Union members heard plenty of what they wanted to hear about saving pensions and improving the retirement security of working-class Americans from six Democratic presidential candidates appearing at the Teamsters Presidential Forum last Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), one of the nation’s most prominent labor unions representing 1.4 million members across the U.S., hosted the forum, which featured former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and businessman Tom Steyer.
All of the candidates appearing in the forum agreed to sign IBT’s three-point pledge, which includes a retirement security component saying that if elected President, they will “prioritize and work with Congress to advance legislation to protect pensions and solve the multiemployer pension funding crisis.”
The 2020 Democratic primary contenders are vying for the support of unions such as IBT, as the party tries to win back the support of working-class voters who traditionally vote for Democrats but flipped to President Trump in 2016.
Each candidate was asked about the pension crisis, and all pledged support for the Butch Lewis Act of 2019, named after a Vietnam War veteran and pension activist, which aims save the retirement plans of over 1.3 million pensioners. Passed earlier this year by the House of Representatives, it would establish the Pension Rehabilitation Administration within the Department of the Treasury and a related trust fund to make loans to certain multiemployer defined benefit pension plans.
In addition to the pension issue, Buttigieg talked about his public option 401k while Steyer pitched his “universal retirement accounts.” Buttigieg, Booker and Klobuchar all talked about Social Security reform.
While the complete forum can be viewed on YouTube, here are highlights with a few select direct quotes from each candidates’ comments on pension reform and retirement security, in order of their appearance at the event.
Joe Biden
“There’s a great Senator in Ohio [Sherrod Brown] who introduced the Butch Lewis Act. And here’s the deal… The fact is these multiemployer pensions are the only way it works for a significant number of labor unions, particularly Teamsters… I’m going to see to it, according to the [Butch Lewis] Act and maybe go beyond it, and that is we open up a window at the Treasury Department meaning that they can provide 1% loans to make sure these multiemployer pensions are able to sustain themselves—so that they don’t go bankrupt, so you are able to maintain the pension.
“When you talk about pensions, we have to talk about the pension guarantee fund that is able to be funded through federal government funding at below 1% rate so that we can maintain the hundreds of billions of dollars that are needed over time to keep these pensions alive.”
Cory Booker
“The very idea of this nation is that everyone should have dignity and security in retirement. Those people who were made a promise for pensions—and now we’re a nation that isn’t in a bipartisan fashion rushing to make sure we meet that promise? I’m sorry, this is something I will fight for, go to the mat for and will be to you if I am the President of the United States.
“I am an original co-sponsor of the Butch Lewis Act and we’re going to get that passed. It’s not complicated—we’re going to get it done.
“Social Security in this country has not kept up with the cost of living in retirement. We have millions and millions of seniors living in fear, insecurity and at or below the poverty line. Enough is enough. Social Security has been a regressive tax where the wealthiest amongst us pay a far lesser percentage into that pool of Social Security. There’s a simple way to fix it. I’m one of the leaders of legislation in the Senate to do that is for the wealthiest of Americans—only affecting about 2% of us—you just raise the cap, you get more resources to extend the viability and to expand the payments to people in this country.”
Amy Klobuchar
“At least we now have a fighting chance to save the pensions with the work that’s being done by my good friend [sponsor of the Butch Lewis Act] Sherrod Brown who so strongly believes in the dignity of work. And we are trying to push that bill to get done… As President I will get it done.
“We must make sure that people have their pensions. And that includes the Central States Pension, that includes miners, and we have to plan for the future as well for new workers. But we want to make sure as we do that by shoring up Social Security. I’ve been against all efforts to privatize it by lifting the cap on where the payroll taxes are taken out of, so we can keep it solvent beyond where it goes now.”
Pete Buttigieg
“The bottom line is that you deserve to know that the promise made to you will be kept. Right now the Butch Lewis Act has been designed to make sure that we secure and support multiemployer pensions. And I support that legislation.
“I also support the broader idea that our country has the responsibility that everyone can retire with security. Even for those who are not fortunate enough to be represented by a strong union and to have the benefits of some of those negotiated pension plans, we have to begin to make sure that Social Security is there for all of us.
