We were just reminiscing about the past. A little over a year ago, Mitt Romney said to let Detroit go bankrupt, that a complete financial overhaul of the city, its corrupt practices and restructuring of debt was probably the best route for the beleaguered city. He was speaking as a businessman would with a company that was bleeding money. Remember all the democrats and media making fun of him for actually considering a city the size of Detroit could (or should) fail? Silly Mormon businessman.
In a completely unrelated story, we just heard that following an eleventh hour appeal to the Obama administration, Detroit filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, placing the city residents, its employees, its retirees and its creditors in financial limbo:
- Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history on Thursday, setting the stage for a costly court battle with creditors and opening a new chapter in the long struggle to revive the city that was the cradle of the American auto industry.
The bankruptcy, if approved by a federal judge, would force Detroit's thousands of creditors into negotiations with the city's Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to resolve an estimated $18.5 billion in debt that has crippled Michigan's largest city.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said he saw no other options for Detroit and approved Orr's request to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.
"Detroit simply cannot raise enough revenue to meet its current obligations, and that is a situation that is only projected to get worse absent a bankruptcy filing," wrote Snyder, a Republican, in a letter accompanying the filing.
Detroit's creditors are expected to face huge losses, and the future of retiree pension and health benefits for thousands of city workers hangs in the balance.
- Buried in the middle of the report is a telling climax to this sorry tragedy:
Any hope of a federal bailout to avert bankruptcy fizzled last week after Mr. Orr spoke with the White House, including Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett, according to city and White House officials.This is where blue governance has brought Detroit in the end: not even a liberal Democratic administration will step in to save the pensions of thousands of public workers and African Americans, condemning countless innocents to having their pensions and health benefits gutted in bankruptcy court.
Blue model defenders will point to the cruel exodus of General Motors, the unjust outsourcing of American manufacturing, and the general unfairness of life in the big city as the culprits in the slaying of Detroit. But these champions of the marginalized should keep a few facts in mind.
Detroit has been spending on average $100 million more than it has taken in for each of the past five years. The city’s $11 billion in unsecured debt includes $6 billion in health and other retirement benefits and $3 billion in retiree pensions for its 20,000 city pensioners, who are slated to receive less than 10 percent of what they were promised. Between 2007 and 2011, an astounding 36 percent of residents lived below the poverty line. Last year, the FBI cited Detroit as having the highest violent crime rate for any major American city. In the first 12 years of the new century, Detroit lost more than 26 percent of its population.
And now Detroit’s desperate request for a bailout has been turned down by the Obama White House.
Progressive politicians, wonks, and activists can only blame big corporations and other liberal bogeymen for so long. The truth is that corrupt machine politics in a one-party system devoted to the blue social model wrecked an entire city and thousands of lives beyond repair. The sooner blues come to terms with this reality, the greater chance other cities will have of avoiding Detroit’s fate.But hey, those Republicans are evil sons-of-bitches, aren't they?
Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.
3 comments:
Good job getting Kilpatrick's mug in there. It wasn't just the unions and contracts and size of government. The graft was immense. Between the Kilpatricks and the Conyers families alone ther siphoning of funds from the city was incredible. Imagine the crime bosses, too, and you get staggering sums of money evaporating from the city coffers.
By the way, check out Crowder's latest vid on Detroit. It's very well done. (on his youtube "channel").
Government Pension recipients can save their money and enjoy what's left of social security like the rest of us.
Now we need to gut Congressional pensions. All those A-holes are millionaires and the taxpayer should not have to contribute to supporting these criminals after they leave office.
So $6B of the unfunded liability is for retiree medical benefits. Many of these city workers were devoted civil servants working to keep the city together in spite of the corruption at the top.
Even as a stone-hearted Republican, I could see a compromise where these retirees could get on Medicare even though they probably have never contributed to it. This would take an Act of Congress and would set a bad precedent for other cities. Current employees and the city would have to start paying Medicare payroll taxes immediately.
As a fall-back, they could get Medicaid.
Post a Comment