Congress Poised to Give Unions a Massive Bailout

[Geee]

Heritage Foundation

A new report from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. shows that the private union pension crisis is only getting worse, and now Congress is poised to make it worse still.

Not only are many multiemployer pension plans rapidly approaching insolvency, but the situation is so bad that even the pension safety net—the PBGC’s Multiemployer Program—will be bankrupt in just six years, leaving pensioners with mere pennies on the dollar in promised benefits.

Unfortunately, the House of Representatives passed a bill just before leaving for August recess that will make the situation even worse. Not only would the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act (H.R. 397), exacerbate the problem, it would put taxpayers on the hook for potentially $638 billion or more in broken pension promises.

This was never supposed to happen.

[Valin]

New PBGC Multi-Employer Insolvency Projections: Eh, Not So New After All

Elizabeth Bauer

Aug 12 2019

(Snip)

The results:

In 2024, there is forecast to be a 4% likelihood of insolvency absent any changes to current law (this is an improvement over the 26% likelihood in the 2017 calculations).

In 2025, there is a 99% likelihood of insolvency (compared to 90% in the 2017 calculations).

In 2026, each and every scenario produced insolvency (vs. 99% in the 2017 calculations).

(Snip)

[Valin]

@Geee

Just wait a couple of years. Then things start to get Real interesting...and not in a good way.