Fact: Federal court rulings state that disclosing the pension amounts of retired congressional representatives and senators violate their privacy rights.
Forcing open the federal pensions will take an act of Congress. Citizens should demand it. At the state level, 32 states – including the union strongholds of California, Illinois and New York - already opened their books on public pensions.
Consider federal employee-prosecution-escape-artists like the former IRS chief Lois Lerner who invoked her Fifth Amendment protections during Congressional testimony. Wouldn't it be nice to see her pension information? Citizens deserve to know Ms. Lerner's annual pension. Estimates by two Washington think tanks vary by more than $52,000 annually, or nearly $2 million in lifetime payout.
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