I'm not sure what your point is, Veek, but it seems to be that just because public employees are promised a retirement, you don't see any reason why the states should honor their promises when times are hard. I could see the reasoning in possibly reducing the amount of the retirement contribution made by the state from this date forward, pending whatever sort of legislative action might be required to enact it, but to enact a retroactive reduction that "takes back" all those benefits earned under the current legislative action seems rather back handed to me.
But, then, I would expect that of the Republicans....after all, the slime who represented my very district (Tom Delay) was recently convicted of felony campaign fraud. When the sentence was handed down by the judge, the judge asked him if he had anything to say, if he was sorry, and all he could say was something to the effect that he couldn't feel sorry for doing something that he didn't think was wrong. Not only slimy, but blatantly unrepentent in the face of the judicial system, too. Typical Republican, IMHO.
Promises are promises, committments are committments. It's like a legal contract to me. The states ought to be responsible for the pensions earned by every public employee under the current "contract". Change the contract now and avoid the expense of future significant expense if you may, but at least the people who are counting on the government to act in good faith regarding their committments and contributions to pension plans will know what to expect. The government owes at least that much to the people who work for them, but the Republicans seem to want to try to balance the budget at the expense of every public employee (except police and firefighters, what's up with that?), while not requiring the self-employed or those employed by businesses other than governmental agencies to share in the cost. Seems somewhat selective to me. A deal is a deal, if they don't like the deal they should re-negotiate it, but the Republicans are too cowardly to do that, they essentially "decertify" the unions with whom they made the previous deal, thereby ensuring that the government has the power to run roughshod over the rights of the poor.
SHAME on them, and SHAME on those who think this power grab in WI was a good idea.....it was backhanded, slimy politics at best. I bet this will end up in court and hopefully the government will get what IMHO they deserve.
Cheers from Doug!!