“And this President talked a lot about caring about Social Security, only to turn around and have a budget that took funds away from it. That’s unacceptable. And don’t listen to anybody that says there’s no way to keep Social Security solvent without cuts. It’s just not true, as long as we’re willing to raise revenue by things like collecting those payroll tax dollars past $250,000 incomes and up. If we do that and a couple other tweaks that do not involve cutting benefits, then the Social Security fund will at least be solvent to where I’m planning on collecting on it and beyond.
“I also believe we ought to set up a public option 401k in the United States, eligible for everybody to participate. Health care’s not the only place where a public option can do a lot of good. And so we’re proposing at any employer you would be able to… it probably won’t be as strong as the pension program you’re participating in that we must protect, but for those not as fortunate we’ve got to make sure that we create another alternative and we would have employers matching two to one what employees put in.”
Tom Steyer
“Let’s go back a little bit and see why these pensions are so underfunded and why there’s such a risk before we start talking about Butch Lewis, which I’ll just cut to the chase and say I’m completely for…
“Let me make a different point. This is the same government that bailed out every Wall Street bank in the country in 2009. So explain to me how doing something that keeps millions of workers’ pensions that they’ve earned through their whole life is not worth doing, but bailing out every Wall Street bank is worth doing? That makes no sense.
“I know how much of a threat retirement is to working Americans. Three-quarters of Americans rely on Social Security for most of their [retirement] income. Most Americans don’t have a sufficient pension plan including people who get very good wages… and really come into retirement without the kind of security they need.
“One of the things that we’ve said we will do that I will do as President is something called ‘universal retirement accounts,’ where if you put money aside, the government will match it. And the lower your income, the more they’ll match it. The idea being rather than counting on companies to do it—we’re still going to encourage but not requirecompanies to do it—but our point is we give a huge tax break to the rich people who save money. That’s just money that the government’s giving them to save. Why are we not doing that to everybody? Why are we not using the government’s money to incent every single person to put money aside and then match it the way we do through the tax system with rich people?
“So do I believe that we’re going to use Butch Lewis to save these pensions? Yes I do. It’s absolutely necessary. But more broadly, are we going to use the money from the government—and let me tell you this I’m somebody who wants to undo all the tax breaks for rich Americans and big corporations. I’ve been for a wealth tax for more than a year. What’s gone on in this country—when I said there’s been a 40-year war against working people, take a look at how the money’s split up. It’s outrageous. Forty years of no raise really for working people… We’re going to have to change that, and that’s why I’m for a wealth tax…
“We need more money coming into the government so that the government can have programs to support working people at every stage of their life. And part of that is going to be a universal retirement account that’s going to give people much more security when they retire and it’s going to rely on the government instead of corporations who won’t do it.”
Bernie Sanders
“I will not tolerate workers losing pensions when they are paid into that pension plan for their entire work life…
“What is particularly outrageous and disgusting about what happened some five years ago in terms of the legislation that allowed for massive cuts to people’s pensions, is that a sacred promise made to thousands and thousands of workers—that promise was broken in an incredibly callous way…
“You’re paying in because you want to know that when you retire, you can retire with security and dignity. And then, through no fault of your own, one day you learn that in the middle of the night quite literally as part of a big omnibus spending bill, a provision was put in there which says that pensions could be cut 30, 40, 50%. That is disgusting, that is outrageous, that is unacceptable. You don’t make promises to workers—you don’t have workers paying in year after year after year and then suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them.
“We have introduced legislation similar to Butch Lewis. It’s a little bit stronger. But here is a promise I make to you without the slightest hesitancy. My Secretary of Treasury, under which this whole thing lies, will never allow for a cut to a pension when that worker was promised that pension. It will not happen.
“And this is a promise that is not that hard to keep. Remember a couple of years ago, Trump and his friends gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1% and large corporations. What we’re talking about here is a gap of some $30 billion dollars. Thirty billion is a lot of money. But compared to a trillion-dollar tax break for the rich, ain’t so much money.”
Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
