With all the fiscal problems created by Barack Obama, the public pension crisis cannot be laid at his doorstep.That's because public unions - police, firefighters, teachers, state and local workers, and transit employees - have been gouging cities and states for years, sweetening their pensions at taxpayer expense until a nightmare is now on the horizon; the inability of cities and states to pay for these diamond-studded pension plans.And that will eventually mean a taxpayer bailout to end all taxpayer bailouts.Forget rising federal taxes. The rate of increase that will be necessary to pay for these pensions in the near future will necessitate massive increases in taxes along with massive borrowing. There's just no way around it - unless the union's current defined benefit plans can be renegotiated to reflect reality.That's not likely to happen. What makes these plans so enormously expensive is the early retirement feature and the number of years one must work to be vested, or...(Read Full Post)