Option for states to declare bankruptcy...

[midnight armadillo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/business/economy/21bankruptcy.html?_r=1&hp

Path Is Sought for States to Escape Debt Burdens
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.

Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.

But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.

Beyond their short-term budget gaps, some states have deep structural problems, like insolvent pension funds, that are diverting money from essential public services like education and health care. Some members of Congress fear that it is just a matter of time before a state seeks a bailout, say bankruptcy lawyers who have been consulted by Congressional aides.

This is how fucked up the boundaries of our political discourse have become. Given the option between raising revenue from the people holding all the cash (i.e. the 1%) and seeking a way to declare bankruptcy to throw pensioners out on their asses, our politicians prefer the latter option.

THIS COUNTRY IS FUCKED.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr. and this is bullshit:

“All of a sudden, there’s a whole new risk factor,” said Paul S. Maco, a partner at the firm Vinson & Elkins who was head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities during the Clinton administration.


There is no "new risk factor". The state's problems are the problems the financial sector pushed off on the public & which the feds are now pushing down to the states, & the states to the localities.

These fuckers have no business governing. They are butt-licking apologists for theft.

[Initech]

2. Tax the fuck out of the rich. This will end this madness!

I'll keep repeating it until I'm blue in the face - we are witnessing economic terrorism.

[napi21]

3. I don't believe in grosly overtaxing anyone or any group, but

the PUbbies have taken this no new taxes & no tax increases way too far! It's like an individual telling his boss never give me a raise again, no matter how long i work for you and no matter how much my expenses increase. NO SANE PErsoN would ever do that, but that's exactly what the Pubbies have done with our gov't.

[Initech]

6. Everytime I hear some rich piece of crap complain about not living in their means...

It only solidifies my argument.

[midnight armadillo]

4. .

[Starry Messenger]

5. k&r

[maryf]

7. In NYS

the state rebated the teensy stock transfer tax (about .25% maybe even .025%) which given the volume of transactions generated 16 billion dollars...the state is 9 billion in debt, had they not rebated the stock transfer tax they'd be 7 billion in the black...they better not talk about bankruptcy...

K&R