For several months now, the taxpayers have been subjected via the state’s newspapers to the unhappiness of the Deadhead Class – government retireds, various state employees, and others who have access to the taxpayer tit – over a modest increase in deductible and co-pays in the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) health insurance plan that covers many of active and retired deadheads.
Here’s the latest via The (Baton Rouge) Advocate:
In the article, it notes that typically 75% of the premiums is paid by “the government.”
Of course, government has no money that isn’t first seized first from citizens at the point of a gun.
The Deadhead Class should be damned grateful they aren’t coping with the catastrophe inflicted upon the private sector, namely Obamacare.
What the deadheads should do is shut up and count their blessings.
Lincoln Parish News Online 
12/30/2014 at 7:24 pm |
Walter, you can’t paint everyone with the same broad brush and your “deadhead” comment was patently unfair—and wrong.
I was a state employee for 20 years defending the state against bogus lawsuits and I helped save the state millions of dollars—literally—through forming a defense against false claims. And if you insist on calling me a “deadhead,” we’ve got a serious problem.
State employees do not have Social Security or Medicare. I suspect that you, if you haven’t turned 65 yet and are not already on them, will avail yourself of the federal tit of Medicare and Social Security when you do reach that age. Would that make you a “deadhead”? By your definition, it certainly would.
Have you ever accepted veterans’ benefits such as the GI Bill? That would make you a “deadhead.”
Do you drive on a public highway? Ever fly on an airplane? Who do you think built the runway, the tooth fairy?
Have you ever turned on your water faucet or flushed your toilet or had a garbage pickup service? Gee, those are made possible by government “deadheads,” so I suppose you are a deadhead by extension.
Who do you think is responsible for having prevented you from working in a sweatshop when you were 10 years old or from eating contaminated meat? Somewhere along the way, a government “deadhead” was protecting you from those atrocities.
I would suggest the next time you find someone breaking into your home, or your house is on fire or a huge pothole forms on your street, you call a Republican. Or better yet, a Tea partier. Maybe he will come to your aid. Just don’t bother calling a “deadhead.”
Apparently you don’t know anything about contracts. When those people (and I) were hired, we signed a contract that these benefits were ours in lieu of Social Security and Medicare. Now Jindal is trying to inflict cost increases of medical insurance to retirees who are on fixed incomes and who simply cannot afford it. It is not their (or my) fault that the legislature squandered the funds it was obligated to pay into the retirement system or that Jindal drew down the Group Benefits reserve fund to help patch his budget deficit that was caused by the corporate welfare programs in this state.
If you want to do a real service, you might wish to look into these ridiculous tax breaks given Wal-Mart and other industries that are far better off than state employees–or you. Why would the Duck Commander producers get a $300,000 tax break every time an episode airs? The state certainly does not get a return on that money. In fact the movie credits handed out by the state get a return of about 30 cents for every dollar in breaks.
In short, Walter….do you homework and refrain from knee-jerk rhetoric.
12/30/2014 at 7:31 pm |
I forgot to include the people who taught to write this tripe. Do you consider your teachers “deadheads”?
You obviously are a gifted writer and certainly are capable of reading so take your own advice and count your blessings.
For others, who may have to choose between paying for medication or food, or gas to keep warm, those blessing are few and far between so for you to say something like “count your blessing” is both uninformed and arrogant.
12/30/2014 at 7:57 pm |
One more thing: How do you figure the medical coverage is taxpayer furnished? Employees and retirees pay premiums–just like private sector employees. The state also pays a portion of the premium–just like private sector employers. That’s how group plans work. That is until the Republicans began dismantling the unions and employee benefits–including retirement and health benefits.
Except, of course, for the corporate CEOs. They continue to get their bonuses, medical coverage, golden parachutes and salaries that now average 4,000 times what assembly line workers make. You can look it up if you care to. I did.
Walter, I never realized you’d sold out to the Tea party.
12/30/2014 at 9:14 pm |
That was a Louden Wainwright III song, wasn’t it? Deadhead On the State Payroll? Stinkin’ to high heaven.
12/30/2014 at 9:15 pm |
Tom gets defensive when you troll him like that.
12/31/2014 at 9:08 am |
Tom, I have filed hundreds of tax returns for state employees and every one that I have filed pays for Medicare through withholdings from their wages, which means they have access to Medicare. You are correct that they do not have social security because of their state pension. But to say that they do not have access to Medicare is completely wrong.
“How do you figure the medical coverage is taxpayer furnished? Employees and retirees pay premiums–just like private sector employees. The state also pays a portion of the premium–just like private sector employers.” Every expense incurred by the government is taxpayer funded therefore when the state pays its portion of the premium, taxpayers are funding that portion.
12/31/2014 at 11:55 am |
By the way I am not a “Dead Head” ,I paid my way just like everybody else and still do.
