They write, in part:

State and local governments are getting squeezed ever more tightly and something is going to have to give. They will be forced to cut key services to residents, hit up taxpayers again with higher levies, or curtail pension benefits.

A survey this month by Loop Capital Markets found that only 58 of the 149 state-level pension plans it viewed were funded at 80 percent or more, the standard by which funds are judged to be financially healthy. The median funded ratio for state pension plans fell from 76 percent in 2010 to 73 percent in 2011.

What passed for good news here was that while Loop Capital said the situation was “bad,” it argued it was not “catastrophic.” Not yet anyway. States and local governments could still make up the shortfall.

That’s the most positive spin on the situation. The bipartisan State Budget Crisis Task Force used a colder, more clinical eye in a July report. It found that state and local governments underfunded their pension plans by more than $50 billion between 2007 and 2011. The shortfall will have to be made up.

The task force noted that under current actuarial assumptions the total unfunded liability is $1 trillion, but many economists believe those assumptions are far too generous. The real unfunded liability may be as high as $3 trillion. Why are pensions underfunded in the first place? Because elected officials have overpromised benefits and then failed to fill the coffers.

“California, Illinois, and New Jersey, with 19 percent of the nation’s population, accounted for more than half of the contribution shortfall. Between 1996 and 2011, Illinois underpaid contributions by $28 billion,” the task force report noted.

“That’s the lowest level measured since Jan. 27 and is just two points above 2012′s low.  The Consumer Index is down five points from a week ago, down 12 points from one month ago and down 11 points from three months ago.”

Americans and job creators have no confidence in Barack Obama.  With Mitt Romney now leading in the polls it appears they still see no relief on the horizon.

It’s time to vote Libertarian.

74 percent of adults favor “requiring public employees to contribute more toward their own pensions and health care,” and 24 percent oppose, a new Reason-Rupe survey of Wisconsin finds.

“The Reason-Rupe poll asked Wisconsinites how the state should raise funds to pay government employee retirement benefits if the state did not have enough money to fund these benefits,” Reason reports.

72 percent oppose “increasing sales, income, or property taxes” to help fund government worker retirement benefits, 25 percent favor.

75 percent oppose “cutting spending on government programs, such as education and health care” to help fund public employee retirement benefits, 23 percent favor.

49 percent oppose and 46 percent favor “reducing public employee benefits.”

However, 74 percent favor “requiring public employees to contribute more toward their own pensions and health care,” and 24 percent oppose.

The poll followed by asking “if the state and local government had to reduce spending, which of the following areas would you reduce spending on first?” The plurality of Wisconsinites (38 percent) chose reducing spending on “pensions and benefits for public employees” followed by “prisons and courts” (29 percent).

Root writing for Fox News, states in part:

The truth is that government employees are the true 1%. We have far too many of them (21 million), many of them are paid too much, and their union demands are straining taxpayers to the breaking point…

…I recently talked with a retired New York City toll taker. His salary averaged about $70,000 per year over 20 years. But in his last few years he worked loads of overtime and added in accumulated sick days to get his salary in those final years up to $150,000.

His pension is based on his final years’ salary. This is a common pension-padding ploy.

He bragged that he will now get a taxpayer funded pension of $120,000 a year for the rest of his life. He’s only 50 years old…

…

But here’s a frightening question- what if he lives to 90? Or 100? His pension could rise to $8 million or higher.

Multiply this times 21 million government employees (on the federal, state and local level) and you now get a sense of what is bankrupting America.

Are these stories the exception, rather than the rule? Over 77,000 federal government employees earned more than the governor of their state.

On the federal level, it was just reported by USA Today that the average federal civil servant compensation is $123,049 per year.

The average 50-year old male has a life expectancy of almost 80. With automatic cost of living increases, that’s a bill to taxpayers of $5 million for the next 30 years –for not working. THREE TIMES WHAT HE EARNED WHILE WORKING.

And, of course, we’re also paying his medical bills.

Who did that to you?

Republicans and Democrats.

Want to do something about it?

Support Libertarians.

