The opinion pages (physical and virtual) today are full of stories about governors, particularly Republican governors. One of the basic themes is the challenges posed in paying for present and past public employees.
In the past I’ve written here in support of the general principle of governors as potential presidential candidates. I’m ready to believe that the most pressing problem in many states is paying for past and present public employees. It’s certainly the case in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois. It’s one of the (many) issues I have with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Not only did he approve a whopping raise for Chicago teachers, already very well compensated and compensated beyond the city’s ability to pay, he has assiduously ignored the city’s single most pressing fiscal problem, the big balloon payment into the city’s public employee pension fund, hanging like a sword of Damocles over the city’s figurative head.
I don’t think the federal government’s most pressing problems are being caused by public employees or their unions. I think they’re caused by decades of bad fiscal, financial, trade, healthcare, economic, monetary, immigration, security, defense, and other policies. No one has had the guts even to start turning the ship around and its running aground.
