President Biden returned to his “Union Joe” roots last week when he swooped in with a $36 billion bailout for the Teamsters’ ailing pension fund.
The money for the Central States Pension Fund is the largest amount of federal dollars ever used to bail out a pension plan. It comes out of the $86 billion in taxpayer money allocated to faltering pension plans in Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package last year.
Mr. Biden said the payout will ensure 350,000 union workers and retirees can collect benefits through at least 2051. Without the bailout, the fund would have had to cut benefits by as much as 60%, according to the White House.