Poorly Managed States Should End Up in Bankruptcy

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Americans should not be forced to pay for the bad management and fiscal irresponsibility of Democrat states. Many states, like New York, were billions in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. The corona virus should not be exploited to bail out these failed governors.

Remember back in December – before corona virus – Cuomo “was caught off-guard by a $6.1 billion hole looming in his next state budget”. It’s the largest gap since Cuomo took office. This shortfall, disclosed in a report last month, occurred during a strong economy as revenue increased. Critics say the third-term Democratic governor should have known better.

Could Poorly Managed States End Up in Bankruptcy?

Mitch McConnell Is Open to the Idea

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Editorial of The New York Sun | April 22, 2020

Could the crisis over the coronavirus result in a new law providing a way for states to declare bankruptcy? It’s starting to look like the answer may be yes. That’s what we take from the comments today by Senator Mitch McConnell. The Senate majority leader, in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt, is stating this flatly. He would, he says, “certainly” be “in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route.”

That would represent a radical reform. The Constitution grants Congress the power to establish uniform laws for bankruptcies throughout the country. Yet the bankruptcy code lacks a chapter extending such protection to states, which might be why some of them have become so profligate. That combined with the coronavirus has put some of them on the brink of collapse.

This erupted in the news when the President of the Illinois senate, Don Harmon, wrote a letter to the Illinois delegation in the U.S. Congress asking a bailout of more than $40 billion for the state. Chicago Tribune blew its stack in a memorable editorial. What was so galling about it, at least to us, is that Mr. Harmon sought a $10 billion bailout directly to the Land of Lincoln’s long-underfunded pension system.

That had nothing to do with the pandemic, of course; it was about years of mismanagement of Illinois’ budget. New York and California have also dug themselves into shockingly deep holes. For any state in such circumstances to suggest that its obligations ought be paid by taxpayers in other states boggles the mind. Particularly when many states’s pensions are far more generous than those of private employers.

So what about the bankruptcy option? In the 1840s, several states defaulted on debts. A bankruptcy law to deal with the crisis stayed on the books but two years before being repealed. There are other problems than that experience. The 11th Amendment puts up hurdles to suing a state in federal court. There is the contracts clause. Plus, the Constitution requires the United States to guarantee to each state a republican form of government.

So it could be difficult to put a state under the control of a receiver. The Sun is not a lawyer. One law professor, David Skeel, Jr., writing in 2012 in the University of Chicago Law Review, considers both sides and still reckons that a bankruptcy process could be preferable to other methods of dealing with states that have become over-extended. What we like about it is the radicality of what Senator McConnell is talking about.

By even discussing favorably the principle of using bankruptcy to deal with mismanaged states, Senator McConnell marks an important point. It is one thing for the Congress to legislate relief during the pandemic. It is another to bail out states for their own failures. Mr. McConnell reckons the first choice of the states “would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now.” That, he adds, is “not something I’m going to be in favor of.”

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felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago

Allot of these tech companies in California and a few other states are NOT paying proper taxes. Loopholes are built into bills courtesy of lobbyists so YOU get to make up for that. Allot of the tax burden falls on the middle class. The political elite like it that way.

DEMS LIE when they state they want the middle class to thrive. They don’t. The middle class threatens the status quo and larger companies do not want the competition. So others get to make up for taxes not paid by them.
comment image

Halal Bacon
Halal Bacon
3 years ago

you want to pay for past demonrat votes with GOP money? hardy har har

spfoam1
spfoam1
3 years ago

That picture of Cuomo says it all…
The symbolism is as clear as it could possibly be.

Achmed Mohandjob
Achmed Mohandjob
3 years ago

If states were allowed bankruptcy, who would buy their bonds. What companies would agree to be vendors?

No bail outs. Just let ’em die.

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
3 years ago

What states are prepared to take refugees from the rotten, corrupt, Dem0rat states? Maybe it would be better to keep them out? Especially the rotten, corrupt, degenerate, dem0rats in Californication. Or maybe let them in, then seize all their assets and kick them out?

