The annual budgets that most states and the federal government are having so much trouble balancing are a drop in the bucket compared to the problems posed by unfunded long-term debts, especially pensions and health care benefits for public employees.
And that’s a real bucket of woe.
Heritage’s blog this morning notes that “the cause of these crippling pension and benefit obligations is no secret.”
The Washington Post explains: “Public employees often enjoy more generous pension and health-care benefits, and these are at the root of the long-term budget problems confronting many states.”
As everyone knows by now, public employee unions are in a major snit about anyone suggesting that their Cadillac benefits be rolled back to Ford status. Even President Barack Obama couldn’t resist piling on, alleging that the fiscally prudent are attacking unions.
Is this true? Not exactly.
As Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker put it:
“The bill I put forward isn’t aimed at state workers, and it certainly isn’t a battle with unions. If it was, we would have eliminated collective bargaining entirely or we would have gone after the private-sector unions. But, we did not because they are our partners in economic development. We need them to help us put 250,000 people to work in the private sector over the next four years.”
As we point out this morning in our editorial, “Collective bargaining on top of civil-service job protection creates a privileged class. Worse, it empowers public-sector unions to effectively elect their own bosses, making pay and benefit negotiations a farce.”
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A union problem or a public worker union problem? is a post from: Orange Punch
