mentioned yesterday. I watched cspan all day yesterday. Are what thengs republicans slipped into the bill almost without anybody recognizing it. Theyre going to turn this country upside down and go straight back to the bush years. And lead us to devastation. Host thank you, sir. Independent in brooklyn. Caller good morning. Im calling in opposition of this bill, specifically the dodd frank component. The American People, both , imrats and republicans going to vote against all of that. Elizabeth warren would get my vote. Mr. Paul is talking the right issues. The American People have to wake up. They dont realize the gas prices are down and everything is right, so here they come again, democrats and republicans trying to take out the safeguards that was in dodd frank. I dont understand, even my Southern Country boys should know the economy is going in the right direction. Gas prices are down. More money in everybodys pockets and republicans and democrats are working together to take out those safeguards. Lawmakers faltered inhouse ethics probes faulted, to cleared inhouse house ethicsnhouse ethi probes. The panel concluded that tom petrine of wisconsin and Allison Hastings of florida did not submit ethics violations. The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to issue a letter of approval wee reproval. Richard in newport, North Carolina. Republican line. The house passed this 1. 1 trillion bill. The senate is taking it up today. Your thoughts . Caller i have been listening and i agree with a lot of people calling in. And are blaming republicans democrats. It is not republicans and democrats, it is progressives in are ruining that this country and we have to realize who they are and vote against them. We just collected over the past two months, 400 and 4 billion in taxes 404 billion in taxes. We have overspent by 179 billion. We are collecting all these taxes which 40 something percent of the people dont pay federal taxes. Its on the backs of the middle class. He wants to raise more taxes and everything and they are going up and putting up these useless bridge to nowhere spending like shrimp on treadmills. We need to get smart. Know who the progressives are and vote them out and get this country back on the right track again. Host john in North Carolina tweets in gwb finally, steve says from the Washington Times this morning, congress losing world , a tea partyn tea part favorite. The times out of new orleans leads with this story. Mary landrieu at peace with leaving the senate. Dennisnni he times in pennsylvania. Caller im calling about the epa and the tax exception on agricultural loans. I had to go 30 miles every week to see obama and everybody sign this bill every are polluted fishing hole in the country is destroyed. What is wrong with these people . If obama signs this bill, i will not vote for a democrat in this country. Host shirley is in ohio. Caller hi. I have not called for quite a while. I called you on my birthday last time. Host welcome back. Caller it is the end of the month and i will be 83. Host congratulations. How is your health . Caller i have low platelets and there is no cure for it. Host im sorry. Caller i never took medicine before this past year. Obamacare. T that is why im an independent. They should set term limits. Geezers lose their statehood when they stay there forever. Thats the way our government was set up to be. If you ever have david barton on, he is a minister and he has , the way blacks are being treated by this president is terrible. I have black friends and they are not happy with him. They just take everything away from people. Therights are sliding down nd hole. I never complained about paying taxes all the years at work and i had two jobs in florida. Thats how i got to be against se illegals because the kids told me down there in two different places i worked, the spanish will be our National Language and they will. Et them into government jobs that is what it looks like. Spend all this time on immigration and gays and Everything Else and im wondering who is represent me. Thats representing me. Sure good to talk to you. The first i got in. Its time to replace all the leaders in the congress and the senate. Host thanks for calling. Happy birthday at the end of the month and hopefully we will talk to you next year. Mary in danville, virginia. Last word on this topic. Caller thank you, sir. I am floating and because i feel sorry for every republican who rightly voted whether they were christians or republicans the would take a populist stance when what they did shows the real intentions. They gutted dodd frank and reempowered these oligarchs who dont care about you unless you are one of the top 1 , those who money work for them instead of them working for their money. Takes in whate they do when they take real power in january and vote them out in 2016. Host mary in danville, virginia. We have three more segments coming up. Next, we look at one of the provisions in the bill passed by the house. O withas to dea pensions. Gonzales wholberto has a new book on the conservative and compassionate approach to immigration reform. About thek him interrogation methods and the