Free Republic

As the new Congress convenes, budget cutters are eyeing Medicare, citing forecasts the program for seniors is running out of money. But federal bean counters have erroneously predicted Medicare’s bankruptcy for decades. One reason: They don’t consider medical breakthroughs. Another problem is medical ethicists like Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who insist the elderly are a burden and that resources would be better spent on the young. The facts prove otherwise. New medical findings give plenty of reason for optimism about the cost of caring for the elderly. Medicare spending on end-of-life care is dropping rapidly, down from 19 percent to 13...

With temperatures hovering around zero across Maine on Friday, people in Somerset County checking on propane prices may have been greeted with a political message from one dealer. If you voted for Donald Trump for president, I will no longer be delivering your gas,” says a voicemail message at Turner LP Gas in Skowhegan. “Please find someone else.” The company is owned by Michael Turner, who didn’t immediately respond to a message on Friday. But he could be turning away a lot of business, given that the Republican president-elect won Somerset County with 58 percent of votes. Some cases like...

After losing a lawsuit and facing a $7.8 million dollar judgment, Service Employees International Union Texas, alias SEIU District Five, has declared bankruptcy in order to escape the judgment. The plaintiff is going after the national union, as it should, so stand by lots more court appeals, But so far, the SEIU is losing at every step. Bill McMorris has an excellent account of the case and its background, at the Free Beacon. I recommend it. The bare bones of the story of this case paint a picture of a thuggish organization, in my opinion. It expanded into Texas by...

The mayor of Dallas uses the word “bankruptcy,” and the New York Times and Wall Street Journal swoop in to report on the city’s imminent doom. The mayor of Houston holds a press conference to declare the pension problem solved, and folks just go along with it. The truth is that the two cities are in equally dreadful trouble, headed for bankruptcy, as are Fort Worth and El Paso, thanks to delusional forecasting, ludicrous system design, and meddlesome union-funded lawmakers from across the state who’ve stripped big-city voters of their right to govern their own finances. How mismanaged are these...

DALLAS — Picture the next major American city to go bankrupt. What springs to mind? Probably not the swagger and sprawl of Dallas. But there was Dallas’s mayor, Michael S. Rawlings, testifying this month to a state oversight board that his city appeared to be “walking into the fan blades” of municipal bankruptcy. “It is horribly ironic,” he said. Indeed. Dallas has the fastest economic growth of the nation’s 13 largest cities. Its streets hum with supersize cars and its skyline bristles with cranes. Its mayor is a former chief executive of Pizza Hut. Hundreds of multinational corporations have chosen...

Back in the summer of 2012 the City of Los Angeles realized that they had a serious budget problem on their hands and the culprit, as in so many other cities, was the city’s extremely generous pension plan for municipal workers. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, backed by the city council, jumped into the fray and passed what was then described as sweeping pension reform and patted themselves on the back for a job well done. (LA Times, 2012) Despite a raucous protest and threats of a lawsuit from city labor unions, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to roll...

Fewer and fewer oil exploration and production companies are declaring bankruptcy. But more oilfield service companies are. So far this month, only one North American E&P firm filed for Chapter 11 protection, according to data released on Tuesday by the Dallas law firm Haynes & Boone. That’s down from two in September, three in August and four in July. But it’s been an especially tough few months for service companies. As crude prices began crashing in 2014, drillers started idling rigs. That led to fewer jobs for the companies that make their money helping producers pump oil and gas. Moreover,...

On Monday October 3, 2016 America's national debt hit the staggering total combined amount of $19.64 trillion. Since President Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated into office a little less than eight years ago, the democrats, and a few spineless republican "leaders" in congress have increased the total combined national debt by more than $9 trillion: Date                 Debt Held by the Public         Intragovernmental Holdings   Total Public Debt Outstanding 01/20/2009       6,307,310,739,681.66           4,319,566,309,231.42              10,626,877,048,913.08 10/03/2016       14,169,562,468,883.59         5,473,387,273,677.92 ...

On October 3, Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which owns Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, filed for bankruptcy. The company, owned by private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners, said it will close 20 to 30 of its 124 locations and put itself up for sale. On September 30, Restaurants Acquisitions, the operator of Black-eyed Pea and Dixie House restaurant chains, converted its Chapter 11 filing to Chapter 7 liquidation. The bankruptcy court order noted the company had shuttered its restaurants and management had resigned. On September 29, Cosi Inc., a fast-casual chain with 1,100 employees filed for bankruptcy. It closed 29 of its...

A panel assembled by Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Responsibility will discuss reforms to the emergency manager law. Any attempt to change this law ought to first understand its purpose. This law is meant to be used as a last step in a long series of attempts to ensure that Michigan’s local governments can pay their bills. Michigan local governments are creations of the state. The state defines their authority and writes the rules under which they operate. One rule is this: All local governments must be able to pay what they owe. The state has...

