When GM went bankrupt, were the bond-holders protected?
If State’s bankruptcy ever seems like it makes sense, reflect for a moment on who will divide the spoils.
Oh come on, “Education” and police services aren’t the place to start. Get rid of the programs that aren’t part and parcel of a state’s constitutional obligations.
And besides, why talk about “programs” first? Start with employment, benefits, raises, pensions. Cut marginal performers and under performers first. Who would miss them. Cut or freeze benefits and compensation, especially pensions. Tough toenails if it “hurts” some government employees. They’ve enjoyed way too much compensation/benefits vis a vis their private counterparts, and way too much job security as well. Time to shake the trees.
I would say that allowing a state to absolve itself of debt is too much of a tyranny.
The executive branch can dissolve a union. If they do not want to do that, they can force more concessions in court by demonstrating that the unions are not bargaining “in good faith”, just like the unions do to them.
Complete BS article, presuming that the current massive spending is all necessary.
The citizens of those states (and this country) have collectively chosen poorly and now must deal with their failure.
States like California should be forced (allowed) to resolve their own problems. Some will foolishly do anything they can to maintain spending and enter into a death spiral, others will cut spending and in doing so provide an example for others.
And the citizens of the states that have chosen wisely will reap the rewards either way.
Only Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are protected against BK - everyone else is on their own.
Dick Morris sounds like the Big Government guy he has always been.
We need to force the politicians to cut expenses and if the politicians start playing games as to which expenses are cut, then the voters need to clean house and put in a new slate of officers who will do the job right.
The scorecard now reads Morris and Gingrich as big advocates of big government. Who else is going to join the “shunned by conservatives” list?:
bankruptcy is meaningless for a state.
they can simply renounce their debt.
nobody can do anything to the state.
State bankruptcy throws off the shackles for demanding responsible fiscal behavior for the states. Just as many individuals will be irresponsible, so will states - already California and Illinois, along with others, have been irresponsible without a promise of bankruptcy. And think about the Federal government mandates to the states where Federal spending can be off-loaded down to the state level and eliminated like a flush of the toilet through state bankruptcy.
Finally, worst of all, this is another ruse whereby wealth can be redistributed to Federal liking. Think of all the pension funds and investors in GM who lost money when the Federal government swiped their equity and gave it to the UAW and the US government. The same kind of entities, companies and individuals invest in obligations of states as well. Bankrupcy courts could just cancel those obligations and transfer that wealth back to the states, or holders of state obligations that those in power like better.
State bankrupty is not just a horrible and atrocious idea, it is raw evil at work.
Or, you know, the states could sell off assets!
Why are we discussing the bankruptcy of states when those states own a lot of property that could be sold before they have nothing left?
More of the idiotic group-think from the usual suspects.
People tend to get the government they deserve.
Give me a break. Nanny government won't be able to pay for it, so you'll go through life ignorant and uneducated?
Given the state of education institutions in this country, this option might not be all that bad.
Give me a break. Nanny government won't be able to pay for it, so you'll go through life ignorant and uneducated?
Given the state of education institutions in this country, this option might not be all that bad.
“The city has closed half of its schools and will soon close two-thirds. Class size in high school will average 62 children. But the teachers will get every dime of their bonuses, pay and pensions. The union will even continue to control health insurance, providing it to its members at a markup one-third above that of private health insurance — paid by the taxpayer.”
I like ole Dick Morris and I hope the Feds enable, through appropriate legislation, bankruptcy for states and cities. That said, ole Dick is engaging in some hyperbole here. As every experienced businessman knows, “when a businessman’s business (the states/cities in this case) runs out of money, bankruptcy is a total waste of time and attorneys fees”. Just shut off the phones, faxes and email and move out of your offices with NO forwarding address and go start up another business!
Only about 3 out of every 100 creditors will EVER catch up to you and you settle with them...........over time, indeed “a long time”. That is the brutal truth about a “failed” business. The “pain” is spread out over all those unfortunate enough to have gotten sucked in.
Judges ordered Pritchard, Alabama City officials to pay up under threat of contempt of court..........the “officials”, sitting on over-drawn checking accounts, just laughed at them and said “with what”................
Along about that time, a union employee looking in the mailbox for his pension check, and who was only in his fifties, killed himself. He will be forgotten and the politicians and their union thug buddies will continue lying to their minions until the money just simply isn’t there. Then what? I don’t know but I have been around long enough to remember the Marines in Los Angeles and the Army in Detroit. Both under heavy gun fire and buildings burning and scores dead.
If he is correct about this, the middle class has to look to itself as the reason the government keeps growing.
How many of the functions of government (state and federal) do you support that have no constitutional basis?
You can take it a step further and ask yourself whether those functions are violations of someone's property rights or would be more efficiently done by someone in the private sector.