I note that the DPEB decided to ignore the fact that contributions have been higher than 8% for a good deal of the last decade and only finally dropped back to 8% recently.  A good deal of current employees have been contributing significantly more than that. 

Part of the problem is there are people calling for massive changes (like changes to retirement age) while putting out information like the retirement age that was in effect in 1995 or 2000 and ignoring that current employees (and for sure no new employees) qualify for.  That or they suggest keeping other employment compensation like salary low because 'they get a gold plated retirement plan' that they then attempt to take away retroactively.  You can't have it both ways.