"'I don't think pension benefits are a debt,' said [Richard] Brodsky, a former New York State Assemblyman.... '[A distinction has to be made] between debt and social and legal obligations we have to fill.... Who are you going to hit and who's going to suffer?' [but a stark reality is that] New York City and others face soaring pension, Medicaid and retiree health care costs. Yonkers is teetering. Suffolk County just declared a fiscal emergency. Its Long Island neighbor, Nassau County, is under a fiscal control board."  MORE >>