Reich on POTUS and the PBGC

Pigs fly! Hell freezes over! Actually, not, but an even more remarkable event did occur: Robert Reich found something nice to say about George Bush. He begins as follows:

The President’s approval ratings are so low I thought I’d find something to compliment him on. It took a bit of a search, but here it is. Congress is debating what to do about corporate pension plans. The President wants a law that forces companies to fully fund their pension obligations to their employees. He’s right.

Corporate pension plans don’t have nearly enough money to pay what the companies have promised their workers. We’re talking big money here -- a shortfall of over $450 billion. And if companies can’t pay up, you know who’s left holding the bag? Not only 44 million Americans who won’t get the monthly pension payments they were promised. You and I and every other taxpayer will also be on the hook.

You see, there’s a government agency called the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation that’s supposed to insure most of these promises. But the PBGC itself is already deep in the red, to the tune of almost $30 billion.

Read the rest here.