asues going on with that washington journal continues. This week on q and a, political reporters share stories about being on the campaign trail with mitch mcconnell. He had planned for four years this campaign. This started in 2010 right after he saw what happened in the republican primary for rand paul. Mcconnellsat handpicked guy in the primary. Mcconnell realized i have to recalibrate everything i know about republican primary politics in my home state. He started to make changes. He hired key staff and started to build this sophisticated structure knowing this would be the most difficult race in his campaign. They knew they would spend a lot of money on technology. They watched the Obama Campaign in 2008 and 2012 and watched harry reids reelection in 2010. Beat the democrat by six points. He was going to have the latest technology. He was going to build he probably got there. Sunday night at 8 00 on cspans q a. We are airing one program from each year starting december 22 at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Washington journal continues. Joining us is karen friedman, executive Vice President of the pensions Rights Center. Guest we worked to promote and protect the retirement rights of workers. Host what is contained in the bill passed by the house last night . Guest what a lot of people dont know and should know is a 161 cgress snuck in proposal that would torpedo the strongest protections. These provisions will devastate potentially millions of retirees. Willthe bill does is it for the very first time and trusteesan by as muchhem to cut as 60 the already earned benefits of retirees, benefits that have already been paid for, retirees have already earned. Why . They are allowing this to happen to reportedly help stave off the possibility that some of these multi employer plans may become congress snuck into a bill in the dead of the night. It was drafted behind closed doors with zero input from retirees and their representatives and that bill will allow trustees to cut the already earned benefits of pensions. The federal private pension law which was cut 40 years ago gives the strongest protections to retirees and their families. If you already earned a pension benefits, these people gave up money so they could get a pension later on. Once you have earned the pension , it cannot be cut back by the arbitrary actions of employers or trustees. What congress did yesterday, y turned back the clock on the law and wiped out 40 years of protections. They said lets balance the books on the backs of the most vulnerable, retirees. Only once you have earned a benefit, you cant cut back. To death 10 were the are in trouble only time this changes is once the plan completely runs out of money, a federal public pension podium steps in and retirees benefits could be cut down to a very few level. The statistics,s i will the employer plans multi employer plans would do so in 1020 years. Youre cutting Retiree Benefits couldto save plans that run out 20 years from now. Miller and the groups that have been lobbying on this say this is a tool in the toolbox. This is a buzz saw. Host labor unions were in support of this. Correct . Guest some. There is a huge split among labor unions and organizations. Upt lets put the numbers so we can get the callers involved as well. We set a side a fourth line this morning for those of you who receive pensions. We would like to hear from you. Back to the labor union question. Guest there was misinformation put out on capitol hill saying we have opposed it even way back when. Aarp opposed this. The Teachers Union opposed this. The boilermakers opposed this. That hisardly say labor unions in support of it. There are some who supported it because they are saying this is the only way we can ensure that these plans are going to survive and 1020 years. That is not true. There are plenty of alternatives. Never considered, our voices were not considered. That in theeous last few days of the congress that they are slipping through these provisions that require public discourse. Be hurt by this would not included in this process and that is outrageous. Host how many people receive pensions and what is the role of the pension benefit guarantee program . Guest this system where talking about right now is called multi employer plans. There are singleemployer plans. We are talking about joint trustee plans where you can negotiate with lots of different employers. Because lots of employers have paid in, they are the construction industry, the trucking industry, they were never expected to ever suffer problems and they were hit very recession and other factors. Folks who arelion covered by these plans. Probably 1. 