A TECHNIQUE FOR SUCCESSFUL FASTING

"One quarter of what you eat keeps you alive; the other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive."
Americans eat way too much fat, way too much sugar, and way too much protein. In fact, Americans simply eat too much of everything. The way out of this dilemma is so easy that we usually miss it: consider occasionally fasting.

I can almost hear the sound of yet another one of my books being slammed down, being put back on the shelf, or being quietly incinerated. While you are warming your hands from the imaginary glow that these pages would doubtlessly produce, may I continue?

Look:  nothing succeeds like success. We could spend all day talking about the value of fasting, but only you can find out for yourself what it can do for you. Experience is your best teacher, and improved health is always the best proof. A fast will cost very little money, and may well be one of the best things you've ever done for yourself.

Yes, you cannot accuse me of being in this just for the money, for not eating is certainly cheap enough. Fasting should be with your doctor's approval, and is not for growing children, and clearly not for anyone pregnant or nursing. People who are taking certain medications and people who have other compelling medical reasons should not fast. This still leaves the majority of us as more-or-less willing candidates.

One of the reasons fasting merits your attention is that anything else is so often ineffective or downright dangerous. One of the really amazing books of our time is Medical Nemesis, by Ivan Illich  (Bantam, 1977) Dr. Illich shows, in exhaustive detail, that medical care has become literally sickening. One in five hospital patients is there because a physician's mistake put him or her there. And with that point, the book is just warming up.

Ever since George Washington's doctors killed him with their prescriptions (No kidding: Medical and Physical Journal, London, 1800. Volume 3, page 409), people have been seeking LESS HARMFUL treatments than conventional medicine has offered.  A common "scientific" argument against fasting is that it is always unsafe. Truly the pot is calling the kettle black when drug-based medicine criticizes the safety of the therapy that all animals naturally use, namely fasting. First thing a sick animal does is go off its feed.

Fasting has GOT to be safer than, say cocaine or heroin, don't you think? Yet each year, doctor-prescribed drugs kill more Americans than street drugs. Drug Abuse Warning Network statistics indicate less than 10,000 deaths annually from illegal drugs. 130,000 Americans actually die in hospitals each year from prescription medication. (Whitaker, J. in Health and Healing, September 1993 Supplement, Phillips Publishing, page 3)

The following is one approach to safe, comfortable fasting.
21-DAY CYCLE FOR CLEANSING AND GOOD HEALTH

A "cycle" is made up of an eight day juice fast, three days to come off the fast, and then ten days on a three-quarters raw food diet.  (8 + 3 + 10 = 21 days.)  This really works.

FASTING

First, fast.  Eight days may seem like a very long time to go without food. Actually, for the first day or two of a fast, your body uses up the food remaining in your digestive tract from previous meals. For the next couple of days, your body uses stored food reserves from your liver. This means that a fast doesn't really begin until about the fifth day. Now an eight day fast is closer to a three day fast, and attainable by nearly everyone.  (Diabetics and persons on medication requiring meals should check with their physician, of course. Fasting is not for children, pregnant women or nursing women. If there is a medical reason why you should not fast, then don't. Check with your doctor first.)
Since "fasting" conjures up visions of starvation, it is important to realize that we are talking about JUICE fasting here. Freshly made vegetable juices, taken in quantity, are not a beverage. They are a raw, highly digestible food.  It is ideal to have all the juice you want, without forcing yourself to drink it. The rules: "When you are hungry, drink juice.  When you are thirsty, drink juice also."

JUICING
It is generally a good idea to dilute your juice 50/50 with water. If you can afford filtered water, use it. If not, don't worry... the goodness of the juices will carry you. Some people, including me, do not like the taste of diluted juice.  An alternative is to drink a glass of water, then drink a glass of juice. This gives the same effect, and tastes better. Be sure to drink the water first, for after the juice you may not want the water as much.

When we say "juice", we generally are referring to vegetable juice, freshly prepared. Fruit juice tends to be too sweet for comfortable fasting.  However, there is nothing to stop you from experimenting and coming up with your own best regimen. As long as you get good results, HOW you get them is secondary.

You cannot buy freshly prepared vegetable juice in any store at any price... unless they literally juice the vegetables right in front of your eyes and you drink it down before they make you pay for it! Any juice in a carton, can or bottle has been heat treated and was certainly packaged at least a few hours ago. Even frozen juice is not fresh, then, is it? This means that you will need one essential and somewhat expensive appliance:  your own juicer.

