Although I appreciated the observation about cherry-picking studies to confirm a conclusion, in an essay (“Iowa’s War on Government-Worker Unions: Attacking Organized Labor Is Good, Divisive Politics on an Issue That Deserves Better”) devoted to the state’s alleged war on government-worker unions, the choice of an “unbiased view” was flawed. The study you cite by the Congressional Budget Office addresses federal government employees, no?! For the point you are addressing, the firemen, police, prison guards, and to a lesser extent teachers enjoying pensions that are absurdly generous compared to those in the private sector are state and local workers, not federal. Their excessive compensation was, in so many cases, achieved by helping elect politicians who did their bidding. They were incredibly successful and now taxpayers are getting mugged by economic reality. It was the politicians who “played nice” with the public-sector unions. Now that the piper wants to get paid, to think “it is certainly possible that unions wouldn’t play nice” is an understatement. Here in Illinois, we know that painfully well.
Richard Johnston
Monmouth, Illinois
