Taxpayers on the Hook for Public Pensions

From WSJ (July 6, 2009, Andrew Biggs):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683573382697889.html

[E]conomists Robert Novy-Marx and Joshua Rauh calculate that, even prior to the market collapse, public pensions were actually short by nearly $2 trillion. That's nearly $87,000 per plan participant. With employee benefits guaranteed by law and sometimes even by state constitutions, it's likely these gargantuan shortfalls will have to be borne by unsuspecting taxpayers.

Lord, what fools these mortals be.