WHAT TO JUICE
You can juice almost anything you can eat raw.  Vegetables are best, especially carrots, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, zucchini squash, romaine lettuce, sprouts, celery and cabbage. You may juice fruits also, naturally. Freshly made raw apple, grape, and melon juices are delicious. It is not generally a good idea to juice potatoes, eggplant or Lima beans (not that you'd want to.)

It is wise to peel vegetables that have been sprayed or waxed, such as cucumbers. Sprayed fruits are also good to peel before juicing. Carrots and other underground vegetables often do not need peeling.  Instead, give them a good scrubbing with a nylon-bristle vegetable brush while rinsing under tap water. Beets are the exception. Since beet skins are very bitter, it is wise to peel beets before juicing. A hint to save time: dip the beets for about 20 seconds in boiling water and then peel them... it's much easier.
Your juice will taste the best if you drink it right after preparing it. I mean within moments! Fresh juice contains a great amount of raw food enzymes and vitamins, many of which are easily lost as the juice sits. So don't let it sit! Drink it right down, with the thought that this is unbelievably good for you.

HOW MUCH JUICE TO DRINK
Drink as much juice as you wish.  Remember that it is a food, not a beverage and that you can have as much as you want. There is little fear of over doing it.  It is, after all, hard to hurt yourself with vegetables!

A good rule of thumb is to drink three or four eight-ounce glasses of fresh juice a day (for an adult). The best time is right before a meal, or between meals.  Absorption of and benefit from the juice is highest then. You will probably find that you will be urinating more as you drink more juices. That figures, doesn't it?  You are taking in more liquid. You may also notice that you have more bowel movements now than you were previously accustomed to. This, too, is to be expected. Your body may well respond to all this nourishment by "cleaning house" a bit. More excretory symptoms would be the result. Ever notice how many trash cans you fill when you clean out the attic, basement or garage? Why, you hardly noticed all the rubbish you had stored in there until you went to clean it out.  The same is true, by analogy, with your body.

WHAT JUICES ARE BEST FOR YOU
You may drink those juices that appeal to you the most.  To find out your favorites, try each of them!

CARROT juice is tasty and popular, and two glasses of carrot juice per day are highly beneficial. There is no need to peel your carrots if you first scrub them well with a tough brush. 
Carrot juice is very high in vitamin A. The vitamin A in carrots is actually "provitamin A" or carotene. Carotene is completely non-toxic, no matter how much you consume. The worst thing that can happen if you drink a huge amount of carrot juice is that you will turn orange. No, really. You see, beta carotene is a natural pigment, a natural coloring. Excess carotene is stored in your skin until your body wants it and then turns it into active vitamin A as needed. An abundance of carotene in your skin makes you look orange. This condition is called "carotenosis" and is harmless. Okay, it looks odd to visit the folks (or the doctor) when you are orange. I know: when my son was little, he LOVED sweet potatoes, carrots and butternut squash to the point of orange skin. The relatives got a bit worried, but the coloration disappeared after we limited his orange veggies for a week or two. So, to get rid of the color, simply back off the carrot juice (and other orange vegetables) for a while and it will go away.  If someone thinks you are not well, tell them what you are doing. A doctor who thinks you have jaundice could then understand right away that you don't.  Liver function tests would also confirm your good health. Naturally, you don't have to turn orange to enjoy the goodness of carrot juice.  You can drink just enough to feel great ...without looking like a pumpkin!

Some folks have tried canned or bottled carrot juice and they didn't like it. No wonder! Fresh juice tastes SO much better that there isn't really any comparison.  I have two teenagers who WILL drink freshly-made carrot juice. Could there possibly be any higher recommendation than that?

CELERY juice is very tasty, but a bit high in sodium. Use small amounts of this juice to flavor the others. Juice celery leaves and all for the most benefit.

CUCUMBER juice is remarkably tasty.  It tastes rather different than a cucumber itself. Perhaps you will find that the taste reminds you of watermelon. Peel cucumbers before juicing to avoid the waxes applied to their skins to enhance their shelf life in supermarkets.

ROMAINE LETTUCE or BEAN SPROUTS will make an especially nutritious juice with a taste that is well worth acquiring. This "green drink" is loaded with minerals and chlorophyll.

