Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Here's Johnny!


From the NY Post:

Liu cheerfully admits: “The city is spending more money than it takes in.” But he won’t admit that the biggest reason is public-worker pensions and health benefits, which cost $16 billion a year. He’s mum about health benefits and on pensions insists everything is great.

He insists that new public workers don’t have to make any of the changes that Gov. Cuomo has suggested: working longer, contributing more or shifting to private-pension accounts. Instead, Liu claims we can fix the pension crisis with some housekeeping — saving money on fees to the managers who invest the city’s pension funds and getting better returns on those investments.

Cutting fees is fine. But chasing higher returns usually means taking greater risk — meaning taxpayers, who guarantee pension benefits, could pay even more in the future.

Nor does either move come close to solving the problem.

Liu wants to gamble with pension money in another way, too — by increasing the pension funds’ role as a political slush fund. The city already puts $1 billion in pension-fund money into “economically targeted investments” — such as “affordable” housing. Liu would expand such investments to small businesses — likely minting campaign donors interested in this cash.

His other big idea is taxes — raising them for people who make more than half a million dollars a year. In his speech, he said “equality” is just as important as economic recovery.

Yet the “top 1 percent” pays 43.2 percent of city income taxes, on earnings that comprise 33.8 percent of city incomes. If a few of these taxpayers leave town, New York would end up losing money, thanks to the tax hikes.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

liu cheerfully admits: “The city is spending more money than it takes in.” But he won’t admit that the biggest reason is public-worker pensions and health benefits, which cost $16 billion a year.

ah, what about tax breaks and development subsidies? if you take public resources and put it into someone's pocket, and don't make them pay for the priv. you are gonna lose money.

big time.

don't beat up on the worker.

Anonymous said...

Great interviewer. Sure knows how to ask the "tough" questions. She didn't even question the fact that so much time and money is being spent on an FBI investigation for a measly $16,000??? Gimme a break!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh! Another Liu zombie..

"She didn't even question the fact that so much time and money is being spent on an FBI investigation for a measly $16,000???"

Dear Zombie,
Stealing from the taxpayer by the Comptroller (if true) is a crime.

The FBI investigates crimes. Even if they are committed by socialists.

Anonymous said...

are you sure that he is a socialist ?Some would say that he is a COMMUNIST,by the company that he keeps and is funded by eg. the S.E.I.U.and Working Families Party.

he did march on the bklyn . bridge with the O.W.S left wingers.

see what the Flushing Falun Gong has to say about him in the World Journal.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/nyregion
/drop-in-liu-donations-signals-damage-over-us-inquiry.html

Anonymous said...

I don't recognize a wit of difference between a "progressive" a "socialist" and a "communist".

I think John Liu is committed to advance the goals of the regime in Beijing. He wasn't born in China; he was born in Taiwan and spent virtually his entire life in the US.

Thus I have always seen him as a traitor to both Taiwan and the US.

Anonymous said...

would the $16,000. number have increased if the NY Times had not exposed the undercover F.B.I. investigation ,BEFORE MORE EVIDENCE WAS GATHERED BY THE AMERICAN AGENT ,OF CHINESE ANCESTRY ,WHO SPOKE MANDARIN ?

did the nyt alert the liu gang that they were in jeopardy?

Anonymous said...

This investigation is going to reveal that a lot of the donations were false in my opinion.

The 16K was a result of a sting operation by the Feds. The REASON for the sting must have been that they already knew what was going on.

For crying out loud who believes that a dishwasher donates $800.00? That is simply preposterous.

Liu reported that MANY dishwashers, maids and other low wage earners donated hundreds of dollars, it I remember correctly.

I am unaware of one person with an IQ above 50 that would believe that even ONE low end wage earner would donate nearly a thousand dollars to some local politician. That dozens (hundreds?) of minimum wage earners did so is just absurd. The instant I heard this I figured that there was serious campaign fraud going on.

As I have stated in the past, if there is one cent that came from China then Johnny boy is in BIG trouble, and rightly so. We’ll all know soon enough.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 7:

No, Gramps, and the NY Post didn't when THEY ran articles uncovering Liu's misdeeds. What's the difference?

It's the job of newspapers to report the NEWS, not print press releases. Too bad that there's not enough of that going on.

Anonymous said...

Liu's doing anything for damage control these days.

Too late...he's been INDICTED!

His political career (with its mayoral aspirations) is kaput.

His former financial career is in great jeopardy.

Maybe we'll see him delivering Chinese food.

Tipping is optional.