Moody's analysts say Sears and Kmart don't have enough money — or access to money — to stay in business. In a note published Wednesday, the analysts downgraded Sears' liquidity rating, saying the company is bleeding cash and will have to continue to rely on outside funding or the sale of assets, such as real estate, to sustain operations. "We recognize the risks associated with relying on these sources and continued shareholder support to finance its negative operating cash flow which is estimated by Moody's to be approximately $1.5 billion this year," the analysts wrote. Kmart in particular is...

The roads in Illinois are in decay. This may be the first state to go bankrupt. The question is not if, but when. State unions are so greedy that they are destroying the very state. This is exactly how Rome fell — government employees against the people. Seven states have constitutional provisions that state employee pensions must come BEFORE everything, including debt payments. Since the legislature in New Jersey was Democrat, they fought Governor Christie on pension reform. Their solution? On the ballot in November, there will be a provision to amend the state Constitution to put employee pensions before...

Minnesota's crop, livestock and dairy farmers are suffering with continuing rock bottom prices for their commodities, driving some into bankruptcy. John Quaal, 71, operates a dairy farm near Fergus Falls and tells Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/2b5RcoD ) that it's nearly impossible to break even producing milk. "For almost two years now we've been going backwards," said Quaal. "You've got to learn to deal with it I guess. It's just the way it is." Quaal said his farm has lost as much as $40,000 in a single month and figures the family operation lost a total of $300,000 last year....

Owes millions to part owner Tencent, according to filings Fireforge, the California developer responsible for the recent Ghostbusters tie-in game, has filed for bankruptcy, owing debts of over $12 million according to papers associated with the case. The firm originally filed for voluntary chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 15, but further filings were completed on July 29. According to documents seen by Kotaku, Fireforge owed considerable amounts of money to several parties, but the majority of its debt, believed to have been accrued prior to the development of Ghostbusters, is owed to partial owner Tencent, which controls 37% of the...

Logan's Roadhouse restaurant chain has filed for bankruptcy. The filing was made Monday with U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. The plan, according to the company is "designed to restructure the company's balance sheet" while providing it with the "capital needed to turnaround operations." The Nashville, Tennessee-based steakhouse chain best known for its western flair and peanuts on the floor will close 18 restaurants as part of its restructuring. The chain operates 250 locations nationwide, including 23 in Alabama....

<p>Deficits and unfunded pension liabilities as far as the eye can see. Seated in his office here, wearing neither a necktie nor a frown, Republican governor Bruce Rauner is remarkably relaxed for someone at the epicenter of a crisis now in its second year and with no end in sight. But, then, stress is pointless when the situation is hopeless. Besides, if you can ignore the fact that self-government is failing in the nation’s fifth-most populous state, you can see real artistry in the self-dealing by the Democrats who, with veto-proof majorities in the state legislature, have reduced this state they control to insolvency.</p>

Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service | Komando.com http://www.komando.com/happening-now/368529/top-story-mobile-provider-is-locking-u-s-soldiers-out-of-their-phone-service?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=notd&utm_content=2016-08-05-article-title August 5, 2016 Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service By Mark Jones, Komando.com Top Story: Mobile provider is locking U.S. soldiers out of their phone service Life in the United States military can be tough. Your life can be put in danger at any moment, whether you are in a war zone, or simply patrolling a U.S. base. It's stressful for you, your family and everyone who cares about you. Having access to reliable phone service is...

New York's famous Plaza Hotel is set to go on sale in an auction next month and experts believe that the five-star hotel could sell for more than $1billion. Billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben hold the mortgage for the storied five-star hotel and scheduled a foreclosure auction for April 26. The auction was prompted after the hotel's 75 per cent owner Sahara India Pariwar — whose chairman went to prison in 2014 for defrauding investors — defaulted on loan agreements... < snip > Foreign investors are pouring capital into New York hotels at a historic rate. Much of the...

Germany’s largest lender is set to shut over a quarter of its branches across the country as the company goes through a major restructuring process. The closures are set to take place over the next few months, with 188 of Deutsche Bank’s 723 branches nationwide due to close their doors. […] After recording colossal losses of around €7 billion in 2015, the Frankfurt lender is desperately seeking ways to cut costs. […] The bank said it hopes to redirect funds to digital banking, in which it hopes to invest €750 million by 2020. …

In a blow to General Motors Co (GM.N), a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed part of a bankruptcy court ruling that protected the automaker from some lawsuits over an ignition switch defect that prompted the recall of 2.6 million vehicles in 2014. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said barring plaintiffs from suing the automaker over crashes and lost vehicle value stemming from the faulty switch would violate their constitutional rights to due process, since they had not been notified of the defect prior to GM's 2009 bankruptcy. The ruling effectively rebuffs GM's attempts to shield...