ZUCCHINI SQUASH juiced up tastes better than you'd ever imagine. Peel first, and enjoy. You may well be the first on your block to be a zucchini-juice fan. It also keeps the juicer from clogging on higher-fiber vegetables.

BEET juice is, traditionally, a blood-builder.  In days past, herbalists looked at the blood-red beet as a tonic more so because it worked, rather than any color similarity. Beets must be peeled before juicing. Beet skins are very bitter. The beets, on the other hand, are quite sweet and make great juice. They will also permanently stain your juicer, so don't try to remove that color by washing. More important, beet juice will color your bowel movements.
That lovely red color of fresh beets can cause genuine alarm when it is seen in the toilet water. I know someone who had forgotten that he'd had beet juice the day before. He could only figure that he had a terrible case of hemorrhoids when he looked into the toilet and saw that red, red water.  It was the beets, of course. When you have beet juice, remember not to be alarmed. Beet juice is widely used in the food industry as a natural coloring agent.  You can (literally) see why!
A hint: you will save time if you first carefully dip beets in boiling water before peeling them.

CABBAGE juice was used by Garnett Cheney, M.D. to cure bleeding peptic ulcers back in the 1950's. (Cheney, G. (1952) "Vitamin U therapy of peptic ulcer." California Medicine, 77:4, 248-252) Dr. Cheney's patients drank a quart of cabbage juice a day and were cured in less than half the usual time... with no drugs whatsoever. Since then, cabbage juice has successfully been used for a variety of gastrointestinal illnesses. Colitis, spastic colon, indigestion, chronic constipation, certain forms of rectal bleeding and other conditions seem to respond well to the nutrients in cabbage juice.  Dr. Cheney called its healing factor "Vitamin U" (for unknown). More recently, the American Cancer Society has urged people to eat more of the cabbage/broccoli family of vegetables because of their protective effects against cancer. There may be something to this cabbage juice idea.  It certainly couldn't hurt to try it.

TOMATOES are easily juiced.  Do not juice the leaves, vines, or green tomatoes. Only the red, ripened fruit is good for you. Yes, the tomato is a fruit.
A fruit of a plant is essentially a seed-containing structure that can be picked without killing the plant. Hmm. This means that cucumbers, squash and even green beans are all fruits.

JUICE AT WORK?
Sam writes:
“I was reading a lot about juice fasting and how it might help. You’ve written that it has to be all fresh juice, so what should I do on working days? I cannot possibly carry a juicer and a box of veggies to the office. Any suggestions?”
 Sure.

 1) Juice at home and carry it in a Thermos. Not ideal for taste, but people have done it. I’d add a little vitamin C (crush up any size tablet) to retard oxidation. Fill the vacuum bottle all the way to the top so when you close it, a little juice overflows. This also helps to reduce oxidation, insuring that there is little or no air inside to spoil the goodness. Of course you can juice as soon as you get home, too.

 2) Simply eat your vegetables. Have a salad-bar lunch. Also eat lots of fruit; great snack. (They do let you have lunch and snacks and breaks, don’t they?) Fresh fruit and veggies are as easy to pack for your lunch as they are to put in your kids’ lunches.

 A TIMETABLE
At the beginning of this section we were talking about a 21-day "cycle"  beginning with eight days just on fresh juices, three days to come off the juice "fast,"  and then ten days of a 75% raw food diet. This makes a total cycle duration of three weeks (21 days). Now that you have a better idea about the juicing segment, let's take a look at the next steps.

Coming off the juice "fast" is best done by eating lightly for a while. Fruit, fruit salads, vegetable soups, cottage cheese and other light foods are appropriate at this point.  A good rule of thumb here is to eat only half as much as you want to at any one time... but eat twice as often.  This is for about three days.
For the ten day 75% raw food diet, you can eat all you want as long as three-quarters of it is uncooked. For the uncooked part of the diet, eat fresh, raw vegetables and fruits. Don't forget nuts, too. If they are raw, they count. Begin each meal with a large salad, perhaps a fruit salad for breakfast.  Then, when you've finished the salad, have whatever you want within reason. The 25% cooked portion could include whole grain breads and pasta, brown rice, cooked beans, lentils, cooked vegetables including potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, squash and other foods that you like.  Meat is not recommended, nor is chicken or turkey.

