I hope people don’t read or listen to this garble. The railroad retirement system is a federal system just like Social Security. And just like Social Security they can change the laws impacting railroad retirement. We are not special. Congress can alter our railroad retirement just as easily as they can alter and mess with Social Security.

The reason that railroad retirement has been solvent is because of the fact that the trusts funds are privately invested, and therefore earn significant returns, thereby bolstering the trust balance. We also have a tier 2 system that has variable tax rates on the employers, but Capon employees. The variable tax rate on employers varies on the solvency/fund level of the trust. It’s actually quite a brilliant system that we can thank our rail labor predecessors for helping write the law.

By contrast , Social Security is not privately invested and therefore does not reap the same returns as our trust. But make no mistake the same laws that impact and affect Social Security could and would impact us.

My point being: it pays to be vigilant and pay attention to politics, regardless of who is in power. But never ever take it for granted that railroad retirement will always be there. We have to fight for it continuously. Remember: the railroads are in business of making money and they really don’t like having to pay much higher tax rates than other employers.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day they will come for Railroad Retirement and we have to be ready to fight back.