Get ready to bail out the airlines... again

It's more likely than ever that taxpayers will pay for the promises airlines made, and will soon break, to employees and retirees. United Airlines' decision to terminate its pensions falls on the back of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal entity created in 1974 to deal with disasters such as this. Of course, PBGC was intended to deal with companies hit by major disasters OTHER than criminal mismanagement.

So many large corporations are now breaking their promises that PBGC is now more than $23 billion in debt itself, doubling its debt from last year. Apparently, that tax cut for the extraordinarily wealthy that Bush rammed through Congress isn't helping PBGC much.

Speaking of the insanely rich, CEO's are being "encouraged" by the nation's largest public pension fund not to pay themselves obscene amounts of money just to retire, like the $76 million golden parachute an HMO guy got. Anyone sense a theme here?