Since beginning his crusade against public pensions, John Arnold has been relentless in his attacks on retirement security for working families. Often, he pays others to do his dirty work for him. For example, he funds biased research from the Pew Research Center. He has also funded failed ballot measures to gut public pensions. Recently, Arnold has begun funding a group that is much more explicit in its mission to eliminate public pensions. Armed with a cunningly deceptive name, the so-called Retirement Security Initiative (RSI) has been one of the most active opponents of public pensions in recent years.
If you had any doubt about RSI’s true intentions, their leader is none other than Chuck Reed, the former mayor of San Jose who led the attacks on pensions in that city. After leaving office and failing repeatedly to get a measure placed on the ballot to gut public pensions throughout California, Reed has set up shop at RSI where he now leads a nationwide crusade against public pensions.
To help them in their work, Arnold and Reed have assembled a rogue’s gallery of anti-pension ideologues at RSI:
- Dan Liljenquist: a former Utah state senator, he used his one term in office to cut pension benefits for police officers, firefighters, and other public employees, leading to challenges recruiting new public employees
- Pete Constant: a former San Jose City Council member, Constant was also a fellow at the vehemently anti-pension Reason Foundation, another group funded by John Arnold
- Lois Scott: a veteran of the Rod Blagojevich and Rahm Emanuel administrations, she helped craft Mayor Emanuel’s budget which cut pensions for city employees in Chicago
- Richard Ravitch: a former Lieutenant Governor of New York, he has long been a critic of public pensions
To expose the truth about the Retirement Security Initiative, we created the following video, revealing the failed politicians at the heart of this anti-pension campaign.
Chuck Reed and RSI are not stopping their attacks on pensions. Last year, Reed spoke at the ALEC convention as a representative of RSI. He has also testified about public pensions in Lincoln, NE, and continued to author anti-pension op-eds in California.
To help us fight back against RSI, please sign our petition urging the leaders of RSI to stop their attacks on public pensions. Together, we are more powerful than John Arnold’s money.