Quote:
Originally Posted by Bizdoc
Actually, you are wrong about the feds. Both the Civil Service Retirement System (the old retirement system) and the Federal Employees Retirement System are actually funded with a surplus. That is partly because (unlike many of the state and local civil service funds), they were never raided by greedy politicians (like Illinois) and were never taken captive by private fund managers promising 50% return per year (and delivering -50% returns).
All of the talk about the federal system is just the usual BS by politicians trying to convince you to vote for them so they can protect us from themselves... And feds hired since 1982 have been under FERS which pays a pension less than 1/3 of the old pensions - it was designed so that 1/3 of total retirement is pension, 1/3 is social security and 1/3 is savings via a 401k like plan. And (trust me) the "1/3" that is pension is not even close to 1/3 of what you need a month to live.
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It's this postal service deficit, largely due to congressionally
required pre-funding of health benefits for future postal retirees, that most people associate with federal employees' benefits (wrongly):
"The U.S. Postal Service announced a record loss of $15.9 billion for the fiscal year 2012, which it blamed primarily on a mandate to set aside billions of dollars for a retirement heath fund.
The Postal Service said that its loss includes $11.1 billion in defaulted payments it owes to "prefund" health benefits for future retirees. Postal officials have complained for years about these prepayments, which are required by Congress, to pay for future retirees. The Postal Service also points out that other federal agencies don't have similar mandates for prefunding."
Postal Service posts record $16 billion loss for 2012 - Nov. 15, 2012
Health insurance premiums for non-postal employees are shown here:
http://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insura...postal-ffs.pdf