(2005-05-11) — A federal appeals judge today approved United Airlines’ effort to have a federal agency take responsibility for $3.2 billion of its employee pension obligations during the next five years, and opened the door for a possible Social Security bailout as well.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) already bears responsibilty for paying pensions to more than one million Americans from 3,479 failed pension plans. The Guaranty Corporation, while not directly funded by taxpayers, now pays benefits to about 518,000 retirees using investment income from employer pension-insurance premiums as well as funds from failed pension plans.

Wilma Ponzi, spokesman for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), said, “We celebrate this latest move by the courts to tear down the wall that has sadly divided capitalism from socialism. We encourage the Bush administration to seek a similar rescue for Social Security.”

Under the AARP-supported plan, Mrs. Ponzi said, the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation would sell bonds to the U.S. Treasury backed by the federal government’s debt to Social Security.

The pension bonds would be backed by the “full faith and credit” of the United States goverment, she added.