Government deficits

There was a recent article in the Wall St Journal that discussed the wage differential between public and private jobs. Public employment is currently about 35% higher than comparable priviate employment, when total pay including benefits is factored in. The biggest difference is in the defined benefit pension benefits that is the hallmark of public employment. Private employment has long ridded itself of defined benefit plans in favor of defined contribution plans. This higher pay in public employment is borne out in employee turnover stats. Private employment turnover is three times that in public employment.
More telling is this statistic. If public compensation is brought down to levels of private employment, the savings in tax dollars would wipe out all the goverment deficits in 2008 and 2009. In Ohio, for example, someone can retire from a job at full pay after 30 years, and get rehired into the same job, and now doubles their compensation!