It would be difficult not to be sympathetic to the plight of tens of thousands of participants in a huge and massively underfunded multiemployer pension plan whose benefits will be slashed if federal regulators approve the plan's proposal to cut benefits. We were especially moved by a letter written by a retired couple living in Lebanon, Missouri, to the U.S. Treasury Department, which is reviewing the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan's application to cut benefits for well over half of the plan's more than 400,000 participants.

“How can this happen to dedicated 30+ year employees who believed in the American dream and trusted Central States and the Teamsters. We are forced to live in an RV because of a 60% cut in pension benefits,” the couple wrote.

It would be hard not to be sympathetic to the hardship that the Missouri couple, and so many other plan participants, will face if regulators approve the proposed benefit cuts.

But the cuts, unquestionably, will cause less pain than doing nothing. Keeping the status quo would almost certainly assure that the plan, which at the end of 2014, had more than twice as much — $35 billion — in liabilities as its $17.8 billion in assets, will one day run out of money.

That would result in the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. stepping in and providing benefits to plan participants. That, though, would hardly be a panacea: Participants could see their benefits cut even more because of federal limits.

In addition, because of the precarious financial condition of the PBGC's multiemployer insurance fund, taking over the Central States plan could bankrupt that fund, and ultimately participants would get nothing.

Who is to blame for the benefit cuts those in the Central States and other massively underfunded plans will suffer?

Certainly, lawmakers deserve some of the blame. They erred when passing legislation in 1980 requiring employers leaving underfunded plans to pay a share of the plans' promised but unfunded benefits. The fear of being hit with a huge withdrawal liability bill has unquestionably discouraged new employers from joining underfunded plans.

And employers and unions certainly are to blame by not keeping the lid on benefit increases.

Still, it is not too late for action. We would hope, as a good first step, that lawmakers pass legislation that would allow the design of new multiemployer plans that would, among other things, always be adequately funded.