The PBGC was signed into law by president Gerald Ford. It ain't just the unions who want the pension plans bailed out. One of the first pension plans to be bailed out was the railroad retirement fund.
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (or PBGC) is an independent agency of the United States government that was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to encourage the continuation and maintenance of voluntary private defined benefit pension plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits, and keep pension insurance premiums at the lowest level necessary to carry out its operations.
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Look along the right side of this page at the large corporations whose pension plans were taken over by the PBGC:
http://www.pbgc.gov/workers-retirees...t/page676.html
The feds took over the pension plan of Lehman Bros last year.
http://www.pbgc.gov/media/news-archi...9/pr09-39.html
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WASHINGTON—The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced it has assumed responsibility for the pension plan of more than 22,000 workers and retirees of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries. The New York City-based investment bank is liquidating under bankruptcy court protection.
The PBGC stepped in because the underfunded pension plan would be without a sponsor following the liquidation of substantially all the firm's assets. None of the buyers assumed responsibility for the retirement plan.
The PBGC will take over the plan’s assets and use insurance funds to pay guaranteed benefits earned under the plan, which ended as of Dec. 12, 2008. At that time, the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Retirement Plan had a shortfall of $115 million, with $800 million in assets to cover $915 million in benefit liabilities. The $115 million underfunding figure has been revised upward from previously announced estimates, which had been made before December asset information was available.
Retirees and beneficiaries will continue to receive their monthly benefit checks without interruption, and other participants will receive their pensions when they are eligible to retire.
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Unions want to dump pensions on taxpayers