5 million retirees would be affected by this proposal. Know, the way they talk about a plan that is supposed to be solving it, a might run out of money in 20 years. That is how its defined. Pretty broad. The pension benefit guarantee probation is a terrific agency. Pensionral private punc Insurance Program was set up to ensure that if a company goes , the money is backed up. These multi employer plans that cover Truck Drivers and others, its a plan runs out of money, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, this federal backup so, the health of the multiemployer system and health f the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation are intertwined one issue is the big here and the Reason Congress is stepping in is states the central Teamster Fund is underfunded. That means according to the of the pension fund the plan might run out of money nothing is done in 10 to years. So, if the worst happens and it s not going to happen because there are lots ways to save it and nobody will let it go under. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation worries it wont tphuenough money to save the plan. So we need to address the issues. It have to be done in the last few days of the 113th slipping a 161page into an omnibus bill . No. Congress is taking a buzz saw they are going to slice off retirement pensions. After the most vulnerable team to save these plans. There are alternatives. Toes alternatives should be on those alternatives should be on the table. All the organizations want to table and they have heard from hundreds of Truck Drivers and construction workers us the last lling few days. They are hopping mad about this. Should still ople be calling their senators. It is not over until it is over. We will take some calls. In leesburg, alabama, on the republican line. With all due respect you are not being honest. If you watched cspan wednesday have seen this bill totally gone over with and everybody had a chance to put cents in apnd they are do this to save the Pension System. They are not doing it to hurt anybody. Miller frome George Campbell california that he is afraid these Pension Plans are going to go broke. So you are not being honest with people. Ican it was talked about and it has been talked about for several in the house. So, just be honest with the people. Vetted an fully night. Wednesday guest let me respond. Actually, there have been on the issue and there ave been some hearings on a 30page blueprint for it proposal and just so you know center and rights other organizations took issue with that proposal. Difference a big between a blueprint, which is 30 161page pieced a of legislation that is very detailed. Was forth know, it properly vetted on the house. Knew what was in the bill because it was just written. And ension Rights Center our allies didnt get a copy of that bill until two nights ago midnight. So, it was not properly vetted and in fact there were many for the past year that have tried to get congress cut retirees books ofto balance the employers. Pennsylvania. A pensioner. A sheet metal worker and i went out on disability and before i got ars hurt, about three years ago, tdo away with our disability pension. An hour into the pension and i should be getting month but now i got 900. Seems kind of crooked. Guest in that situation that sounds like it might be a with your t you have specific plan. What i would suggest is get in rights th the opinions center. We will be happy to look at what your problem sand help you with problem is and help you with that. Website ke sure our goes out afterwards. Chuck, how long have you been receiving a pension . And do you follow this issue closely . Caller yes. Guest are you saying right now your benefit will be cut under or is being cut separately . Caller no, but they already cut so im hoping they aint going to cut it again. Factorshere is a lot of in that. It would depend on whether you way n a right now, the the bill is written is people with disabilities would be cuts. From so you are probably ok on that score. But if you would like us to look and help you with your specific problem, feel free to get in touch with us. Opinions rights. Org. Aller ned from florida on the republican line. Caller thanks for taking my call. Mrs. Friedman you said congress of ped this in in the dead night. To a lot of us, that is the same thing that happened with the healthcare bill. You had a massive amount of people opposing it. Hey slipped it in in the dead of night. We had nancy pelosi that we have to pass the bill to find out in it. The latest survey i saw the 60 want shows almost that bill repealed. For the peoplery that have the pensions and what s going on but a lot of pensions are going broke. You look at detroit and places dire hat that are in bad need because of some of their pensions. It isu make it sound like the republicans doing all of it that is bad, but dont forget 80 of the people were happy with their health care because it was crammed down our throats that was down in the dead of the fight. Guest thank you for the comments. Let me first im not going to address the healthcare issue but about the pension bill that im talking b. Just so you know it was a bipartisan i think it was both emocrats and republicans who snuck these provisions in, just we are upset nd about that. Bill, we think s hat with an issue this huge when you are going to reverse the protections that have been that protect ars retirees let me use this as an say something. We are talking about working americans, construction workers, Truck Drivers. Talking about their widows in these situations. So le gave up their wages they could get pensions when they