Midterm election thread?

That fucking blows, proves both red and blue will screw ordinary working people straight in the ass financially while they go on a champagne brunch.

Yeah, I mean just so it's clear I don't think Republicans are our saviors in shining Armour. They totally aren't. From my perspective they're about as jacked up as the Democrats are.

I think that the farther right Republicans are better on a few key issues that I happen agree on (abortion, gun control, illegal immigration and some foreign policy issues) and that's pretty much it. After that they suck just as hard and as long as the Dems.

The Neo-Con Republicans are the corporate party that throws ordinary America a bone on some cultural issues and owes their allegiance to the super rich.

Good question, and it's not a done deal yet, just one that we're all expecting.  Most states / municipalities / private entities that are doing away with pensions (defined benefit plans) are going towards a 401K type deal (defined contribution plan).  I don't know if older employees tend to be grandfathered in or not.  In many states, pension 'reform' basically means cutting initial benefits, doing away with any type of COLA, raising the percentage contributed by employees, etc.  Necessary in some cases, not so much in others.

There is room for pension reform in most states, and nobody gets madder than I do when I hear about people gaming their state pension system and making 100K + a year in benefits.  I'm a taxpayer too, and I don't know any cops or firefighters interested in bankrupting the State of Indiana for a sweetheart pension plan. Our state PD/FD pension system is well funded and provides a modest retirement (around $20k a year) for a vested person. We also contribute 7% of our salary into the fund, so we're not free-riding.  I hope that cooler heads prevail and the worst doesn't happen, but public pensions are still a VERY popular Republican bogeyman. We'll see.

That said, I'm happy to be a financial pessimist - - we have been stuffing as much as we can into IRA's and our city 457b's (basically a public sector 401k) since we've been married, assuming that the pension is something that can be taken away by the stroke of a politician's pen at any moment.  The pension is a major leg of our retirement plans, but if it goes away we'll still make it.

Elected 3 times in 4 years - go Gov go!

Dannus/B35 - I know WI went through with Act 10 and got a lot of flack from the unions for busting up the public sector, but law enforcement/fire were exempt. Hardest hit were the teachers - all of the sudden they had to put in to retirement and health insurance and there were a lot of wet hens stomping around (as witnessed on TV). Mrs NXP's a teacher, we had to laugh a little when it hit home, as she still pays 30% with match less for retirement (no match from my employer) and her health insurance for the family is less than half what I'm charged - and I work in healthcare!

We've now got the same situation with a Rep majority all the way around. I would hope that Scott wouldn't chase down the law/fire unions, but that's to be seen. I don't think it'd be directly targeted, but with our state gov stepping away from county handouts, something's bound to give. I think the first hit will be prisons, if there is a shot over the bow at all.
//Rant on

AFAIC, the first damn thing they should do is stop groups from running to Dane Co or MKE Co (our two Dem strong holds) to find a liberal judge if they decide they don't like something. Doesn't matter where it happens, the libs run to their strongholds and get a sympathetic judge to stay the orders and lock up the process for months on end. Make them judge the grievance in the Co the complaint was issued in - I guarantee you it'd be tossed out in a heart beat. Unless it was the Indian Res (Onida) - they're the northern stronghold.

Rant off//

All in all it's wonderful that the process worked, and now there's a change in gov. Will they actually use that change to get the will of the people in action - that'll be the true test. Hopefully they put enough bills on O's desk that the nation can see how self serving he really is once that veto pen starts spewing ink...