Blue States Drowning In Irretrievable Debt Thanks To ‘Grotesque’ Public Sector Pensions. You’re About To Get Stuck With The Bill

A number of blue states are drowning in “irretrievable” debt, and taxpayers are likely to be on the hook for a looming bailout.

That’s the opinion of Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana, who appeared on Fox Business Network to discuss his recent op-ed published in the Washington Post that highlighted the debt crisis facing Connecticut.

“They’re just one of a number of states, including some of the biggest states, that are in deep water,” Daniels told host Stuart Varney. “I think it is irretrievable. Pensions is the core of it. It’s not the only fiscal recklessness that they have practiced, but in some of those cases, the bill are genuinely unpayable.”

Public pensions “of sometimes grotesque levels,” the Republican wrote in the editorial — which explains the co-dependent relationship that exists between the Democratic Party and public sector unions responsible for these unsustainable pensions.

How grotesque?

“In California, some retired lifeguards are receiving more than $90,000 per year. A retired university president in Oregon received $76,000 per month — and no, that’s not a typo,” Daniels wrote.

Connecticut isn’t alone in state struggling with this burden, with California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York unable to make pension payments to retired government workers, according to Fox Business Network.

In Illinois, for instance, vendors wait months to be paid by a government that’s $30 billion in debt, and one whose bonds are just one notch above junk bond status, according to Daniels. New York’s more than $356 billion in debt; New Jersey more than $104 billion; and California more than $428 billion.

Adding to the problem in many states, Daniels explained to Varney, is that wily pro-union Democrats have encoded pension protections in state constitutions.

“There may be a way in some states to have a reset of the pension obligations,” he said, “although in some places, they’ve actually been constitutionally protected.”

And some folks continue to be surprised why so many Americans voted for Donald Trump, the only non-politician running in 2016?