ROGER KIMBALL: Data points from the Windy City. Including this one: “The Illinois State pension fund is $44 billion in debt. That’s the worst in the country.”

The problem of underfunded public pensions will make Fannie and Freddie look like small potatoes.

UPDATE: On underfunded public pensions, reader Dart Montgomery writes:

Is it time to substitute ‘over generous’ or ‘way above private sector’ or ‘unrealistic’ for ‘underfunded’? Or do we have to wait for governments to actually file bankruptcy before we can use those terms?

The press, at least, will wait at least that long . . . .

And reader George Anthony writes: “Why is it that no one is asking Obama, Dodd, etc. to return the campaign contributions they got from Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac?. Granted, its a drop in the bucket but if we taxpayers are being asked to kick in billions, the least they could do is return their ill-gotten gains. But I guess that might seen as if they were admitting they made a mistake (something Democrats never do) in supporting the sub-prime lending idiocy.”