Taxpayers are going to be digging a lot deeper in order to pay for the lush retirement benefits state and local governments have promised to the  public employee unions, coincidently, also major campaign donors. American Thinker has run several columns of mine warning of the dangers to our nation's fiscal health arising from the rise of a new labor aristocracy - government workers. They often enjoy exceedingly generous salaries along with rock-solid job security.  Retirement packages often allow them early retirement with pensions not just guaranteed by law, but the pensions are often vastly inflated by artificially - and manipulative - spiking of the final years' salaries on which the pension levels are based. Another problem is that the nation's experienced workers are able to retire young - thereby filling the government ranks with inexperienced and incompetent employees. But the worst problem is that they are just bankrupting this nation and our politicians and...(Read Full Post)