Go here to learn more about running for office as a Libertarian.

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Another 38 percent think the economy is becoming worse, while 22 percent say it’s staying the same.

Among independent voters the numbers are even grimmer. A whopping 48 percent say the economy is getting worse. Just 30 percent think it is getting better while 19 percent say it is staying the same.

You have the power to change that.

By supporting Libertarian candidates.

The “Libertarian Prosperity Plan” seeks to repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS, enact a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget without tax increases and repeal all corporate welfare programs and bailouts.

The Libertarian Prosperity Plan is rooted in the Libertarian Party platform and bedrock libertarian principles.

Unlike the other parties, we don’t promise tax cuts to just grab enough votes to win and then do nothing.  Elected Libertarians enact tax and spending cuts because it is what we believe in.

The Plan would:

1)    Repeal the income tax: Adopt legislation repealing the income tax and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.  Until the income tax is repealed, adopt legislation preserving the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and enacting across-the-board income tax cuts.

2)    Adopt the Balanced Budget Amendment: Adopt a constitutional amendment requiring the federal budget be balanced, and balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures, not by raising taxes.

3)    Abolish corporate welfare and bailouts: Adopt federal legislation prohibiting any federal spending program that provides payments or unique benefits and advantages to specific companies or industries, terminating programs that provide direct grants to businesses, eliminating programs that provide research and other services for industries and ending programs that provide subsidized loans or insurance to businesses.

Only Libertarians have a plan, that they will follow up on, that frees job creators to begin investing and hiring again and curbs destructive federal spending.

Want to help put it into action?

Go here to learn more about running for office as a Libertarian.

Go here to chip in $10 or more to support Libertarians in winnable races.

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In this new video, Wayne dissects Obama’s fraudulent claims about spending and taxes, tells the truth about government spending, and tells you why only the libertarian solution can stop the damage out-of-control spending is doing to our economy, our nation and your freedoms.

Watch it here.

United Liberty

These facts should stop dead any further pushes to defend and keep public pensions sacrosanct. The left and public unions may get up and toot their own horn, but they can bleat about it until they’re blue in the face: the simple fact is we have no money. Eventually, people are going to get sick of the reductions in service and the hiking of taxes in order to pay for these pensions, and they’re going to come at them with hatchets.

Yet, for some inane reason, public unions cannot recognize this fact. They cannot see ahead even just ten years.

The good times are over. We all need to make cutbacks in order to get through this, and that includes our government. No matter what the left likes to think, reality does not have a liberal bias. It has a libertarian one.

Libertarian National Campaign Committee Chairman Wayne Root has long been speaking out about the need for public pension reform.  It’s an issue that threatens to lead our nation down the same road as Greece, toward riots and flames.

Republicans consistently fail to address the issue.  Democrats won’t touch it.  There’s only one way to save America from bankruptcy and economic collapse — support Libertarian candidates.

Go here to chip in $10 or more to support Libertarian candidates.

Go here to learn more about running for office as a Libertarian.

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“I am a 42 years old father of two. I have been employed in Topeka at AT&T for thirteen years as an Order Support Specialist.

“I am actively involved in the Libertarian Party and was elected to the position of Chairman of the state party in April 2009. The Libertarian Party is attractive to me due to their strong beliefs in fiscal conservatism and civil liberties.

“I was asked to run for the city council by countless people due to these beliefs. I am running for the 8th District City Council position because of the respect that I have for the generations that built this city and because of the deep sense of responsibility I feel to generations which raise their families in Topeka after me.”

He married his wife, Lisa, in 1991. They have two children: Benjamin, 14, and Jason, 11. His hobbies include reading, racquetball, watching old movies, and using computers.

He also is very passionate about the Victory Junction Gang Camp for Special Needs Children in Randleman, NC.

Go here to chip in $10 or more to support Libertarian candidates.

Go here to learn more about running for office as a Libertarian.

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With his significant background in aviation, Beckett is committed to eliminating wasteful spending for the city’s airport terminal building project. He wants to see they city use the resources they have in an efficient and effective manner.