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We Have to Step In and Save Detroit
New York Times ^ | July 19, 2013 | STEVEN RATTNER

Posted on 07/20/2013 12:46:04 PM PDT by reaganaut1

...

But while Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has capably overseen Detroit’s march to Chapter 9, neither the state nor the federal government has evinced any inclination to provide meaningful financial assistance.

That’s a mistake. No one likes bailouts or the prospect of rewarding Detroit’s historic fiscal mismanagement. But apart from voting in elections, the 700,000 remaining residents of the Motor City are no more responsible for Detroit’s problems than were the victims of Hurricane Sandy for theirs, and eventually Congress decided to help them.

America is just as much about aiding those less fortunate as it is about personal responsibility. Government does this in so many ways; why shouldn’t it help Detroit rebuild itself?

Many call for scaling back the city to fit realistic population projections. While logical, the potential for downsizing Detroit is limited because the city’s population didn’t flee from just one neighborhood; the departures were scattered, requiring Detroit to deliver services across a geographic area the size of Philadelphia, with less than half the population. Further cuts will surely come, but in some key areas, like public safety and blight removal, Detroit needs to spend more, not less.

That necessitates large-scale reductions in its liabilities, which total as much as $18 billion. By comparison, the country’s second largest municipal bankruptcy — that of Jefferson County, Ala., which is slightly smaller than Detroit in population — involves $4 billion of liabilities.

Detroit faces greater challenges than the automakers because the structure of its obligations is quite different from those of General Motors and Chrysler.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: chapter9; detroit; michigan; rattner; rosemaryaquillina
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To: reaganaut1

apart from voting in elections, the 700,000 remaining residents of the Motor City are no more responsible for Detroit’s problems

Why “apart from voting”?

Seems to me that’s how they got IN this mess.


21 posted on 07/20/2013 12:57:52 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Revolting cat!

I saw that Detroit, with a population of 700,000, has 10,000 city workers on the payroll. I ain’t no genius but I bet you could trim just a few of them.


22 posted on 07/20/2013 12:58:05 PM PDT by shelterguy
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To: reaganaut1

23 posted on 07/20/2013 12:58:19 PM PDT by 4Liberty (Some on our "Roads & Bridges" head to the beach. Others head to their offices, farms, libraries....)
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To: willywill
Absolutely not, if we help that flea bitter Rat infested hell hole of Detroit, then every other Rat infested Union nest, will be at the door with their hat in in their hand. Let the people that caused the problem deal with it.
24 posted on 07/20/2013 12:58:33 PM PDT by BooBoo1000 (Behind every successful man is and amazed Mother In Law.)
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To: reaganaut1

We have two choices.

Either we let democrats “fix” it or conservatives come up with real free market solutions.

Those are the only legitimate choices because Detroit is barely a pimple compared to what lies just over the horizon and we better have workable solutions when it comes.


25 posted on 07/20/2013 12:59:21 PM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: reaganaut1

No Mr. Rattner, we need to step in and save our country from the liberal policies that are ruining us.


26 posted on 07/20/2013 12:59:24 PM PDT by dowcaet
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To: reaganaut1
the 700,000 remaining residents of the Motor City are no more responsible for Detroit’s problems than were the victims of Hurricane Sandy for theirs,

Really? Detroit's politicians are appointed and not elected?

(Detroit's final Republican mayor left office 51 years ago, when Detroit was still a great place to live and work. Then, after just 5 years with Dems in control, the Race Riots took place. Since then, the white population of the city went from 1.1 million to 55,000 today. Purely coincidental, and has NOTHING to do with voting, political choices, city laws, city taxes or anything else. It was an act of God, like Hurricane Sandy, and you can NOT blame anyone, especially anyone with a slightly higher melanin content in their skin. Heaven forfend!!)

27 posted on 07/20/2013 12:59:26 PM PDT by Teacher317
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To: reaganaut1

No we don’t Steve. Detroit is a rat-infested hell-hole.

Your very own NYC is due soon. CWII couldn’t happen soon enough. It seems that all the rat infested hell-holes of the north have messed their bed and must now lie in it.


