Let Them Eat Cake Press Conference

Media Advisory
Barry Shutt: 717-943-2880

 

Let Them Eat Cake Press Conference
September 12, 2017

 

“Let them eat cake” is a phrase often attributed to Marie Antoinette of France when told the populous of France could not even afford bread to eat.  The critical implication of that quote was that she and the French nobility of the day were insensitive to the plight of the poor.

Three years ago, this week, prior to the 2014 Gubernatorial and Legislative elections in Pennsylvania, a grandfather began an effort to “petition the government for a redress of grievances,” over the Commonwealth’s unfunded pension liability.  The intent was to motivate the new Governor and Members of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly to finally address the liability and not pass it on to future generations of Pennsylvania.

When that grandfather began his effort, Pennsylvania’s unfunded pension liability, whenever discussed, was always an abstract figure. In reality, according to a well-respected pension expert, the pension debt in September 2014 was just over $57 billion dollars.

Since the new Governor, elected in 2014, and the General Assemblies, elected in 2014 and 2016, have shown no sensitivity to the plight of future generations of Pennsylvanians who will bear the burden of that unfunded pension liability, the Governor and Members of the General Assembly are like Marie Antoinette, shouting to those future generations: “Let them eat cake!”

To mark the third-year anniversary of that grandfather’s effort to petition the government for a redress of the grievances over the Commonwealth’s unfunded pension liability, a brief press conference will be held on Tuesday, September 12, 2017 in the East Wing Rotunda at 10:00 AM.  Following the press conference, cake will be served to draw attention to the fact that in the 3 years of no action by the Governor and the General Assembly to address the liability, that liability has increased by nearly $20 billion; and still grows at $172 per second.

Speakers include Barry Shutt, grandfather, State Representative John McGinnis, and Rock the Capital’s Eric Epstein.

 

Please join us.