My heart sank last week when Congress added $200 billion in debt by passing legislation with broad support from both Republicans and Democrats that expands a financial windfall for retired state and local employees. The bill demonstrates the power that public employee unions have over both parties. That’s because Republicans have long curried favor with police and other public safety unions while Democrats have long curried favor with teachers’ and other government employee unions. The combination is a financial disaster for taxpayers and a service disaster for young people and future generations as can be witnessed in states like California where spending on retired public employees captures ever-larger shares of school and other government budgets. What are we going to do about this problem? I don’t see a way to combat it other than persistent political spending in support of fiscally-prudent lawmakers but maybe you have a better idea or — even better — have a good reason not to worry about ballooning government debt. While I think government debt is the fiscal issue of our time and cutting that debt is a moral obligation of my (the Baby Boomer) generation that has created most of that debt and captured most of its benefits, perhaps I’m unnecessarily alarmed. But if not, then what should we do about it? Thoughts welcome!
