Tough Love:
It is not helpful to use value-laden verbiage such as "excessive pension generosity." It is not at all clear that the root cause of the underfunded pensions in the U.S. is that they are "overly generous" or "excessive". The root cause, as you know in your heart but probably don't care to admit, is that the proper funding was not put in place, coupled with the worst decade for investment returns in a century (which was mainly the result, again if you would care to admit it, of the lack of ethics in the Wall Street firms that created the 2001 and 2008 financial downturns). Insisting that government should welch on the promises made would only compound the problem by increasing income disparity. I don't know what you were taught growing up, but I was taught that when you make a promise, you keep it. That is what integrity is all about. You don't make a promise and then welch on it when it becomes inconvenient for you.