RUSH: Are you a retired government employee with a pension? Well, the New York Times is reporting on a big problem in places like Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Kentucky, because government employee pension costs are out of control, and you know what that means.

Now these states, and a lot of cities, are having a hard time paying for day-to-day operations and basic services, because they’re paying retirees so much. State run pension plans are far outpacing economic growth, which is really good. It’s not uncommon for plans to pay retirees $100,000 a year and up, for not working, for the rest of their lives.

And take the case of the University of Oregon football coach who was hired in 1995, stayed with the team 13 years. Today he draws $46,000 a month in taxpayer-funded pension benefits. It’s a good deal for him, no doubt.

The upshot, says one government official, is that state governments are no longer trying to do more with less. They’re trying to do less with less. What a concept.

The truth is, if they had decided back then to do with less liberalism, they wouldn’t be forced to do with less money now and pensioners wouldn’t be quaking in their boots over ending up with nothing somewhere down the road.