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Saturday, April 25th, 2020

McConnell Says He Favors Letting States Declare Bankruptcy

Author:     Steven T. Dennis and William Selway
Source:     Bloomberg
Publication Date:     April 22, 2020, 3:25 PM PDT
 Link: McConnell Says He Favors Letting States Declare Bankruptcy
Stephan:   Mitch McConnell gives voice to the Republican approach to governance.  He says that the Republicans are trying to stop a "Blue state bailout," and most of the media just pass that on without explaining it is a blatant lie. In fact, the Blue states have been underwriting the failure of the Red states for decades. Kentucky, for instance, is the 5th largest recipient of federal aid. That means for every dollar Kentuckians pay into the treasury they take more than a dollar out. Or consider the Republican position about the SNAP food program that they are trying to decimate. Mississippi, more a third world country than a state economically, leads the pack in number of people on SNAP, with Kentucky ranking a slightly less dismal 7th. And yet the people of Kentucky, like the people in Mississippi, vote Republican year after year; essentially voting against their own wellbeing.
Republican Senator and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he favors allowing states struggling with high public employee pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout.

“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he said Wednesday in response to a question on the syndicated Hugh Hewitt radio show. “It’s saved some cities, and there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”

The host cited California, Illinois and Connecticut as states that had given too much to public employee unions, and McConnell said he was reluctant to take on more debt for any rescue.

“You raised yourself the important issue of what states have done, many of them have done to themselves with their pension programs,” he said. “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”

McConnell’s remarks drew a biting response from state and local officials.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 9:25 am

    It is obvious that the time has come to roll back the tax cuts from Trump and add a lot more taxes to those who have more than they can ever spend. I know there are people who make as much money in one hour than I made in my entire life, working so hard that I ended up breaking my back. I believe in equality, not neo-liberalism which allows billionaires to exist.