Banks, corporations and lawmakers' message to the middle class: 'Sacrifice your retirement security to clean up our mess'

As many states rush to balance their budgets and cut spending, some lawmakers have misdiagnosed the problem entirely. Instead of closing the tax loopholes that let profitable corporations and banks avoid paying their fair share, they'd rather place the blame for the budget crisis squarely on the middle class. As a result, public workers are now struggling to maintain their voice on the job and hold on to a secure retirement.

Like students who claim the dog ate their homework, lawmakers in several states are now looking for excuses to explain why they have not held up their end of the bargain over the years to contribute to workers' retirement, even after public workers themselves have never missed a contribution.

First, they've gone so far as to claim that the modest annual retirement benefit of a nurse, who dedicated her life to caring for her local community, is what's causing their state budget woes. Second, they propose overhauling a system -- which has worked well for decades -- by stripping benefits, shifting investment risk to individual employees, and increasing costs.

The problem with all of this is that public pensions have little, if anything, to do with state budget crises.

We know that Wall Street crashed the economy and created the crisis we are all trying to manage. What's worse is that now these same interests that caused the crisis are trying to shift the blame to public employees.

"With anonymous out-of-state billionaires, Wall Street special interests, and right-wing factions bankrolling attacks on public employees, we think it is time to set the record straight," says Dave Low, Chairman of Californians for Retirement Security, a coalition of 1.5 million public employees and retirees in California, including SEIU members. The group recently launched a website, Let's Talk Pensions, which aims to lay the issue on the discussion table, rather than the chopping block.

We agree, which is why we created a Fact Check page to answer some initial questions about public employee pensions. The debate is only going to get stronger over the next several months -- let's start by demanding that retirement security for the middle class doesn't take the fall for Wall Street's abuses.