Federal Retiree Benefits

I’m impressed that Keith has managed to exploit the federal pension system by becoming a “quadruple scooper.” To suggest, however, that cost-of-living allowances (COLAs) represent “lavish pension benefits” to the average retiree is fantasy.

Real-world retirees, unaccustomed to foraging in the federal trough for additional benefits, are not parasites feeding on the federal economy. The idea that they are undeserving of COLAs is unfair. Also unfair is the author’s prejudice as reflected in the statement that “taxpayers who must struggle to have an adequate retirement should not be forced to fund lavish pension benefits for federal retirees.”

Please note that retirees are also taxpayers and that they too have struggled to have an adequate retirement.

RICHARD J. SILVESTRO, Santa Maria