retire, so their employers money in the pension fun funds. So these are earned pension benefits. In is an issue that is bipartisan and affects republicans an democrats. Is about is trying to pension to preserve promises and basic promises in this country. Is that if the private pension law recognizes etirees are the most vulnerable. They are the ones who now are ut and they are out of the workforce, probably cant go back in. The pension they earn is what on to supplement Social Security. That is why congress put these law so that to the years later much more powerful employers and trustees cant cut them back. A democrat or republican issue. This is an issue of fairness. Is an issue of the American Dream and social contract in and what can people believe in. Host john tweets i resent the idea that taxpayers should ever have to contribute a dime plan. Private pension who could feel otherwise . Guest ok. With a nothing to do taxpayer putting money in. These are private plans and all of the turns that we are talking aret shoring up these plans not about tax popayer dollars. In this bill to is trying to fix plans that or may or may not become incide in 10 to 20 years by going after only the retirees. As a country we try to take care of the most vulnerable. These are people who earned their pensions. In is no taxpayer bullet bailout. These are people that gave up wages while working. If this was a corporate they had a d contract theres no way that would be cut. To work a nation have together to try to keep these pension promises and keep workers, retirees and their false. Host darren here in washington, you are on with karn fri riedman of the pension Rights Center. Caller good morning. Thanks for cspan. Reason why im independent is because of a vote like there. A republicans and democrats lot of times they are all alike. Im 35 years old. I dont think im tkpgoing to s security. Have a 401k and i invest on my own. I think a bigger problem there bill reason why that should be passed on the last day of congress. People had made themselves more informed and called their biologic bill would have been brought up a long time ago. Voters are apathetic and dont what they are doing as long as they dont effect them in the short term they are fine. If it affects them in the medium or long temple they dont care. Thanks so much. You are right. People should be weighing in but this particular issue people wouldnt have known what to eigh in on because we only found out at the last minute. On please, people, sign up our website, become part of our network. We will send you out News Releases so you can be part of activate with us. And just to clarify one point social last caller, security is actually the oundation of income for the majority americans. The program, despite information is doing quite well. It has enough money to pay benefits for decades to come a single change. We need to protect that program. Aboutason we are so upset the pension fight going on today s if you cut the pensions retirees in multiemployer plans precedent dangerous saying they should be cut across the board. We have to protect the most i agree with you on that. This mornings wall street journal editorial washingtons opinions nonbailout pbgc is in trouble ith a projected longterm deficit of 42. 4 billion. Pbgc puts its odds of going which could at 90 mean slashing pension payments 1,500. Than more than 1 million americans could be hurt. Lets put it this way. The pension benefit guaranty we are not not going to let that agency go broke. Be a backstop o pensions and that is a valuable program. And it is at the heart of the in this country and we wont let it go bankrupt. But keep in mind the numbers of pbgc take into account two be bankrupt. T can the Eastern States Teachers Fund and united my opinion workers plan. In is a separate solution to sure the United Mine Workers plan is in good shape. If you address those two that big deficit is not going to be there any more. Will come down substantially there are ways of pbgc deficitoth the and issues of underfunding in multiemployer plans. And we need to do both. Not ension rights are taking the position these shouldnt be fixed. And committed to the continuation of point out mployer plans in america and all plans. But we need to have the right fixes. Alternatives that can be done that when we are talking about saving plans in the future we should not be cutting the benefits of retirees or going after the most vulnerable. That is the easy out. Host green, baltimore, line. Nd, democrat good morning to you. Ofler your guest named some he unions who are against this bi bill. I would imagine that she knows are in the unions who favor of it. Know ike to noah are in favor . Guest they supported it because hey are healthy plans but they supported the cuts among tell laborers, bricklayers union, employees International Union and others. So theres been a split in the community. So, if you want their positions you should talk to them directly. Did the pbgc have a position on the bill as passed house last night . Guest not to my knowledge. That the most important and it was e pbgc addressed only slightly in this premiums. Need more