Seems when the new White House mouthpiece was asked about his retirement savings, Snow replied:Thanks, Tony, for giving us a lesson we won't soon forget. The vision of an "ownership society" espoused by Bush is simply not plausible. If it were, his new press secretary would not be describing himself as "dopey."As a matter of fact, I was even too dopey to get in on a 401(k). So there is actually no Fox pension. The only media pension I have is through AFTRA.AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, represents workers like Snow who, until he changed jobs, was employed in the broadcast media (Fox News, in his case).
So, thanks, Tony, for giving us an opportunity to point out how 85 percent of union members have a pension, compared with 46 percent of nonunion members. Not to mention that 83 percent of union members have health care, compared with 49 percent of nonunion members.
See, without your union, Tony, when you retire, you would have been like nearly two-thirds of retirees who count on Social Security for most of their retirement incomes.
Oh, sorry. Forgot. As the Bush spokesman, you'll likely be helping to kill even that last shred of retirement security the nation's low-income elderly depend on.
Bush already tried to kill Social Security once and plans to go after if again, if Republicans retain control of Congress after this fall's elections.
If Bush had his way, Social Security would be a high-stakes gamble for working Americans, who also would be prevented from joining unions and gaining the retirement, health care and wage security we all deserve.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Tony Snow Has Union Pension
The Bush administration really needs to run background checks on people before they put them in front of cameras. This had to embarrass the anti-union administration just a bit: [h/t AFL-CIO Weblog]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Bush administration hypocrisy has ceased to amaze me. What I am picking up on lately is that they all seem to be kind of "dopey".
Great post. I think there are going to be many surprised retirees in the near future who have no pension and little or no 401k. This could end up being a worse problem than the so-called social security crisis.
Instead of critisizing Mr. Snow, why not commend him for his patriotism? I mean, this is a man who eschewed his cozy pension at Fox for the chance to spread the America-loving message of the President!
Lew, maybe "dopey" is part of the job description! ;-)
Abi, you're right that this could be a bigger problem than social security, especially if the PBGC gets overwhelmed by the number of companies dumping their pensions on the government. That's one good thing Bush is pushing for - he wants companies to fully fund their pension programs where they currently exist. I've read this problem could potentially cost taxpayers more than the savings & loan fiasco did.
Rex, good thought, but I doubt very much that Tony gave up his cozy pension at Fox because he is so noble. He probably realized the position would be a springboard to more lucrative contacts down the road - or at the least a book contract!
Post a Comment