Ignore Quinn's payroll robbery stunt--the real ILL-inois pension reform roadblock is Big Labor

It was 448 days ago when Illinois' hapless governor, Pat Quinn, said he was "put on earth" to fix Illinois' underfunded public pension system. Now it's the General Assembly's fault, so the Chicago Democrat says the state won't pay the legislators until they come up with a way to repair the $100 billion pension deficit.

It's a stunt, and probably an illegal one. Quinn won't be collecting his paycheck either, but will he stop using a private jet to commute to Springfield from Chicago? Will Quinn cancel the paychecks of his lieutenant governor?

And will Quinn forego accepting campaign contributions from public-sector employee unions? That spigot has been shut off of late, but Quinn, as I exclusively reported in 2011, raked in over $5 million in campaign contributions from public-sector unions for his successful 2010 election effort.

Public-sector unions are the primary roadblock to pension reform. These labor groups--and the Democratic politicians they buy off with campaign cash and boots-on-the-ground--are the reason deep-blue Illinois refuses to seriously address pension reform.

It's that simple.

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