In this happy season of giving aren’t you comforted to know that your taxpayer dollars are being used to ensure a lavish retirement lifestyle for public sector employees? I certainly am. Especially when our personal retirement accounts, the ones we diligently spent years squirreling away, are evaporating right before our very eyes.
 
Not only will many of us never be able to retire completely – we’ll be forced to support our public “servants” for the rest of their lives, in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed.
 
If you really want to get depressed, visit Taxpayers United of America (TUA). They’ve got all the jaw-dropping numbers. Recently, through the Freedom of Information Act, TUA obtained the gold-plated pension figures for officials in Wayne County, Michigan, along with those for state police, judges and teachers.
 
How does an annual retirement income of $159,000 sound? With a lifetime payout of $5,741,181? That’s what retired Wayne County health director, Dr. Michele Harris, is set to rake in. And this is in a community with an average annual wage of $55,000 and official unemployment of just under 14%. The county’s annual payout, just for the top 100 pensioners, is around $5.2 million.
 
The winner in Michigan’s pension-palooza is retiree Albert Lorenzo, former educator, who pulls in $174,617 annually; $6,003,321 total. State judges and police are way down the ladder, their highest annual pensions are under $100,000.
 
So why are we always hearing the whining about low paid educators? Don’t get me wrong, I personally know many great public school teachers, totally committed to their students. But I agree with Christina Tobin, vice president of TUA who bluntly says that these public pension obligations are simply unsustainable.

 
At least this issue is starting to get some attention on the national level. Reuters reported last week that ~

Republicans in Congress on Thursday sought to shift attention back to public pension shortfalls, with estimates of the total deficit ranging from $600 billion up to $3 trillion.
 
Leaders on a joint congressional committee on the economy are releasing a series of reports on states’ struggles to cover the costs of pensions for future retirees.
 
“States are already $3 trillion in the red, a crisis four times larger than the Wall Street bailout,” said Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who released the report with Kevin Brady, a Representative from Texas.
 
DeMint hinted legislation on pensions may be coming soon.
 
“The deeper we get into this research, the clearer it becomes that federal legislation may be necessary to force states to use honest accounting, fix their pension debt and protect taxpayers from the mother of all bailouts,” he said.

 
If Senator DeMint is supporting something, you can bet he’s on the Right side of the debate. His website currently features some charts illustrating the looming pension crisis, including the predicted “Day of Reckoning” for each state.
 
Something’s gotta give folks. The “makers” in this country take all the risks, and in this depressed economy we’re gradually going broke. But the “takers” get a guaranteed life on easy street. Why is the private sector forced to insure a risk-free existence to their “employees?!”
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Ah well, it’s Christmas, and income taxes… they’re just the gifts that keeps on giving – to government employees. Forever…
 

Did you catch Newt Gingrich on Glenn Beck’s radio show this morning? I only heard the tail end of the interview, but read the full transcript HERE. Although he’s not always easy to compartmentalize, the interview does provide an insight into Gingrich’s philosophy on the government ‘s role in our lives – and it’s way too intrusive for my taste.
 
The Newtster frequently comes across as conservative – if so, he’s of the Big Benevolent Government species – which is to say, he’s not really a conservative at all. There’s no questioning his intelligence, and he can certainly clean up in a debate. But Newt is a member in good standing of the elite ruling class. He fundamentally he does not believe that the peasants are capable of self-governance.
 

 
Newt’s answers to several of Beck’s questions were clearly not the responses of a free-market, limited government conservative.
For instance:
 
On industry subsidies: “depends on what you’re subsidizing” What if we don’t want our tax dollars to subsidize anything?
 
On healthcare : “ …we ought to have some requirement to either have health insurance or you post a bond or in some way you indicate you are going to be held accountable.” An individual mandate? No thanks!
 
On climate change: “I believe in the environment in general… (HUH?) I think that there is evidence on both sides of the climate change argument, and the point I was making was in a situation where, for example, having a larger nuclear program reduces carbon in the atmosphere, it’s a prudent thing to look at nuclear as one of the actions.”
The only “evidence” on the AGW side of the argument is phony evidence.
 
