Resources Restrict As Refugee Spending Increases

Resources getting short in the richest country in the world:

No wonder Tom Minerath is angry.

Sixty-eight years old and retired since 2007, the Town of Merton man is about to have about $20,000 taken away from his annual pension — money he earned, money that was promised him, money guaranteed in contracts negotiated by one of the country’s strongest labor unions.

“I’m going to make it through this, but it’s just not right,” he said. “It’s just not right.”

Which probably sums up the feelings of more than 270,000 people, including thousands in Wisconsin, who have been told by the financially troubled Central States Pension Fund that their pension payments must be cut, in some cases by 50% or more.

It’s a breaking wave in a financial tsunami created in significant part by a change in government policy more than three decades ago that set in motion overwhelming economic forces.

But where the federal government stepped in to prop up giant investment banks after the 2008 crash — a financial debacle the banks helped cause — no bailout is in sight for Minerath and other retired Teamsters truckers. Barring a huge change in congressional sentiment, they’ll have to do the bailing themselves.

“It’s going to take our living wage, comfortable living wage, and make it non-livable,” said retired driver Thomas Botic, 69, of Pewaukee, who recently got notice that his $2,800-a-month pension would be sliced to $1,400. “And at (almost) 70 years old, I don’t feel like going out and finding a new job.

Even the military of the wealthiest superpower is scraping by:

Budget cuts have forced U.S. military forces in Europe to borrow British helicopters and use equipment from other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members during training exercises.

The cutbacks have adversely impacted U.S. forces in Europe even as Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and now in Syria have demanded U.S. attention there. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the Army’s commander in Europe, said that the British helicopters has been “essential,” according to the New York Times.

“I don’t have bridges, I don’t have the trucks that can carry tanks, we don’t have enough helicopters to do what we need to do,” Hodges stated. “Practicing with British helicopters here is an essential part of it. Using British and German bridges, using Hungarian air defense is part of it.”

The Army has endured significant budget cuts over the past several years, resulting in less resources and declining troop levels. The number of U.S. soldiers permanently stationed in Europe has been reduced from 40,000 in 2012 to 26,000 today.

But Austria is blowing 3/4 of a billion dollars on importing 85,000 hostile and entitled refugees, and that is just to get them in the country – it doesn’t factor in the crimes, damage, or welfare they will take once admitted:

The spiralling refugee crisis will cost Austria €1 billion ($740 million) in 2016, the finance ministry announced on Wednesday, as the country expects 85,000 new asylum-seekers by the end of this year.

Average spending per asylum-seeker is set to rise to €10,724 next year, up from €9,593 in 2014, according to the latest available figures.

The total cost will represent 0.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to 0.1 percent this year, Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling said in his annual budget report to the European Commission.

Europe isn’t as wealthy as the US, and its refugee crisis dwarfs Austria’s. Something has to give – and it will.

Apocalypse cometh™