Another $1.5 Trillion in Unfunded Liabilities: Local and State Pensions

Alexander Hamilton: The future prosperity of this nation rests chiefly in trade. Trade depends, among other things, on the willingness of other nations to lend us money.

Thomas Jefferson: And how would you propose to establish international credit?

Alexander Hamilton: Our first step would be to incur a national debt. The greater the debt, the greater the credit. And to that end I have recommended to the president that Congress adopt all the debts incurred by the individual states during the war through a national bank. The idea being that if the states owe Congress money, then other nations will feel more inclined to lend it to us.

Thomas Jefferson: If the states are indebted to a central authority, it increases the power of the central government.

Alexander Hamilton: There you have it exactly. The greater the government's responsibility, the greater its authority.

Thomas Jefferson: The moneyed interest in this country is all in the north, so the wealth and power would inevitably be concentrated there in a federal government. To the expense of the south.

Alexander Hamilton: If that is the case, it is unavoidable if the Union is to be preserved.

Thomas Jefferson: I fear our revolution will have been in vain if a Virginia farmer is to be held in hock to a New York stock jobber, who in turn is in hock to a London banker. The opportunities for avarice and corruption would certainly prove irresistible.


The previous dialog is from the 2008 John Adams miniseries. Consider it for a few minutes, and then consider the news today that local and state governments now hold $1.5 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities.

The Washington Post writes: The pension funds for state and local workers in the United States are understating the amount they will owe workers by $1.5 trillion or more, according to some economists who have studied the issue, meaning that the benefits are much costlier than many governments and taxpayers thought.

These public service unions with their pensions are putting many states into the position where they are begging for bailouts, and where are these bailouts coming from? The federal government borrowing money from foreign sources.

What did the great anti-federalist (Constitutional Conservative Republican) Jefferson tell Hamilton, man who pushed for bigger central government?

If the states are indebted to a central authority, it increases the power of the central government.

Have any doubt this was by plan?