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Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!
Posted by:
RomneyCare!
()
Date: July 23, 2013 10:32AM
Just before Detroit became the largest municipality to ever file bankruptcy, the failed city’s emergency manager, Kevin Orr, pleaded with top White House officials, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, for help.
But no help was coming.
That detail in the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of how the once-great city, now $11 billion in debt, finally succumbed may be the most telling of any in the slew of obituaries for Detroit.
For all of the invective launched by President Obama and his campaign against challenger Mitt Romney last year for having argued for structured bankruptcy for the city’s Big Three automakers, in the end, the most liberal, most pro-union president since LBJ opted to take Romney’s advice when it came to the city itself.
Detroit has been teetering on the brink for years. Its huge debt is mostly from unfunded employee benefit programs, constituting some $9 billion of the total. Those pensions and bennies were negotiated in fatter days for government worker unions there, but the contracts stayed in place long after the collapse of the Big Three’s superpower status made such self-dealing for government workers and the Democrats they patronized unsustainable.
Having seen the flight of taxpayers accelerate as the economy worsened and city services and safety declined, there’s no reason to believe that Detroit will ever be able to pay anything but pennies on the dollar to those who have bought its bonds and only slightly more to those unionized retirees.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/19/obama-takes-romneys-advice-on-detroit/#ixzz2ZsZMQPOy
But no help was coming.
That detail in the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of how the once-great city, now $11 billion in debt, finally succumbed may be the most telling of any in the slew of obituaries for Detroit.
For all of the invective launched by President Obama and his campaign against challenger Mitt Romney last year for having argued for structured bankruptcy for the city’s Big Three automakers, in the end, the most liberal, most pro-union president since LBJ opted to take Romney’s advice when it came to the city itself.
Detroit has been teetering on the brink for years. Its huge debt is mostly from unfunded employee benefit programs, constituting some $9 billion of the total. Those pensions and bennies were negotiated in fatter days for government worker unions there, but the contracts stayed in place long after the collapse of the Big Three’s superpower status made such self-dealing for government workers and the Democrats they patronized unsustainable.
Having seen the flight of taxpayers accelerate as the economy worsened and city services and safety declined, there’s no reason to believe that Detroit will ever be able to pay anything but pennies on the dollar to those who have bought its bonds and only slightly more to those unionized retirees.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/19/obama-takes-romneys-advice-on-detroit/#ixzz2ZsZMQPOy
Re: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!
Posted by:
Wayne Fontes
()
Date: August 06, 2013 12:36PM
This is the right thing to do. I saw this coming along time ago.
Re: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!
Posted by:
Gravis
()
Date: August 06, 2013 03:11PM
it's a harsh lesson that needs to be learned. if you are irresponsible, you will have to face the consequences, no matter who you are. i just wish the banks had to learn this too.
there are several cities in the area that are headed in the same direction and have been looking closely because if they dont do something, they are going to end up the same way. maybe, just maybe, watching detroit outright fail will force those cities to make responsible decisions to rectify their mistakes.
then again, maybe we should invest in building a robocop. ;)
"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."
there are several cities in the area that are headed in the same direction and have been looking closely because if they dont do something, they are going to end up the same way. maybe, just maybe, watching detroit outright fail will force those cities to make responsible decisions to rectify their mistakes.
then again, maybe we should invest in building a robocop. ;)
"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."