28 posted on 07/20/2013 1:00:11 PM PDT by eyedigress ((zOld storm chaser from the west)/ ?s)
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To: reaganaut1

Don’t worry Detroit, the Congress will add a earmark to the amnesty bill giving you all the money you need to pay those union pensions.


29 posted on 07/20/2013 1:00:44 PM PDT by AmusedBystander (The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next)
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To: eyedigress

Count me (and my money) out. I don’t want to give these feral lawless losers in detroit any help or any thing.


30 posted on 07/20/2013 1:01:16 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: reaganaut1

“But apart from voting in elections” is like asking Molly Todd Lincoln “Other than that, how was the play?”. The voters and unions got what they wanted and killed the golden goose. Detroit can always be useful, as an example of how NOT to manage a city.


31 posted on 07/20/2013 1:02:30 PM PDT by Temujinshordes
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To: reaganaut1

I have one simple reason the NYTimes writer is wrong - the people of Detroit elected the governments that got them where they are today. The people that tried to elect different government in Detroit, and failed, left in frustration. Indirectly, the people left in Detroit ARE responsible - they got the governments they asked for. That’s why everyone else left.

The only way to help them now would be to ask them nothing and impose some solutions on them. Oh gee; that’s what a bankruptcy court is going to do for us. There - mission accomplished.


32 posted on 07/20/2013 1:03:02 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: reaganaut1

Saving Detroit sets the precedent for saving California and Illinois.


33 posted on 07/20/2013 1:04:06 PM PDT by AD from SpringBay (http://jonah2eight.blogspot.com/)
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To: reaganaut1

Why is it every time I hear a liberal say “we have to...” I can feel a hand in my wallet?


34 posted on 07/20/2013 1:06:07 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Justice for Trayvon: Dig up his body and shoot him again.)
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To: reaganaut1

They can just use some of Obama’s money. What would Rattner think if I bought a car and made him pay for it? Why should the rest of the country bail out people who knowingly and consistently voted for crooks? Try to get your neighbors to pay your mortgage. See what they say.


35 posted on 07/20/2013 1:06:08 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: reaganaut1

After reading Rattner’s bio. and since he so firmly believes that Detroit should be bailed out, my suggestion is that Rattner use his millions to bail Detroit out.

Detroit is what happens when you run out of other people’s money to spend, Mr. Rattner! Spend some of yours and save Detroit!


36 posted on 07/20/2013 1:06:26 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: reaganaut1
But apart from voting in elections, the 700,000 remaining residents of the Motor City are no more responsible for Detroit’s problems than were the victims of Hurricane Sandy for theirs, and eventually Congress decided to help them.

STOP RIGHT THERE. "Apart from voting in elections." That is the difference and you CANNOT make an equivalence with hurricane relief by dismissing that pesky little fact.

Furthermore, if you ignore that abysmal electoral choices played a major role in causing the problem, you also miss the fact that abysmal electoral choices will follow during the "recovery."

Does the phrase "throwing good money after bad" ring any bells, Rattner?

37 posted on 07/20/2013 1:06:26 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Unindicted Co-conspirators: The Mainstream Media)
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To: Slyfox
The only things that would "save" Detroit would be for incentives to be put in place to entice about 500,000 taxpayers to move back...

That's what I was going to say, but I was going to call for forced relocation.

The only thing left to save Detroit is for Obama's domestic army to round up people and forcibly relocate them to Detroit. Nobody's going to willingly move there now.

The state should just demolish the empty sections and resize the city boundaries.

-PJ

38 posted on 07/20/2013 1:07:20 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: reaganaut1

Let Detroit return to the earth and name it Liberal National Monument.


39 posted on 07/20/2013 1:07:40 PM PDT by samadams2000 (Someone important make......The Call!)
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To: reaganaut1
America is just as much about aiding those less fortunate as it is about personal responsibility

What sort of feeble-minded scumbag would write something like this?

40 posted on 07/20/2013 1:08:21 PM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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