the way multiemployer plans ork is the employers pay premiums, against this is not not taxpayer money for the employees that are in there. Premiums are way low for a variety of reasons. So the pension Rights Center and allies have been advocating money y need a lot more than the premiums. They got a little bit but not be a lot they should higher. Premiums . Pays the guest the employers pay them down to y it is passed the plans in many situations so workers and retirees help pay for them. Our solution is lets get more money in and give incentives to to put more in and maybe workers and retirees would voluntarily could pay. There are ways of solving these problems. Took k that the congress the easy way out but slashing Retiree Benefits. Dee dee tweets this. This is more about not the talking as you were about, have employee or employer contributions contributions. Pension low to make solvency feasible. To the Pension Plans themselves. The way that contributions that is contracts. In union so, in terms of that, that is not something i would be able to on necessarily. Lets go pwaback to the eastern fund. S pension let me make sure everybody understands this. Union and y of these employer trustee Pension Plans well. Ing very 90 of them are in great shape and they are great plans because out guaranteed pensions to workers and retirees so that they know they have money they can relying on for rest of their lives. We are only talking about a very hawl portion of small portion of plans that are having problems today. In those plans, the ones that hit hard by the recession in recessions by the deregulation of the trucking industry. Hit the omething that Central States opinions fund. O there are reasons they are affected and in some of them like Central States there are retirees than active workers paying in. But that is not the problem of retirees. When they retired 10 years ago the Central States teamsters had more money than it needed. But retirees certainly have fog the underfunding and where we are coming from they should not have to bear the fixing the plans. That is why the law says they should be protect the first. Host our next call is from michael in bethlehem, pennsylvania. A pension. Ving first of all, from whom are you receiving the pension and how over the you paid in years, et cetera . Caller im getting a pension Foster Wheeler and im wondering what effect the pension pla es plans . Affecting is only mult multiemployer plans but we do passes a if Congress Bill that says hey, lets mult trustees of multiemployer plans to cut benefits this creates a situation where corporate plans says why cant we cut back . We are having problems. Then it can affect Social Security benefits and it will will start tothis become an argument for cutting other sectors and we think it is dangerous. Ost michael, is there any how is the health of your pension plan, do you know . Very good. Is it is pretty good and there is no problem. Pay how many years did you in it . How much did you pay into it . It was not contributor. The company put it. In. Ears i put it pays for my Health Benefits also. Guest that is great. What we are hoping. What you have is what we think all americans should have, right . Theres been kind of a feeling in this country i heard it of the callers before some people have pensions, it i dont haveecause a pension. We need to fight to preserve the exist, sions that protect works and retirees, rights under those plans and better system to ensure that everybody in this country can retire with adequate and secure funds. I gave have this tweet up wages working at enron and 401k. Into stock in my no one guaranteed my money we with olded like obama did g. M. Fp guest enron was a terrible situation and the pension Rights Center worked very hard on that. What happened with enron is that 401k plan. There are two different kinds of plans. 401k are Retirement Savings, not backed by the federal government. Plans e do it yourself where individuals take all the risks and responsibilities and money themselves and then they decide where to invest it do if they are lucky they well. They really kind of were great at market being, no substance behind it but it was money into our stock because we are such a Great Company and it was an horrible thing. We dont believe that there hould be more than just a little bit of employer stock put into 401k plans for that reason. That is the 401k plan. What we are talking about here are Pension Plans. Called the lingo is efined benefit plans but typically employers put in money. He money is pooled and professionally invested. Depending on what the formula is pension based on the rest of your life and your getting a lso if something it happens to you. These are lifetime pensions versus Retirement Savings plans. That is why they have been a huge advocate safing ultiemployer plans and corporate Pension Plans and trying to beef up 401k plans system that has the best of both worlds. Ost did the enron employees ever get any recovery . Guest not a whole lot. Might have gotten a tiny bit but for the most part they lost a lot. John follows what we were talking about with this tweet have your guest talk about the trend away from pensions and toward 401ks and motives employers. Thats an excellent question. Where been a Trend Companies over the last 10 to 20 yea to save money, Old Fashionedgood Pension Plans where employers ut in money and you get a pension base on your years and pay and it lasts forever. 