Bill Maher backs Taveras (and Chafee) on paring back pensions
July 16th, 2012 at 9:53 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’s landmark deal reducing the value of police and fire retirees’ pensions is winning support from a surprising source: the bomb-throwing liberal TV host Bill Maher.
“Something had to give,” Maher wrote Thursday on his blog, noting that Rhode Island’s capital was facing bankruptcy. “So Providence – and the whole state, governed by our old pal Linc Chafee, neither greedy nor evil, nor out to destroy the middle class – are suspending cost of living increases, and capping benefits.”
Maher, who’s courted controversy as host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” singled out retired Fire Chief Gilbert McLaughlin, alluding to a WPRI.com analysis showing he was on track to earn a tax-free pension of nearly $800,000 a year if he lived to the age of 100.
“I think we need unions,” Maher, who has taken the side of Wisconsin’s public workers in their battles with Republican Gov. Scott Walker, wrote in the post. “But when people hear about the retired fireman whose pay doubles every twelve years, you can see how they might not like it.”
Chafee appeared on Maher’s program on Oct. 9, 2009, shortly before the formal kickoff of his successful campaign for governor, and earned around $1,000 or less for doing so. Chafee appeared alongside Richard Belzer and Cornel West:
(photo: Wikipedia)
Tags: angel taveras, bill maher, lincoln chafee, pensions, providence
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
[...] Truth Team News This entry was posted in Bill Maher and tagged back, backs, Bill, Chafee, Maher, paring, pensions, Taveras, WPRI by admin. Bookmark the permalink. [...]
Wow…. Getting hard up to keep fluffing up your adherence to the party line. Something tells me the idea of media personalities influencing major policy decisions, will be seen for what it is…. ridiculous. Pity you can’t be bothered to stick to the ‘grind” of reporting information that would help the general public formulate something approximating intelligent conclusions. What Rhode Islanders get are advocate journalists, who don’t care much about thorough, consistent, and timely reporting.
What about the average retiree Bill? You know the one that makes less than 40K. I love how they use one or two rogue pensions and paint everyone with a broad brush. So one guy gets 193K lets screw everyone?
Steve D, it clearly states in the article that Maher supports unions and backed the Wisconsin public worker’s protests. This is why nothing get’s done – because people have this attitude that you’re either for or against unions and pensions. All he’s advocating is sensible pensions, which in the long run could benefit the lower income union members by evening out the cost of public employment. $800,000 a year for a retired fire chief could pay 15 teachers.
Matt,
I fully agree. life is not a baseball game. We’ve got to learn to support common sense over our favorite team. I sure hope a majority of Republicans recognize that in the next election.
And remember that Bill Maher is worth something like, $23,000,000, that 23 million dollars, so he can, like Michael Moore, say all he wants about how unfair the system is, but Bill Maher is very much part of the system, and PROFITTING, that’s PROFITTING from it nicely… Profitting as in CAPITALISM which he, like Michael Moore, pretend to hate. Bill Maher, like is pal, Michael Moore, is a two-faced hypocrite. He’s the worst kind of media trash, masquerading as a champion of liberal values, which conducting his own private business affairs in a totally capitalistic way… Two-faced as the devil, just like Michael Moore. That’s right, Bill Maher is worth around 23 million dollars or more, so he as rich as many of the wealhy people he defames.