Capitol Fax: Who knew?

I didn't show this fast enough, but some of the bickering between Mitt Romney and the President Tuesday night some of it was about pensions. Romney made sure to note that the President's pension most of which he accrued as an Illinois state Senator had also come from overseas investments. I'm sure that point was made against Romney's considerably sizeable pension that also contains foreign investments which includes Chinese investments.

Well that is the charge afterall, Romney is making all this money and he's set for life. And look his money is not even all that American. So before the end of the bickering, Obama made sure to note that he doesn't have as much to look at as Romney. Score one for the President!

I recognize that this point was only made regarding the President and what Rich Miller sought to explain in his post was where the President's state pension is coming from. He wanted to show how ignorant outsiders are about what's really going on in this state. He didn't really dispute much of anything other than where the money for the pensions are coming from.

Well all this to say, what does this say for us? Many of us can only wish for the generous pensions politicians and public employees get for their pensions. Even then pensions are today's bogeymen because we hear reports that governments can't afford these anymore. Where ever the money is coming from in these various pensions where will the government get this money. I'm sure that money comes from the taxpayers to invest overseas.

All the same I would rather keep the focus on the economy and not on where the money comes from for governmental pensions. Also if these pensions are out of control for the taste of the taxpayers we shouldn't nitpick on where the money comes from, but also nitpick on how to dispense these pensions. I accept that they just can't be as generous as they used.

Oh and for the sake of clarity I do have a lot more to learn about pensions. My issue is that hopefully the numbers and the various pension systems aren't too difficult to understand.