When you go out to eat, it's easy to stay right on this program by eating at salad bars. Remember, try to make the other three-quarters of your diet fresh and raw.
All the strongest and longest-lived animals on earth are vegetarians, or close to it.

Fighting Cancer through Fasting

Fasting will break down tumors. For this reason, many have overcome cancer with fasting. Water fasting is a powerful way to fight cancer but it may not be enough.  We recommend water fasting combined with days of juice fasting to rebuild the body and supply the nutrients that enable healing
.
Cancer fights for the body's resources.  The wasting away seen in cancer is from the cancer consuming the glucose in the blood. To battle cancer with fasting the best choice is a combination of water fasting and juice fasting using 2-5 classes of juice per day, including green leafy vegetable like spinach, chard, or parsley to maintain strength and support the body's immune system. This may require 2-3 fast over 14 days long alternating to a diet high in raw foods. Essiac Tea, Jason Winters Herbal Tea are some of the herbal combination proven in fighting cancer.

The key to battling cancer with juice fasting is small amount of low-calorie nutrition packed juice.  Thus you get maximum scouring.  Some persistent forms of cancer may take 40 days of fasting.  Move into the fast quickly, it is a race against time especially in pancreatic cancer or any aggressive cancer.

You will most likely be without hunger throughout the fast. The absence of hunger can last days or weeks making the fast easy to stay on.

Fasting tip: Dizziness

You may experience dizziness, if you do get down on one knee and the dizziness will stop immediately.

Chemotherapy or Radiation

If you choose to undergo chemotherapy or radiation, juice fasting or make fresh  juice daily and eating a raw food diet will support the body in combating the negative effects of chemotherapy.
Most experts agree that in order to achieve health benefits through water fast, you need not to fast longer then 40 - 60 days. Experts disagree on the exact number of days, but many agree that enemas are beneficial during the water fast.

Most experts agree that fasting for longer then 60 days may not be health-wise.
Most experts also agree that you should be meditating during the water fast. You should not be lifting weights, running, biking or swimming. Any harsh physical activity could cost you your life. That is the main difference between water fasting and juice fasting. People on juice fasting or Master Cleanse are consuming a lot of calories and are able to lift weights, run, bike or swim.

Another important thing for water fasting is that you should not be exposed to cold temperature. It is much easier to water fast in India where people don't need much clothes to keep healthy body temperature, then it is to Water Fast on Alaska where in order to keep body temperature, body need to burn large amount of energy.

Long time Water Fasting during the winter months in central and northern Europe or northern America may not be health-wise. Summer (June, July, August ... ) would be the better time.

Another important thing for water fasting is that you should not be exposed to polluted air. It is much better to live far from any large city, then to fast in the city. People can become extremely sensitive to pollutions during the water fast and any pollution may cause sickness.

Quality of water is extremely important.

Sunlight is extremely important during the water fast. You should exposed your skin to morning and evening sun (as long as you feel comfortable), but protect yourself from too strong mid-day sun.
Before going on water fast, you should be fasting on a vegan diet for some time.

When you start the water fast, your large intestine should be empty. Enema or colonics are considered better way of emptying the bowel, then laxative herbs.

When water fasting, you should not be taking any medications. If you are dependent on medications, you can not water fast!

The average person, not familiar with fasting, believes he will certainly die if he misses a meal. When you hear of a person dying after being lost in the woods or at sea for two or three days. It was not lack of food that caused his death, but it was panic and fear that killed him. Most people in fairly good health can go for many days without food but the body must have water. 

Before you choose to go on a water fast, you should you should read at least one good book about Water Fasting.

Big Banks Caught Stealing - NY AG Not Waiting for Fed Govt. To Investigate.
 Posted by TRB in on Wednesday May 18, 2011 - 10:05 am (1 week, 1 day ago)

The whole castle is about to come down on our bank boys. Just yesterday, the Huffington Post exposed 5 big banks for allgedly swindling the U.S. government. The banks are Bank of America, Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial. Further, New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman has promised to investigate at least three of NYC's large banks for misinforming investors of the real worth of various financial instruments.

A goverment audit of the five large banks mentioned above showed that they were cheating the taxpayer through various scams centered around government-backed mortgages, It is a practice called "Fraudclosure," and it is more out of hand in the U.S. than in any other nation in the world. The banks, using taxpayers funds have kept families in their homes knowing full well they would throw them out on specific days months later. It was an attempt to squeeze as much cash as they could out of everyone's misery.

