Debt: the Shame of cities and states

A century ago, America's states and cities faced a crisis in government. A number of commonwealths -- California, New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Illinois conspicuous -- among them as well as cities across the land labored under the heavy weight of costly and corrupt misrule. This state of affairs was generally blamed on an unholy triple alliance of large corporations (the trusts) and other business interests, party bosses and machines, and compliant legislators and officials. That same crisis faces that nation's states and municipalities again today. The current crisis is the product of sweetheart salary, pension, and health insurance deals secured by public employee unions: the mother's milk of early-21st-century politics. There are signs that a reaction is taking shape comparable in its scale and impact to progressivism but this time aimed at the excesses rather than the insufficiencies of American government. Adapted from the source document.