Taxpayers Shouldn’t Be on the Hook for a Massive Pension Bailout

Reports are that America’s pension plans may be on the agenda as President Trump and the Congressional leadership work out an end-of-year deal to keep the government running beyond the two-week stopgap measure passed last week. It is yet unclear what such pension discussions might involve, but the financial stakes in this policy area are enormous. Massive underfunding currently threatens the solvency of workplace pension plans, in turn threatening pensioners with severe benefit cuts, employer sponsors with crushing obligations, and insolvency of the entire pension insurance system operated by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

There are no easy answers to the pension crisis, especially now that it has grown so vast. There is, however, one very bad answer to be avoided now and in the future: anything that would put taxpayers on the hook for an expensive bailout.

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