NO BAILOUT FOR MOTOWN

March 6, 2013 | « back

By: Ted Nugent

My beloved Motor City is bleeding to death.

The facts are that Detroit is a financial wreck, an unmitigated disaster, a sheer cataclysmic catastrophe – you pick. No doubt all of the above.

Good Gov. Rick Snyder has decided to step in and see what he can do to save Detroit. He is appointing an Emergency Financial Manager in an attempt to solve Motown’s self-imposed financial hemorrhaging.

The Democratic Party that has controlled Detroit for decades is obviously opposed to Gov. Synder’s approach.

“Today, Governor Snyder has decided to unilaterally take over control of the City of Detroit from its democratically elected leaders. This is nothing but a hostile takeover,” said Lon Johnson, Michigan Democratic Party chairman.

As expected, Organized Labor also has a problem with Gov. Synder’s approach. Their leadership basically said the same thing as Lon Johnson.

I’m siding with Lon Johnson and Organized Labor. Let local government solve Detroit’s problems. Government always works best at the local level.

Motown’s citizens duly elected their city’s leadership. Now is the time to let them lead Detroit without state or federal meddling.

The last thing Detroit or any other American city on the brink of financial disaster needs is financial meddling, including a bailout, from the state or federal government.

What the city fathers of Detroit need to do is hunker down and solve the city’s own financial hemorrhaging.

While I fully support Motown’s elected representatives’ decision to solve their own problems, what we must not support is Detroit’s leadership to continue begging, tattered hat in hand, for a financial bailout from the state or federal government.

Not all of Detroit’s elected wisdom supports that line of independent thinking. You may recall Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson when she stated that because Detroit citizens overwhelming supported the president in the last election that the federal government should step in and bail out Detroit with a little quid pro quo.

I don’t think so. Enough with the artificial welfare scam already.

There will be loud voices on both sides of the political spectrum that say we can’t let Detroit fail – that it’s too big, too important to fail.

They would be wrong. Unlike President Obama, I don’t believe anything should be too big or too important to fail. If Motown’s elected leaders can’t fix Detroit, then it should wither on the vine and die to serve as an example how not to run a city.

If the mighty Motown is to survive, its leadership is going to have to get mighty frugal and creative. Without more steep cuts across the board that will dramatically impact unionized city employees, it won’t end well for Detroit. The city will bleed to death and die, as it should.

The Detroit city fathers and sisters and Organized Labor are right, and Gov. Synder is wrong. Let Detroit solve its own problems – sink or swim. Either way, Detroit will serve as an example how not to run a city, or a country for that matter. This ought to be interesting.

That the epicenter of productivity, work ethic, neighborliness, goodwill and decency that was my wonderful birth city, until liberal Democrats engineered its embarrassing demise, a virtual shining city on the beautiful Detroit River and Great Lakes, could have fallen so far is a teaching moment if anyone is paying attention. Reverse course or perish. MotorCity Madhouse indeed.