House Resolution 41

U.S. House Resolution 41 reads:

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Government should not bail out State and local government employee pension plans or other plans that provide post-employment benefits to State and local government retirees.

Whereas the Federal Government, as of January 2015, is carrying more than $18.0 trillion in debt, of which $13.0 trillion is owed to the public and $5.08 trillion is owed to Social Security and other trust funds;

<snip>

therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that—

(1) the Federal Government should not bailout State and local government employee pension plans and other post-employment benefit plans; and

(2) State and local governments should imme-diately institute reforms to their employee pension plans, including replacing defined benefit plans with defined contribution plans.

This is probably just for show.  "Should" is a much, much softer word than "Shall".  We all know what we should do.   Shall we actually do it?  Oft times we fail when it is difficult.