the legislators did not hold themselves to the same standards because it would have cost too much. They also did not want to cut the pension benefit because it helped attract better employees to the low paying government jobs.

Now we have all of the public pension issues. My brother's father-in-law worked most of his career in management for the city of Detroit and retired with plans to use some of his pension to pay for his grandchildren's college cost. Detroit pension fund went bankrupt, he returned to the workforce at age 70 and does not have a path to retirement anymore - and obviously will have a challenge meeting his promise to the grandkids.

Bad news all of the way around because politicians want to have their cake and eat it too. If you want to cut taxes tell everyone clearly what that means and all of the future impacts. If you want to have an entitlement program, tell people what it will cost and what types of taxes will be required to fund it. If a politician does tell the truth, they will not be reelected because the general public wants to believe in fairy tales when it comes to government services.