Editor’s note: This commentary is by Ron Pulcer of Rutland Town.
As Congress heads home for its August vacation (recess), like many Americans, I am pretty disgusted with our “Do Nothing” Congress.
But on a brighter note, I would like to thank Rep. Peter Welch for voting no on H.R. 5021 (Highway Trust Fund bill). If you are vested in a corporate pension plan, pay attention.
H.R. 5021 extends the “pension smoothing” method of legislative “pay for,” for highways, roads and bridges. Instead of cutting budget item A to fund item B, this short-term fix is essentially a scam: if corporations are allowed to fund less of their pension obligations, then theoretically, the resulting higher “profits” will translate into more federal corporate income tax revenue. But there are no provisions to prevent these so-called profits from being hidden overseas, or given to top management as a pay raise. The original MAP-21 bill with “pension smoothing” (H.R. 4348 of 2012) had bipartisan support, and was signed by President Obama. Congress is telling corporations they don’t have to fully fund pensions, yet forced the postal service to fully fund pensions for 75 years!
There are no provisions to prevent these so-called profits from being hidden overseas, or given to top management as a pay raise.
When I received my last pension statements from two prior employers, I was puzzled by the MAP-21 references. I later learned that MAP-21 was a highway bill, but it was clear that these pensions’ funding percentage ratings went down.
It is well known that some of our politicians like to bash public workers and unions. But if you are a non-union salaried worker like me, beware of politicians who claim to not raise taxes, but yet “kick the can down the road” on federal budgets, and in the long run might even encourage corporations to default on pension obligations in the future, putting the burden on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a U.S. government agency.
Thankfully, Peter Welch is not one of those politicians. When I looked at the roll call for H.R. 4348, I was pleased to see that Rep. Welch has consistently voted no on “pension smoothing.” H.R. 5021 had 367 yes and 55 no votes. The yes votes were bipartisan. Only 10 Democrats voted no, and one of them was Rep. Welch.
Rep. Welch is often given accolades for his “reaching across the aisle.” But more importantly, Rep. Welch’s vote against pension smoothing, and against the majority of Democrats, demonstrates that he is representing Vermonters over his party.
While many U.S. House districts have odd gerrymandered shapes, our district matches the shape of Vermont. We are fortunate to have a House rep that represents our entire state and all Vermonters.