On Medicare reform: “I also think you can reshape Medicare but I think you have to do it in a way that people find it desirable and that people think and that people trust you. I helped reform Medicare in 1996 in a way that saved $200 billion and we had no major opposition to it. And people concluded that we had thought it through and we were doing the right thing and they were comfortable with it.” Yes, it’s really just a matter of herding the masses along, reeducating them so they’ll come to accept with what’s best for them…
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However Gingrich would personally characterize his political philosophy, what it really comes down to is the freedom-killing belief that the government knows how to spend your money better than you do.
 
From the evidence so far, the best thing about Newt…? He’s not Obama.
 

Yes ladies and gentlemen, in case you haven’t heard, our massive, out-of-control federal bureaucracy has decided incandescent bulbs represent such a dire threat to the planet that they simply can’t allow any more to be manufactured. As of January 1st,
 

…the sale of traditional 100-watt incandescent light bulbs will become illegal in the United States. Twelve months later, the same fate will befall most 75-watt incandescents, and one year after that, conventional 60- and 40-watt bulbs will be gone as well.

 
This idiocy was pushed by the Department of Energy, rammed through by a Democratic congress, and signed into law by George W. Bush, back in 2007. Ostensibly, the legislation was aimed at protecting the environment (based, of course, on the junk science behind man-made global warming) but the move was really just another display of D.C.’s dishonest dealing:

The use of efficiency mandates to snuff out the standard light bulb was an exercise of unadulterated crony capitalism. It came about after big bulb manufacturers, frustrated by their customers’ refusal to switch from cheap throwaway incandescents to the far more profitable compact fluorescents touted by greens, decided to play hardball…

The manufacturers got together, organized, and lobbied Congress –

…to croak a product Americans overwhelmingly like and compel them to buy the more expensive substitute the industry was eager to sell them. The entire scheme, a lobbyist for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association testified candidly in 2007, was “at the industry’s initiative.’’ Unable to convince consumers to voluntarily abandon Edison’s light bulb, Big Business got the government to force the issue. [Source]

 
But even more importantly, beyond the corrupt politics-as-usual, the new CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) that they’re foisting on us to replace the incandescents, can be seriously hazardous to your health. The problem is that the cute curly bulbs contain mercury, which is a neurotoxin and considered hazardous waste. If one happens to break, it releases gaseous mercury. When initially turned on, they release chemicals into the atmosphere that are known to cause cancer. Even better, CFLs operate at a much higher frequency than incandescent bulbs, causing them to emit UV radiation. What’s not to love?
 
Last month, our local radio station, WJR-Detroit, interviewed Dr. Magda Havas, of Trent University in Ontario, who has studied this issue in depth and believes “governments shouldn’t be promoting CFLs – they should be banning them.”
Among the health-related problems attributed to CFLs are:
 
• Mild to severe Headaches (Migraines)
• Skin Irritation, redness, burning sensations, and or itchiness
• Dizziness and Nausea
• Tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and Earaches
• Numbness and Tingling sensations
• Tired, Weak and Fatigued
• Difficulty Sleeping / Restlessness
• Chest Pains / Heart Problems
• Poor Memory and Concentration
• Irritability
• Feelings of Stress and Anxiety
• Depression and Mood Swings
• Difficulty breathing
• Muscle and joint pain
• Pain and pressure in the eyes

 
Gee – hard to believe that our nanny-state politicians might not really have our health and well-being as a top priority isn’t it?
Actually, the bulb-ban suits their devious purposes just fine. Appearing to have the best of intentions, making a phony show of saving the environment, they actually jeopardize the health of millions of Americans, and steal our freedom of choice as consumers, all the while they’re getting paid off by lobbyists. They probably call it a “win-win.”
I call it nefarious.
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So if you’re looking for a Christmas gift that really says “I love you” – buy a bunch of 100 watts – before they’re all gone. All my peeps are getting a bag-full!
 
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Related:
CFL Impact ~ Get the Facts. Everything you need to know about Compact Fluorescent Lights.
Do CFL twisty bulbs explode? ~ Maybe not frequently. But when they do – watch out!
Time to stock up on light bulbs ~ Washington Times Nov. 26th editorial.
Confessions of a Light Bulb Addict ~ When is it the job of the government to ban a light bulb?!
How many lawmakers does it take to… ~ Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe documents the cronyism behind this incandescent ban sham.