Illinois lawmaker loses it

[Spike89]

16. When you try and starve government, but still want services...

In Oregon, we're having a pension crisis too. The problem is actually pretty complex, but one of the biggest factors were the small government republican policies of the late 80s, 90s, and of course the 2000s. State worker unions were under incredible pressure to accept lower or stagnant wages once all the "non-essential" positions were cut. There simply wasn't any "fat" left and the politicians had painted themselves into a "no taxes" corner. The solution was to offer better pensions to the unions in return for pay cuts and below cost of living raises.
PERS (the public employee retirement system) was used cynically by politicians as a way to push budget shortfalls to the future. Of course, that money does have to be paid eventually, and eventually is here. Naturally, the public is outraged at the "greedy" public employees now taking their decent pensions--no one really remembers that they are the ones that had to sacrifice salary to earn those pensions.
This is the republican scam that plays out in virtually all of their economic policies. Don't pay today for what must be done, then attack the workers when the bills come due.