There is a corrupt relationship between American banking and government officials and institutions that was given a shot in the arm last year when the current Supreme Court, which lacks credibility in almost every area of judiprudence, decided to give money freedom of speech, or at least to put money in the same constitutional catagory as free speech. That almost criminal ruling meant banks and other corporate entities and even wealthy individuals, could give as much of this paper "free speech" to politicians as they wanted. In other words, they could buy them.

That is when the elected officials in this government stopped representing the people, and began instead to represent the banks and mortgage companies, oil companies, anyone with more money than the average American taxpayer is able to curry favor with Washington for the right amount of money. In this way, the U.S., mostly as a result of a ruling from an inept Suprme Court, has at least temporarily lost its status as a representative democracy in favor of a pay for favors system of government.

There was only one problem with this. Sooner or later someone was going to come along, ignore the bribes and go after the criminals. This man appeared in New York City last week. His name is Eric Schneiderman. Unlike Eric Holder, the federal AG, who is most likely being paid off in some fashion or orher, NYC's new AG is going to turn up the heat.

He has expressed a desire to see first hand how some of the scams in financial instuments - selling nothing for something - works. He is especially interested in looking at the schemes run by the banks, with the government covering for them,  that have destroyed pension funds across America and have also created the mortgage crisis. This in turn is responsible for  the building and construction slump. Out of that emerged the first true signs of the present unemployment disaster. In truth, the U.S. government has allowed the commercial banking system to steal the silverware.

The banks have crashed the economy,  and they have done nothing to fix what they broke. The commercial banks for years follwing the Gresat Depression were not allowed to gamble on Wall Street. This was a hedge against another such Depression. Sure one was possible, but with the commercial banks not allowed to trade in financial instruments and mortgages on Wall Street, our savings, bank investments and mortgaes were seen as safer and less prone to damage by Depression.

But it has happened again. The banks were let back on Wall Street (Congress repealed the Glass-Stengel Act keeping them off) and they almost immediately invented more games to play with money. And they were games. Betting money that such and such a mortgage will fail in its third year?
For example, if you won, you won part of the mortgage payments. If you lost, you had to pay a certain percentage of the mortgage payments. The borrower would still have to pay the mortgage every month. But the bank that won the bet would receive two mortgage payments. One from the "player" on Wall Street and one from the actual owner of the house.

Then they invented a game called "bundling." When you "bundle" you repackages hundreds, sometimes thousands of bad mortgage loans, ones you know are going to fail, and you "securitize" them. By this I mean you lie about them, telling prospective buyers like 401ks and pension funds that your bundle of bad mortgages is really a bundle of good mortgaes. In this way you destory the 401k or pension fund that falls for this scam. Many did.

On the "Fraudclosure" front the banks were given authority by Obama, who already knew they were the source of the foreclosure problem, to run a new multibillion dollar program that was supposed to be designed to help the homeowner. It just made things worse for the homeowner and the bail-out money went to the banks.
In 2008 there were 2.3 million foreclosures in the U.S.
In 2009 there were 2.6 million
In 2010 there were 2.9 million.
In 2011 there are already over three million.
So what do these numbers tell us about the President's so called foreclosure bail out program? First that it didn't work. Second, that he was a fool to allow the banks to run it.
Making matters worse some members of the administration and many members of Congress continue to tell outright lies about the economy that are repeated by the news media as fact, when none are supported by any evidence. In fact, all known evidence points to their being lies. The most blatant three are:
Lie Number One: If we slash spending it will create more jobs. This is what I call an evident lie. So obvious is this lie that someone believing it has to either stop or start taking some medicine. It costs money to make jobs. You do not get there by slashing costs.

Lie Number Two: If we cut spending without raising taxes that will be favorable to the overall tax rate. This is what people who don't want to pay tell you. We can get this done for nothing without raising taxes. That is the  bareface lie of the wealthy deadbeat.


Lie Number Three: If we allow the Bush taxcuts to run out, that will destory the economy. On this one you simply have to ask yourself this. If more revenue is created by halting the Bush tax cuts how is that going to be anything but good for the economy?
Tax cuts never create jobs. Never. Demand creates jobs. Small business, large business and new business also doesn't create jobs.

