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And there is another reason. The Social Security Act and the Railroad Retirement Act - and the ALPA plan - involve the exercise by the Congress, of two separate powers: the spending power and the taxing power. The Supreme Court of the United States said (in 1937) that the exact kind of arrangement in the ALPA plan is OK. Two years earlier, in 1935, the Court said that the first Railroad Retirement Act, which provided was a straight out retirement insurance was prohibited by the Constitution. The Court today hasn’t a single member who was there in 1935 maybe they have different ideas as to what the Constitution permits as far as retirement systems are concerned. But then again, 5 of them may have the same idea who knows? There isn’t any sense in taking a chance when there’s an absolutely certain way to get what we want.

So the money we pay under the ALPA plan will be taxes. The only basis for a tax refund is to show that the tax payment was not due, or was larger than was due. The fact that you quit being an air line pilot while you were one. There is therefore no legal basis for a tax refund.

The Interim Retirement Committee is now working out details to determine the exact cost which may be less than 10 percent. That is one of the main reasons why we got questionnaires returned from the ALPA membership. 7,300 members returned 5,000 questionnaires.

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