Detroit becomes Central Falls.
Can you say “bailout”? (h/t reader Thomas)
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If any one thing needs to be made absolutely clear right now, it is that cities and states who over-paid and over-promised benefits and over-spent their tax revenues should not expect a bailout from the federal government.
In order to straighten out the fiscal mess we are in, we will need to lay off many thousands of federal employees and close many offices, even whole departments. There will be pain. It will take time to recover from it. But the only alternative is our own default and bankruptcy.
So, don’t call Uncle Sam for help for your past follies. There is no “rainy day fund.” You spent that money on the ongoing party for the last half a century.
Can you say, “NO!” There will be no bailout of either states or municipalities/counties. Had Dem’s retained control of both the House and Senate with 2/3rds majorities, it would have been possible to ram through, yet another bailout…but those days are gone.
No politician in Congress, who is up for reelection next year would be vote for it…
Rich Vail
Pikesville, Maryland
The Vail Spot dot blogspot dot Com
“No politician in Congress, who is up for reelection next year would be vote for it”
True, Rich, but somehow I think Bambi et at. will find a way to shovel our hard-earned cash (stolen from us by the feds) to their buddies. 🙁
This is a great read…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577040373463191222.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Detroit is my hometown, but I was forced to leave it in the late 1970s due to my addiction to food and shelter. Detroit has been All Democrat All The Time since the early 1960s, with the two decade Coleman Young mayorship from 1974-1994 doing most of the socialist/liberal damage. Detroit used to be such a tough, proud, productive city, but is now reduced to rubble, literally and spiritually. What little remains there stands like an entitled pouting child, whining, palms out and begging the state and federal capitals for OPM*.
[*Other Peoples’ Money]
My wife is from Metro-Detroit. I lived there for two, financially disasterous years (2002-2004) before we moved to Maryland. I was unemployed for 16 months of that, and my wife was for 12…we had to borrow money from our schul in order to move…
Watching the city flow down the tubes at an ever inreasing rate has been entertaining…
Addendum: If America wants to see the end result of its current overtax, overborrow, and overspend trajectory, look no further than Detroit, Michigan. It is a valid microcosm.
For many years now, the union rank and file have stood solidly behind all the union bosses as they conducted their business as darn near bona fide mobsters. Now, when they find their pensioin funds are not viable, how much longer will they give their staunch support to the union bosses?
We all need to start the mantra now: No bailout for California, No bailout for American Cities!
Isn’t it interesting that the same overspending has now created a situation where the Feds can’t possibly bail out the cities. Thank God the House is Republican otherwise I have no doubt the Feds would start borrowing money for the coming bailouts.
“The problem with socialists is they eventually run out of other peoples’ money.”
I do believe that was, yes, Thatcher.
How about
In the coniferous era we were promised prosperity for all,
By robbing selective Peters to pay the collective Paul,
But though we had plenty of money, there was nothing out money could buy,
And the Gods if the Copybook Heading said, “If you do not work, you die.”
Kipling, anyone?
And lets finish this “History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Twain
I still live in Detroit (well, technically, its surrounding suburbs)–hence the nickname–and while I would like nothing more than to see the city return to gleaming-metropolis status, it is as Henry Hawkins said. I give Dave Bing credit for doing what he can–culling the disastrous Detroit Public Schools system, shutting down schools and firing teachers, among other things, and all this in spite of being a Democrat–but some jobs are too big for one man to handle. Turning Detroit around would require an entirely new administration from the ground up.
A “bright” side, if it could be called such, is that with the erosion of the automotive industry, the auto unions are losing clout in the area.
Unfortunately, the populace is so devastated that it would take a dozen brave, large companies (and some much easier business restrictions) to really begin to revitalize the area. The race riots in the ’60s were almost twenty years before I was born, but it’s obvious even to me that forty years on they’ve only made the problems worse, not better.