[cobra bill]

One thing you have to keep in mind about legacy cost, its due to deregulation that there is even a problem with it, before Reagan took office it was required by law that retirement investments could not be used by the companies or the government as assets, I'm a civil servant, and during the Reagan administration they changed the law, and shortly after that was done, they changed the retirement system for civil service, went from CSRS to FERS, that's because they used the money that we had vested in our retirements to lower on paper anyway the deficit spending, Now for all of us still on the CSRS system there is no money left in the coffers, all there is IOU's so now there is a legacy cost, and that's why civil service is being replaced by contractors, because when its put out for a competitive bid, we can bid one it, but they include the legacy expense in that bid and we have a hard time competing. You have to keep in mind though we pay out of pocket for our retirement, but because they changed the rules and allowed themselves to use the money, we are now a legacy expense to them, it's the same way with the UAW, they pay into their own retirement, out of a negotiated salary, and now that the company spent it, is it there fault?