DeLay backs bill to expand benefits for public servants

[CShine]

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay signed on as co-sponsor Friday of a congressional bill to give public servants Social Security benefits in addition to their pension if they paid into the federal program working other jobs.

Teachers applauded the proposal, although it would not affect the thousands of teachers retiring this year in order to receive Social Security spousal benefits.

Proposed by U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, the Public Servant Retirement Protection Act guarantees that public servants, including police and firefighters, keep the Social Security they earned while they paid into the federal program rather than have it subtracted based on a 1983 formula called the Windfall Elimination Provision.

The provision can reduce Social Security benefits up to $300 per month. Texas teachers' organizations said the provision was unfair and that it discouraged teachers from other states and other careers from moving here because they would lose their Social Security benefits.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2585151

[JaySherman]

1. Two questions:

1. What's in it for him?

2. What's the poison pill catch?

[oasis]

2. Delay's working the "Us GOPer's are not-so-bad after all" angle just in

time for election. If the Rethugs win, they will get boatloads more cash kickbacks by unleashing their corporate pals on the U. S. treasury..