LEARN FROM MOTORCITY’S ECONOMIC SUICIDE

April 2, 2014 | « back

By: Ted Nugent

Call 911. You are being fleeced and robbed.

Irresponsible Fedzillacrats on both sides of the aisle have systematically put us in the poor house due to maniacal borrowing and unsustainable spending, which ultimately leads to crushing debt and likely inflation.

The national debt stands today at roughly $17.5 trillion and is increasing at roughly $2.5 billion each day. With 310 million people in the country, each of us – every man, woman and child—owes $55,000.

If that’s not ugly enough, the Heritage foundation estimates that a child born in 2014 will be on the hook for $142,000 when he or she reaches age 24.

Factoring in the “off the table” federal debt of the estimated $70 trillion in unfunded liabilities, what we have is something so huge that the number is literally incalculable.

That’s just the national debt.

Numerous cities are also deep in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. This is largely due to unsustainable pension deals provided to unionized city employees. Feeding the pension beast is bleeding cities dry and putting them on the path of insolvency.

Detroit is flat busted, bankrupt, gone. My beloved Motorcity will not be able to climb out of this huge fiscal hellhole without major concessions from city employees and retirees. Even so, the debt wound may be too large for Detroit, and it will ultimately bleed to death.

The Windy City is not quite as bad as Detroit, but it’s headed down the same path as Motown. Currently, the share of Windy City debt for every man, woman and child is about $20,000 a head. What do you have to show for that, my Chicago friends?

Numerous other cities are piling on huge debt to pay for expensive pensions of city employees. If you live in or near a major city, chances are that your share of your city’s debt is thousands of dollars.

Part of Detroit’s solution is to have Michigan taxpayers funnel their tax dollars to pay for Motown’s gluttonous debt.

Michigan State Rep. Greg MacMaster wrote a brilliant piece for the Detroit News in which he argued against Gov. Synder’s proposed plan that essentially forces the rest of Michigan to help bail out Detroit.

In his piece, Rep. MacMaster accurately noted that funneling taxpayer dollars to help bail out Detroit is not fair to other Michigan taxpayers, that the governor’s plan is not fair to other local government, that the plan sets a dangerous precedent and that Detroit already receives special financial treatment from the rest of Michigan.

Detroit got itself into this financial pension nightmare and should be accountable to get itself out of it.

Indeed, a fiscally healthy Detroit would be beneficial to Michigan. However, the deep financial hole Detroit has dug for itself due to cutting financially suicidal deals with city employees for decades is not justification to hoist these bad deals on the shoulders of the other taxpayers of Michigan who were responsible and accountable enough to live within their means.

It is never wise to reward bad behavior unless you want more bad behavior. We have seen the fiscally dumb decisions Detroit, Chicago and numerous other cities have made.

The definition of insanity is repeating conduct and expecting different outcomes. Welcome to the liberal Democrat cuckoo’s nest.

The long-term way out of this crushing debt is to make these cities feel the pain of their phenomenally bad financial decisions that were designed to re-elect the Democratic politicians who created the scams. Once severe pain is felt, Detroit and others will be less likely to make the same mistake twice.

Debt is largely caused by making stupid decisions that puts nations and cities in peril. Let’s endeavor to learn from Detroit instead of enabling it.