Seven states will run out of money to pay public pensions by 2020. That hasn’t stopped them from hiring new employees.
Whatever shall we do? Fear not, my dear. We can always borrow the money to fill up the pension plan . . . er, from our pension plan:
Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders have tentatively agreed to allow the state and municipalities to borrow nearly $6 billion to help them make their required annual payments to the state pension fund.
And, in classic budgetary sleight-of-hand, they will borrow the money to make the payments to the pension fund — from the same pension fund.
If any of the above sounds like a good idea to you, I must congratulate you for getting the quality of government you deserve. This fun fairy tale is par for the course in economically illiterate America. It's certainly fun reading. My highly intellectual regular readers will of course see right through this shell game.
If you're counting on a public pension to be there for you in any significant way, you need to stop counting. Many Americans can't count anyway thanks to those very same public employees teaching in public schools.
