Bailouts for Pensions -- ‘Through No Fault of Their Own’

On July 18, former House Speaker John Boehner and former Rep. Joe Crowley appeared together on “Fox Business” to talk with Neil Cavuto about America’s failing multiemployer pension plans (video). Boehner said there are ten million folks enrolled in such pension plans, and Crowley spoke of a looming “crisis.”

On June 19, The Hill ran “Taxpayers, businesses will also lose if pensions go bust” by Bradley Blakeman, who claims America has upwards of 300 multiemployer pension plans in danger of failing:

This problem is unprecedented. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted in a 2018 report on the topic, “the sheer number and size of plans headed toward [insolvency] during the next decade present the system with challenges of a size and scope never before seen.”

Employers cannot leave these plans without making massive payouts or declaring bankruptcy. The result is they remain on the hook for making payments for pensions likely to collapse anyway, putting them at a competitive disadvantage. And if the plan goes belly up? It could be even worse for companies, as they could be assessed an immediate withdrawal liability or subjected to minimum funding rules that could drive them out of business.

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