ALEX POLLOCK: How to Cut Government Pay: All the U.S. has to do is follow Ireland’s example.

Government employees on average have higher pay and bigger benefits than the private-sector employees who support them with taxes. This has become a well known fact.

When private firms run extended losses—spending more money than they take in—their employees must share in the necessary adjustments. But how about when governments spend much more than they take in, running huge and extended deficits? What should happen then? This is something Americans who work in private companies might consider while they file their tax returns over the next week.

See what Ireland did to cut government salaries. Why not here? And if government workers know that proliferating deficits threaten their salaries, you turn them into a lobby for responsible spending . . . .