Demand creates jobs. It is the only thing that creates jobs. Consumer demand creates jobs. Americans have to remember that. It is the most basic economic rule. Demand creates jobs.
Where is that demand going to come from in a nation that is in the middle of a long phase of de-industrialization? We don't make anything that someone might demand. And our demand of goods from other nations does not create jobs in this nation.

We have to keep in mind that the the banks are directly responsible for our deficit crisis. They created the housing bubble, they created the phony financial instruments that raided so many 401ks and pension funds, then they were bailed out using tax money from U.S. citizens of average or less than average income.
Taxes were not raised on the super wealthy to help pay for the banks crimes. Instead, the U. S. government, who is in bed with the banks, gave them funds from the less wealthy. Funds generations of us will have to pay back in the form of tax increases.

At the same time the government is looking for even more ways to steal from the average American while continuing a no-tax plan for the super wealthy. Now Congress is arguing about how much money they can take from programs to help feed America's poor children, how to make Medicaid more expensive for the mostly poor elderly, how to cut back on government entitlements for the disabled or injured in battle.
America has to take back control of this government while we still have anything that looks like a democracy - even from a distance. If it cannot create jobs, or an environment where the demand for jobs would exist, what good is it? And if it only represents monied interests, then how can it be called our government?

About the Attorney General

 

New York State Attorney General
Eric T. Schneiderman

 

Eric T. Schneiderman was elected the 65th Attorney General of New York State on November 2, 2010. As Attorney General, Schneiderman is the highest ranking law enforcement officer for the State, responsible for representing New York and its residents in legal matters. Schneiderman has worked to restore the public’s faith in its public and private sector institutions by focusing on areas including public integrity, economic justice, social justice and environmental protection.

In his first weeks in office, Attorney General Schneiderman launched a new "Taxpayer Protection Bureau" to root out fraud and return money illegally stolen from New York taxpayers at no additional cost to the state. He has also bolstered the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which has already recovered tens of millions of dollars for taxpayers on his watch. As part of his effort to crack down on corruption and restore the public’s trust in government, Schneiderman launched a groundbreaking initiative expanding his office’s authority to investigate public corruption involving taxpayer funds by partnering with the state Comptroller. In addition, the Attorney General is appointing public integrity officers in every region of the state to give New Yorkers a place to go to report complaints of government corruption without the fear of local politics influencing the outcome.


Since taking office, Attorney General Schneiderman has repeatedly stood up to powerful interests on behalf of New Yorkers. The Attorney General has taken a leading role in the national fight for a fair mortgage settlement for homeowners that holds banks accountable for their role in the foreclosure crisis; launched a thorough review of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile for potential anti-competitive impacts on consumers and businesses statewide; sued federal regulators to force an environmental impact review of proposed gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin; and challenged the Indian Point nuclear power plant’s practices related to high-level radioactive waste storage, earthquake preparedness and fire safety, among his many early acts.

Attorney General Schneiderman has also kept our streets safe by shutting down the largest heroin operation in Buffalo history – a statewide drug trafficking pipeline from New York City to Western New York; and busting an international auto theft ring that involved car dealership employees forging keys to steal more than $10 million worth of luxury cars.

As the state’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Schneiderman brings with him a wealth of experience, in both the public and private sectors. Before becoming Attorney General, Schneiderman was praised as a leading reformer in the State Senate by numerous editorial pages and good government organizations. Among his many legislative accomplishments, Schneiderman passed sweeping ethics reforms, chaired the committee to expel a corrupt senator for the first time in modern history, and passed the toughest law in the nation to root out fraud against taxpayers.

The Attorney General previously spent 15 years in private practice as an attorney, and later as a partner at the firm of Kirkpatrick and Lockhart, where he handled complex litigation. He was also a public interest lawyer for many years, representing taxpayers in historic lawsuits against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), tenants trying to evict drug dealers from their buildings, and women seeking access to health clinics.
Attorney General Schneiderman graduated from Amherst College in 1977 and Harvard Law School in 1982. He is the proud father of a daughter, Catherine.

On The Chopping Block: Federal Worker Pensions

May 20th, 2011
by Stephen Lendman

Bipartisan support endorses ending vital social benefits incrementally, principally Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, healthcare for those who can't afford it, and public pensions.

