Posted on 04/25/2020 11:00:41 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Mitch McConnell believes he has hit upon a solution for states that are upside-down on their pension obligations and other financial commitments: “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he told Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday. “It’s saved some cities, and there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”
There are a couple of good reasons for denying the states bankruptcy protection. One is the fact that there is no such thing as state-bankruptcy law in the United States. A second reason, related to the first, is the Constitution.
In the United States, we have a bankruptcy law for individuals, another one for businesses, and yet another one for municipalities and their subordinate agencies. We do not have a bankruptcy law for the states or for the federal government, for the same reason: They are sovereigns.
The several states are not administrative subdivisions of the federal government. They are powers in their own right, superseded by the U.S. government only in certain matters that involve more than one state: Washington can declare war or write immigration law, but it cannot tell Austin how to run the Texas Rangers or Sacramento how to prioritize its finances.
Because bankruptcy law is federal law, putting states into bankruptcy reorganization would upend our basic constitutional arrangement, making state governments answerable to federal bankruptcy judges and, behind them, to Congress. The people in Illinois are, for their sins, represented by the elected officials of Illinois in matters pertaining to Illinois.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
What we need is a limitation on voting rights. No one should vote who isn’t paying taxes or in some way has ‘skin in the game.’ People who want to vote themselves benefits with other people’s money shouldn’t have a say.
Alternatively, these states should have to put every program on the ballot & let voters decide if they want to fund them. We’d see a lot of nonsense spending dropped if that happened.
So you feel that someone who worked all their life in a government job and has a state pension should suddenly be made penniless through no fault of their own? I will be the first to say that states went way too far in what they promised in the way of pensions, and I think pensions for new hires and those with at least 10 years to go before retirement should be drastically reformed. But for many people already retired or close to it, they have had both Social Security and state retirement contributions taken from their pay, leaving them with little to invest on their own, and they rely now rely on that pension to live.
Yes I recall learning about that case. I don’t recall the name of it either.
However, that case mandated that state senate seats be apportioned according to population, just as the state legislature or state House of Representatives were apportioned.
Before that case, some states mirrored the federal system, by having each county or other designated geographic areas within a state, have the same number of state senators, regardless of population of those counties.
The economic fallout will be dire. Blue state people are moving as is to red areas. This will simply speed up the progress. Migration will destroy any hope of a R ever holding office again as President.
Just tax the dang overpromised pensions. Enough to make the numbers work. When has a democrat ever denied an inalienable right to tax any dang thing they’d wanted to tax.
Yes that’s right!
Wow! That would certainly have a beneficial effect on the Electoral College.
It will never happen, but just thinking about it warms my heart.
bookmark
There are cities near Los Angeles that have filed for bankruptcy because of the huge pension payouts. Right now there are hundreds being paid 6 figure pensions with the number going up and up.
“I just wish for more integrity in the state governments.”
The only integrity needs to be backed by penalties to the so-called leaders to include jail time, loss of savings, job, etc. No more federal employee unions, ever—outlawed! If leadership misses metrics, they can be disciplined, severely. The partial to total collapse of this country offers some possibilities to correct all the wrongs foisted on us by both parties for so long. They want to serve? Then serve at minimal pay. No retirement, no special medical, term limits, no PACs, etc. A felony? Cannot “serve”, ever! And on and on.
Seems to me I remember reading some years ago, in an article about debt, the state of Georgia or maybe ot was Alabama iirc, is still prohibited to this day from floating any bond issues in the City of London. I don’t know how customary this is today or whether it is a factor, but.
They defaulted on loans made in the 1870s or somesuch. Bankers and insurance co. have long memories. They want their money back.
Some return to judeo-Christian moral values would help too. These used to be considered core to A successful life and society. But when folks leave churches they often are left without any moral footing.
Federal government employee unions can be done away with by revoking JFK’s EO allowing them. State\county\municipal employee unions will need likely need state legislation to end them. First step would a 50 state right-towork law.
bankruptcy is fine and dandy but unless there are defined, actual cut backs in govt including closing silly departments and laying off govt employees is all moot......
Direct election of Senators.
A lesser known debacle was the “one man one vote” SCOTUS decision.
In the 1960s or early 1970s. Prior to that, States had a similar arrangement with their counties as the states do with the Electoral College.
The idea of course, was that a few large cities in a single state could not dominate the rural, lesser populated counties, there was a balance.
SELL your State and Municipal bonds and put your savings somewhere else
Should go back to that!
Elections nowadays is finding the prom king\queen.
They don’t want any incentive to manage budgets properly. They want the Federal government to bail them out, albeit the Federal government hasn’t passed a budget in what, 10 years? 15? They call them “spending packages” and “continuing resolutions” and “stimulus bills” but they don’t actually pass a budget. I’m not sure this is even reported in the press.
Don’t ever hear anything about “balance of trade” anymore either. It went negative in the 1970s and has cratered ever since. So in effect the US borrows money from say, Japan, or China, and then gives it to say, Ukraine, or India. With a few politicians along the way who get kickbacks. You know who. Guess who is on the hook to pay it back though?
None of the “expert economists” deign to explain how borrowing money from China, and then buying their manufactured goods with that money, is “sustainable”. We hear a lot about “sustainability” in articles about “the environment”, though curiously hardly ever about our nation’s economy and spending.
Why not? We are going to be forced to bail out the Federal governments debt.
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