12/31/2014 at 3:04 pm |
Thanks tom aswell,all well said.I think @ 1988 state started withholding medicare from payroll checks.I retired from a state run power plant after 25 years of 12 hour shift work (power plants run 24/7 and holidays) making a whopping19.00 hr.my part of my insurance was and still is 500.00 a month with no dental or vision and a 1500.00 deductible.So my cut of My taxpayer robbing pension is less than 1500.00 a month.By the way I took another job to supplement my retirement and i pay taxes from this income as did from my state lncome.Walter I pray you will try walking is other people’s shoes once In awhile.God bless you sir.
12/31/2014 at 3:09 pm |
I see Tom Aswell has pretty much covered all the public sector union talking points in his numerous replies to this article. BTW, I’m not accusing him of being in a public sector union, just appropriating their talking points. Allow me to retort.
First, several recent economic studies show that government workers actually make more than their private sector counterparts. This phenomenon is most pronounced at the federal level, but it is there at all levels. For all the public sector whining about public sector work for less pay, it simply isn’t true anymore. The old argument went something like this: we serve the public for less money than we could make in the private sector, and the promise has always been that we would get a good retirement and benefits to make up the difference. There are several flaws with this narrative other than the fact that it is no longer true. If these public sector “servants” could find private sector employment at higher wages, then why aren’t they? Fact is, they can’t, either because there are no private sector jobs available to them, or they don’t qualify for the few that do exist.
Second, The one fact that the public sector union talking points always overlook is that public sector workers do not have to fear for their jobs like those of us in the private sector. A public sector worker has to work damn hard to lose a government job as evidenced by the fact that not one person has lost a job throughout numerous Obama administration scandals. Once a person lands on the government payroll, they are there for good, unless they do something really stupid or find better private sector employment. And before you accuse me of not knowing of what I am speaking, I will point out that I used to be a state worker, and I know the system. Government workers don’t worry about plant closures, or employee layoffs, or increasing benefit costs, or jobs being shipped overseas like the rest of us have to do. They also don’t have to move halfway across the country just to find work because they’re aren’t any private sector jobs in Louisiana.
Third, every government worker knows exactly what that job paid before they took it, and they have no right to come back later and complain about the pay rate or agitate for an increase in the minimum wage. And, they certainly don’t have the right to politic on television like public sector union workers in Chicago who staged a rally last year demanding that the legislature “raise my taxes” so they could get a pay raise. Public sector workers, against the law mind you, engage in politics continuously to agitate for increased wages and benefits while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet! As a state employee, I was warned that I couldn’t even have a politician’s sign in my yard without violating the Hatch Act and several other laws, yet public sector unions engage in politics continuously.
Fourth, public sector workers collude with politicians to rob us taxpayers when it comes to collective bargaining. We taxpayers are the only group not represented at the bargaining table when it comes to dealing with public sector unions! The politicians sweeten the pay and benefits for the public sector workers who then get out and work to reelect the politicians who scratched their back, and they do all of this with OUR, that is, we taxpayers’ money! You may have never belonged to a public sector union, but your refusal to stand up and denounce what these public sector unions have done makes you guilty by association, just like those fictitious “peaceful Muslims” we never hear condemning Islamic terrorism!
The bottom line is that public sector workers are not the public servants they claim to be, make as much or more than comparable private sector workers, have gold plated benefits not available to us private sector workers, and enjoy job security the rest of us can only dream of, yet they constantly carp and complain about how hard they have it! The rest of us should be so lucky! The one thing public sector workers always forget first is that we citizens DO NOT OWE ANYONE A LIVING! We hire workers to perform public services, and there doesn’t seem to be a problem hiring anyone, so wages must be set correctly according to market forces.
This argument should in no way be a reflection on the hard work done by government workers and the tasks they accomplish, but is a reminder that we taxpayers are damn tired of being treated like we owe you a living or more than the compensation that came with the job! So, you can stop the straw man arguments whining about calling Walter Abbott instead of the police! We citizens pay public sector workers to perform public sector jobs, and we expect them to be performed, and with no complaints! You public sector workers have bought completely into this myth that you are some oppressed underclass and it just isn’t so!
12/31/2014 at 5:51 pm |
Scott Walker, is that you?
12/31/2014 at 6:26 pm |
Cowboy, Once again, well said !
12/31/2014 at 4:43 pm |
Cowboy you sure did put us sorry ol state employees in our place.Thanks for all your degrading of your fellow man.God bless you and please don’t compare me to no Muslim.
12/31/2014 at 7:12 pm |
Apparently, you didn’t read my comment closely and you missed the last paragraph.
01/01/2015 at 6:47 am |
Used to be that patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel. Since patriotism is out of style among the liberal class so annoyed by American military power to keep the peace, I suppose the last refuge of a scoundrel is now cloaking oneself in religion to excuse their behavior. Wrapping yourself up in Christianity with selected Biblical themes doesn’t change the facts and no longer even distracts from the point. Let’s take the Christian point of view all the way back to Jesus addressing the Pharisee by stating that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the second greatest was to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Getting all you can get while agitating for more is NOT loving your neighbor as you love yourself. It’s just coveting what your neighbor has.
01/01/2015 at 10:51 am |
After 30 years of military service, how long should it take for me to feel like a Dead Head?