Notably, deep Medicare cuts were made. Much more is planned, including slashing Medicaid.

Now federal pensions are being targeted. Civilian federal employees receive benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), consisting of three components: a FERS annuity defined benefit plan; class ="bmore" mandatory Social Security participation; however most Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) employees aren't part of Social Security unless they qualify separately from additional private sector employment; and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), a 401(k) type defined contribution plan.

On March 19, Senators Tom Coburn (R. OK) and Richard Burr (R. NC) introduced S. 644: Public-Private Employee Retirement Parity Act to prohibit federal annuities for employees hired after 2012. In other words, beginning January 1, 2013, they want defined pensions for newly hired federal workers ended, eventually eliminating unfunded ones altogether.

Although the other two FERS components are maintained, S. 644 is another step toward halting all federal obligations to working Americans to provide more funds for imperial wars, corporate handouts, and greater tax benefits for America's super-rich. But don't expect Congress, Obama, or major media reports to explain.
Coburn justified S. 644, claiming federal workers earn over 20% more than private sector ones. In fact, according to a National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) study titled, "Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation Over 20 Years:"

Wages and benefits for public workers are lower than for private sector ones with comparable earnings determinants, such as education and work experience. Moreover, the pay gap widened over the last 15 years. Other studies agree, saying public workers can earn more by using their skills in private sector jobs.
As a result, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) called S. 644 unfair. For example, a federal employee earning on average $50,000 in his or her three highest earning years, with 30 years of service, gets a $15,000 annual pension, hardly a generous amount.

NFFE also said FERS pensions are less than under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the one FERS replaced in 1986 for new hires.

Coburn and Burr claim defined benefit federal pensions are going broke. Last September, in fact, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) denied insolvency problems, saying FERS and CSRS (for eligible employees) will be able to meet their obligations "in perpetuity." Moreover, CRS expects their assets to grow for decades, reaching $15.3 trillion in 2080, far exceeding outlays.

Nonetheless, congressional Republicans, known as "You Cutters," plan other slash and burn efforts to:
-- cut federal pay;
-- freeze hiring;
-- end early retirement benefits;
-- eliminate the time the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has to defend federal employee rights; and -- calculate pensions based on the highest five (instead of 3) working years, among other proposed draconian anti-worker measures, including stealing pension funds by borrowing them to fund government operations.

On May 16, Washington Post writer Zachary Goldfarb headlined, "Treasury to tap pensions to help fund government," saying: Federal retirement funds will be tapped to help fund government operations after the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling was reached as Congress keeps wrangling over raising it. In fact, "the Obama administration has shown growing interest in altering (pension) programs to curb the debt in the long run (by) raising the amount that federal employees contribute to their pensions."

Both parties agree on social spending cuts overall, disagreeing largely on timing ahead of the 2012 election, besides posturing for political advantage. In fact, Obama already committed to cut trillions of dollars over the next decade, mainly essential entitlements, education, healthcare for working households, and aid for America's poor. In addition, federal workers pay was frozen last November for two years. Moreover, as explained at the time, cuts from his April 8 budget deal included:
-- $3.5 billion from Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding;
-- $2.2 billion from nonprofit health insurance cooperatives;
-- $600 million from community healthcare centers;
-- $1 billion from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other disease prevention programs;
-- $1.6 billion from EPA's clean/safe drinking water and other projects;
-- $950 million from community development grants;
-- $504 million from nutrition aid for poor Women, Infants, and Children (WIC);
-- $500 million from education programs; -- $390 million from home heating subsidies to the poor, as well as $2.5 billion for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) announced in February;
-- $350 million from labor programs, including grants for community service jobs for seniors;
-- other social service cuts;
-- $786 million from FEMA first-responder funding;
-- $407 million from energy efficiency and renewable energy programs;
-- $260 million from National Institutes of Health (NIH) medical research;
-- $127 million from the National Park Service; and
-- billions less for public infrastructure and transportation spending, while increasing war appropriations by multiples more, including for conquering and controlling Libya.

Moreover, Obama agreed to more draconian FY 2012 cuts and corporate tax breaks as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. It's still being debated at least until August 2 while Congress loots federal pensions to keep government operations running.

Overall, bipartisan support endorses ending safety net protections, especially healthcare for retirees and working households, Social Security, and public pensions, forcing Americans to pay more and get less if anything at all.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com