The Highway Bill has become somewhat notorious in D.C for being a Christmas Tree bill - legislators hang all sorts of special interest ornaments on it. Most notable would be Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) using the bill to make states change the drinking age to 21, or at least states had to in order to get that Highway money (we know how that worked out).
Now again the HIGHWAY bill is being adorned with the trinkets of special interests, in this case pension shenanigans, from the Wall Street Journal:
Business groups are urging Congress to let employers put less money into their pension funds, saying that exceptionally low interest rates are forcing them to set aside too much cash.
A provision attached to the Senate highway bill would change the formula many large companies, including General Electric Co., Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., must use to calculate how much to add to their pension funds, potentially shrinking their combined contributions by billions of dollars a year.
Forget that this has nothing to do with you know, the Highways, or even transportation. Is that really a good idea?
Labor unions are open to changing the contribution formula, but say that Congress shouldn't allow companies to underfund their pension plans, as has happened already in some cases...
The business groups argue that with U.S. interest rates near historic lows, companies are diverting money into pension funds that could be otherwise used to hire new workers or make other investments.
B to the S. Please my brothers and sisters in Labor, do not fall for that argument. It is true nonsense, the notion that pensions are why companies are sitting on cash is beyond ridiculous. They are sitting on cash because they would rather speculate, acquire other companies, and pay CEO bonuses then take risks in the marketplace.
If these companies need the extra cash why not cut executive compensation rather than taking from the pensions?
Oh woops, did I just let the cat out of the bag? They are going to use the money they don't have to pay in pensions to reward themselves for their savings.
Don't get fooled again. Occupy.