Public Pension Raiders Slip Up

One way to scuttle unions is to go after their pensions.  The premise is that these public employee pensions are responsible for huge deficits in state budgets.  Conveniently built-in to that premise is the implication that public sector unions and those rich retirees are bleeding the taxpayers dry.  This diversion reinforces the argument of anyone who wants to cut taxes and cut the unions off at the knees. It looks like this strategy is running into some difficulties;  the main one is that it doesn’t square with contract law.

On April 30, the Oregon Supreme Court shut down a recent raid on the public employee pension system that had been engineered by the Governor and public sector haters in 2013.  The vocabulary framing the discussion achieved notoriety among the targets of the raid.  The fix became known as the “Grand Bargain” and it was going to achieve “savings” by reducing COLA and other formulations promised to the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) members.  

The Supreme Court said, among other things, that the state could not go back on a promise: that promise being the benefits already defined for current state workers and retirees.  The workers are made whole by the decision.  The tragedy is that the mine-field of finding a solution to a state funding crisis that had been kicked down the road by the Grand Bargain is once again laid bare by the decision.  And the same old bogeymen and ragged targets are once again on parade: Goddamn retirees. Blood-sucking unions.

Must be a trend or something: On May 8 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled (unanimously) that the pension overhaul that reined in benefits to fix the “consistently underfunded” system was unconstitutional.  The can that had been kicked down the road in Illinois  ($111B) makes the almost-billion dollar gap in Oregon look like nickels and dimes lost in the couch.  The Wall Street Journal reports that “Illinois joins Oregon and Arizona as recent examples of high courts peeling back pension overhauls. Other states, including Colorado and Florida, have upheld laws cutting benefits.”

At best, this turnaround is a very mixed bag.  Deferred justice is always welcome but we are just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  State budgets are still bleeding more than ever. State governments, are in thrall to the likes of ALEC and the Koch brothers. These predators will be on the prowl for new victims.  State governments, owned by the money, have no stomach for going after the obvious and rightful sources of “new revenue” (another catch-phrase from the Grand Bargain). The people need to shut down the raiders who have stolen their voice.  And the states need to close corporate tax loopholes and tax their wealthiest citizens fairly.  

The Civil Rights Connection

So I’ve got this blog  - see?  A central premise was that I would focus on wealth inequality and the nature of the US plutocracy:  a pretty wide ballpark even at that so I tried to narrow my focus.  For example, there are huge issues of civil rights and oppression that I ignored for the sake of that premise.  Clearly, that is not tenable or even consistent with my intention.  It’s blinders for the hell of it and it makes the discussion kind of parochial.

I’m here to say, as if you didn’t know, that there is a very big connection between civil rights and wealth inequality.  Please consider this somewhat wider premise and let me know what you think.

First, about racism:  Racism can be personal bigotry, learned and acculturated.  But there has been well over 200 years of scholarship and activism that prove - to me, anyway - that racism is encouraged institutionally. By whom?  Who could benefit?  Well, certainly the very wealthy could benefit.  Napoleon used divide-and-conquer. Of course, Marx talked about class warfare.  And John Sayles summed it all up in his film, Matewan.  There is much to be gained by cementing ideas of them versus us.  If you can justify closing opportunities for upward mobility or aid to families, you can keep more for yourself.  All those social services and federal scholarships are expensive; just an invitation for higher taxes on the 1%.  But it’s not only simple greed - you’ve got to protect the top rung.  

Starving social services is easy to justify if you demonize the poor or marginalize minority populations.  It keeps taxes low.  And it keeps a potential population of irate voters stupid and powerless.  

Prisons can be useful as well as lucrative.  School-to-prison pipeline, racial profiling, mandatory sentencing - all play their role in filling the prisons and vindicating racism and class prejudice.  The Koch brothers are heavily invested in prisons.  For-profit prisons are suing states for not keeping the prisons full.

Militarizing the police deepens the impression even more that “we” have to be protected from “them”.  (Who is “we”?  Who is “them”?)  Militarizing the police implicitly indoctrinates the police. Militarizing the police makes them the firm ally that the oligarchs will need if push comes to shove.   Militarizing the police is the 180-degree opposite of community policing.

Racism is no doubt deeply satisfying to racists.  It is also profoundly useful to the oligarchy.   Racism is real and it’s a crucial diversion.

The only political rights are those protected by law.  The anchor of law in this country is the Constitution - the same one that (originally) protected slavery.  That’s why, as long as you live in the United States, you love the Constitution.  For what it’s worth, discrimination is against the law (thank you, 14th amendment).  For what it’s worth, any interventions that limit your free speech, your blogging, your peaceably marching and protesting, your demands for an accounting from your government,  Etcetera! … are against the law (thank you, 1st Amendment).  For what it’s worth, any activity that restricts your participation in voting is against the law (14th, 15th Amendment, Voting Rights Act and more than one named Civil Rights Act - thank you very much).  

Feeling oppressed?  Don’t be fooled.  Don’t be distracted.  Use the tools available, imperfect though they may be.

Other diversions and distortions threaten these civil rights.  Religious claims justify bigotry on the basis of the 1st Amendment.  Corporations now have civil rights which is very troubling because of their power to buy public opinion and the state legislatures.

Corporations and big, big money can stifle free inquiry and dissent. They can privatize the public schools.  They can co-opt or buy higher education.  They can bust unions. They can dismantle institutions of government that protect you.

There is work to be done.  To paraphrase Pope Paul VI, if you want freedom, work for justice.