BWA!!!!
Sorry. Let me catch my breath. ... Whew. Man, I haven't laughed so hard in ... I don't know how long.
What prompted that response was this quote from Bradley Belt, executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.: "It is imperative that Congress act expeditiously so that the problem doesn't spiral out of control."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ...
Ah. Whew. Sorry about that. I just get tickled at the concept of Congress "acting expeditiously" so that a problem "doesn't spiral out of control," seeing as I was around during the S&L crisis. Yeah, that expeditiousness? Will happen.
When porcine aviation commences.
The issue in question is the fact that the PBGC, which pays off corporate pension obligations when the corporations can't, was looking at liabilities 50% higher than assets as of the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30. The corporation doesn't get tax money; its funds come from insurance premiums paid by companies with pension plans.
For now.
Me, I'm just grimly resigned to the likelihood that there's a big ol' mess about to be dumped on American taxpayers. Because this government isn't going to let a bunch of retirees starve (although it might well cut benefits to well below what retirees were promised). And faced with the choice of making corporations live up to their obligations or dumping the problem on taxpayers, the S&L debacle suggests, the government will be doing some very big dumping.
That they might do expeditiously.