Achmed Mohandjob
Achmed Mohandjob
3 years ago

Take the Austin, Tx, of 1978 and compare it to today. First major blow was the Dellionaires, mostly recruited from the west coast. Those Left Wingnut Regressives were followed by Silicon Valley types, also Left Wingnut Regressives. Even in 2005, which was the last time that I visited Austin, I could not even recognize the city, other than there still was Town Lake and the state’s capitol building,

Commieobamie
Commieobamie
3 years ago

Communism has consequences, eat it LibTARDS.

dad1927
dad1927
3 years ago
Reply to  Commieobamie

look at detroit… A democrat paradisecomment image

Jhn1✓ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ
Jhn1✓ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ
3 years ago

How about this….
Give the states a reorganization bankruptcy that removes recognition as a state until the debt is paid. If they are no longer a state there can be a receivership, and sell-off of non-essential properties like state parks (possibly including zoning and development rights only subject to pre-existing safety codes)
As they are no longer a state they no longer have voting Congressional Representatives or Senators. If the parties want to fund them, they and their staffs can be nonvoting but there, until the debts are paid and statehood is restored.

What do you guys think?

Steve
Steve
3 years ago

1 000 000 up votes and you took exactly what I was thinking should be done. Placed into receivership and correctly managed.

Jhn1✓ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ
Jhn1✓ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve

And yes, I am in the outer territories of what was called The People’s Republic of Daley.
Now just Crook County.

AlgorithmicAnalyst
AlgorithmicAnalyst
3 years ago

Ford to New York: Drop Dead 🙂

comment image

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
3 years ago

Excellent a big FU to Dem0rats everywhere…

Steve
Steve
3 years ago

As I understand it the current laws do not allow States to declare bankruptcy. It would take a change in law that must pass both the House and Senate and be signed into law by POTUS or a veto override by Congress.

Personally you (States) broke it, you own it. The residents of these States are ultimately responsible for the gov’t they elected and letting them mismanage. If I were one of these residents I’d move out fast before you are taxed to the max to pay for gross mismanagement you allowed. Ooops stay there we don’t need you bringing your “ideas” that bankrupted your State to ours.

dad1927
dad1927
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve

Thankfully illegals can get bailout money in Cal… I suppose that includes millions!comment image

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
3 years ago
Reply to  dad1927

It’s sad but I used to respect Feinswein when she was mayor of San Franhellhole.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
3 years ago

Cheap opportunism in the face of a national emergency, custom-made for a commiecrat. Remember their motto, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”?

BTW, who installed Cuomo as the fount of all knowledge that we have to listen to him on a daily basis in his presser to pontificate about the obvious?

Beverly
Beverly
3 years ago

Letting them go through bankruptcy would be the best thing for them. Detroit, MI went through bankruptcy and, while it hurt people personally, including retirees, and businesses, necessary changes were made. And Detroit is better for it.

dad1927
dad1927
3 years ago
Reply to  Beverly

It cut those bloated handout pensions…comment image

Beverly
Beverly
3 years ago

Letting them go through bankruptcy would be the best thing for them. Detroit, MI went through bankruptcy and, while it hurt people personally, including retirees, and businesses, necessary changes were made. And Detroit is better for it.

dad1927
dad1927
3 years ago

Minnesota is a demcratic cess pool.. Muslims run fake day care and suitcases of money go to El shishkabab. I see a new escallade with somali women in it… 22 kids 4 wives nets $485,000 a year I hear. Vets on the streets, so we also have a diversity program where we don’t hire whites, too..comment image

Mark
Mark
3 years ago

Let them eat ice cream like Nancy Antoinette !

Mel Carver
Mel Carver
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Great Idea!!!!

Edd
Edd
3 years ago

Mismanagement, corruption and incompetent operation of states should NOT get taxpayer bailouts.

toedeladoki says hello
toedeladoki says hello
3 years ago

Mayor de Blasio: NYC to Serve 500,000 Free Halal Meals to Muslims During Ramadan
http://b1ff5939f6.nxcli.net/2020/04/de-blasio-half-million-ramadan-meals.html/

Thurston Howell III
Thurston Howell III
3 years ago

No reason or excuse for AMERICANS to bail out blue states that mismanage funds.

Thurston Howell III
Thurston Howell III
3 years ago

No reason or excuse for AMERICANS to bail out blue states that mismanage funds.

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