401k is a switch from employer shifting the an burden on to individuals. In has been Something Back the 1990s if anybody can remember back that far you might there was the bull market and everybody was doing well and everybody taught we need the Old Fashioned Pension Plans we can do it on our own. The market crashed we saw the flaws of 401k plans. Employers have moved from them. Ut the pension rights have advocated for that we have to preserve the plans that exist and preserve the rights of plans, make sure they get what is needed. Little ke 401k plans a better. But the pension Rights Center has been advocating for other gets ches and anybody who in touch with us we will be doing a movement to try to kind of a new plan. One that wasen had introduced this year that would sort of a pool plan for now not covered by employer plans and we think that might be a way to go for the country. Host charles, woodbridge, virginia, thanks for holding, republican line. You are on. Caller i guess im a little process. By the whole the bottom line is that it seems a huge is seems to be part of personal responsibility. There is nothing wrong with the 401k. 401ks. Ny has everyone i know is involved and when you are you watch it closer. You manage it yourself. It rises and falls based on your action. In the end that is what you are benefit from or lose from. I could be ignorant on this and you can expand somebody plan vest into a pension and they receive benefits for life life. They both live to 90 years old ncluding the wife and continue to get benefits beyond what the company and individual put in. Is any pension plan 20, 30, 40 years supposed to survive that . Ing like and when you bail them out im not one re you saying dime of any bailout or rescue federal taxpayers at all . Thanks. You asked a lot of questions there. Do work for many people. Basically the way they work is , u put in money, the employer if you are the employer they money. Atch that the issues come down to there is a lot personal responsibility put on individuals. A lot of people are just not other e doing a lot of things and investing money is not perhaps their forte. Invest ake that money, that money, maybe you do good, maybe you dont do good. A lot of people dont have a lot of money to put into these plans. Just to let you know, half of all workers in 401k plans Something Like saved up those plans and even for those people approaching retirement this is income they have closer to about 100,000 to 110,000 a year. That sounds like a lot but that s not enough to last for your lifetime. The way pensions work is the employers put it and that is deferred wages. It is part of the compensation package. The when you take a job and employer says you get this much in wages and this much in a 401k plan and you get some in healthcare. Style Pension Plans the ones that i was talking about earlier and plans work a little differently but the the employerlly basically negotiate with the union and they put money in and invested by professional Money Managers and they figure hit ow to make that money the mark of what they negotiated. These are done by professional Money Managers and actuaries and to do this. Ow how the reason they do work is that know what you are going to get and you dont have to think most ough and you know people in 401k plans, even 200,000, have d to make it last. That is why policy makers and that is why people like you we are trying to figure out what is the right kind of the future and we are trying to preserve what exists and preserve the rights plans but nder toes those plans. We would love to start a dialogue with everybody to talk is the right kind of system for the future. It can be Something Like the old and like the plans 401k plans that exist. Thanks for the comments. Edwin is a pensioner in cedar park, texas. Hello. good morning. I had a question for about pension relief. Package that since the of the bush tax cuts in 2001 and to go in ess has will and do pension relief every basically ears, pension relief in perpetuity. Ask you if there is some did the bush tax cuts do with the g to way our Pension System just it is not getting any better. About that. Ask you host tell us about your pension, edwin. Have you received one for a long time . Do you keep an eye on the fund for its Financial Health . Caller yes, i do. A pension receiving since 2008. And my pension fund, according actuary, is 92 funded. But if you use a it is only about 75 funded. It is running about 1 billion to fair ding, according market value. Since the bush tax cuts. Host thank you, sir. Guest well, im not an actuary, but the way it works is actuaries, math whizzes they figure out how much money to go into plans to figure out how much the money will earn. They have those kind of mathematical competitions. Look know, when you Pension Funds should really be looked at over a longterm period, right