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Bankruptcy law can’t protect U.S. from blue state public union pension threat

Much as free speech, free elections and the Electoral College failed to protect us from the ObamaDem super-majority threat

When America faced terror after 911, many liberals played down the threat from Osama bin Laden and terror-sponsoring dictators like Saddam Hussein, by gnashing their teeth over “why they hated us” and how Abu Ghraib and fighting back “created terrorists”.

I remember being told how Mexico and the national debt were greater threats, and given the bang-up job that our armed forces under former Commander-in-Chief Bush, and even the drone-happy current President, it does appear that the tens of thousands of dead terrorists have elevated the priorities of violence on our southern border. Moreover, the threat of ObamaDems grew to grave proportions over the past two years as they fought the debt of the Bush years by more than tripling it. God save us from the saviors akin to Greece!

It was at some point last year that even yours truly began to see threats sans Muslim names when we contemplated a Democratic Congress and White House forcing the frugal red states to bail out their union-benefactors in Cally, New York, Illinois and other irresponsible states willingly held hostage to public employee unions addicted to retiring at age 50 with full pay.

Cities, not states, can be debtors in bankruptcy

And then We the tea-drinking People spoke and thank God for it, because it appears that the only savior on the horizon is the recently convened Republican majority in the U.S. House since the federal bankruptcy code offers no option to states to file:

Section 109. Who may be a debtor
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, only a person that resides or has a domicile, a place of business, or property in the United States, or a municipality, may be a debtor under this title.

States may not file for bankruptcy and some legal scholars claim that a Constitutional Amendment, rather than a mere statute, would be required to allow them to do so given “sovereignty” issues. DeVine Law does not agree with that legal position, but I digress.

The DeMint solution

The best outline of a solution that I have seen comes from Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC):

  • First, create a legal process to allow states to renegotiate debts and union contracts in something akin to bankruptcy.
  • Second, forbid a congressional bailout of the states.
  • Third, forbid the Fed to buy states’ debt as part of a freelance Ben Bernanke bailout.
  • In other words, prepare a site for crash-landing state finances and then forcibly guide them to it.
  • That third part is interesting, no? Republicans are looking askew at the Fed’s new career as at-large bailout-maker.

The next two years are going to be and are perilous because we haven’t much hope that ObamaDems still controlling the Senate and White House will agree to obvious common sense solutions to problems from creating jobs (Isn’t it a no-brainer that we should be expanding oil drilling on domestic land and seas?); and, reducing deficits and onerous regulations on business (Yet, Obama and Reid have vowed to defend ObamaCare to the death while promulgating carbon-emission regulations that threaten the oil and coal industries.).

All we may be able to do is a William F. Buckley-ite stand athwart history and yell, Stop!

With respect to the DeMint plan that should be enough, unless The Fed goes rogue again and does triple the damage of fiscal policy as it has under Paulson and Geithner.

The bottom line is that for reasons of future moral hazard and all too real present financial hazards to the nation, we cannot let the underwater blue states drown the rest of the lower 48 that paid their bills.

Stop!

Mike DeVine

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Charlotte ObserverThe Minority Report and Examiner.com archives

www.devinelawvista.com

COMMENTS

  • pilgrim

    Sometimes you have to begin with one small step. Standing athwart history and yelling Stop! is that important first small step that needs doing.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    in most states (excepting CA, IL, and NJ among a few others), as they compose an average of less than 5% of state expenses. They are also easily “fixed” through some combination of higher contributions, changes in payout methods, and moving new employees to defined contribution plans among other things (look at Ohio as an example to how to make a pension fund work in a declining state).

    I also do not think states should be able to declare bankruptcy, as we elect our legislators to govern and they are required to balance the budget, not push that task into the court system. If they do not like raising taxes and/or cutting spending oh well, that is what we elect them to do (the problem is the public at large wants neither spending cuts nor tax increases).

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    or massive cutbacks in essential services based upon the articles linked to and many others I have read. If you have some numbers showing this to be false, please write a diary detailing same.

    The answer to the problem is not “oh well”, that’s what they they get elected to do. The numbers scream “oh hell” with no easy solutions.

  • Death_of_the_Donkey

    do have a problem (and I think you meant NJ, not NY), but most of those problems resulted from past underfunding of the program (which is still a problem), as opposed to a problem with the program design. Most of the big “underfunding” numbers (ie the $3 trillion seen floating around) are based on using a riskless rate of return for pension assets, which is simply wrong, as the pensions do not invest in riskless instruments and have historically far outperformed the riskless rate of return. But the idea of some blanket solution that lets any state reneg on contracts should not be something we should pursue when other options are available in most cases (and sorry, I disagree that a state should be able to avoid raising taxes by simply declaring “bankruptcy”, is that how you want the federal government to act too, just declare bankruptcy?).

  • acat

    There are, or so I’m told, entire communities in Florida of retired New York pensionees, who’ve moved there to avoid paying income taxes on their retirement.

    Consider what happens when – not if – their packages are cut back to .. more 401k-esque levels… when they have to consider how much they have put aside, and how long they plan to live.

    Mew

  • acat

    I am very opposed to letting ranchers in Texas and wheat farmers in Oklahoma assume the debt the State of Illinois has taken on to run the Chicago Transit Authortiy. It’s bad enough downstate corn farmers have to pay for Chicagoans to ride the bus.

    I was hoping for a ballot box change in 2010, a new governor and a more conservative statehouse. Now, I’m hoping the Republicans in the House can prevent it from spilling over. Elections Have Consequences – and the voters in Illinois have requested more bread and circuses using more of other peoples’ money. To my fellow Illinoisans I must say “are you still out of your pocking minds?”

    Mew

  • Scope

    nothing like hearing the Rooster early in the morning to wake some up.

  • KC

    The Stimulus was essentially a bailout for states that created a one-trilion-dollar Moral Hazard and left state legislatures believing good ‘ole Uncle Sammy would come to the rescue again. And again, and again, and……..

    Raising taxes to overcome flagrant irresponsibility and gross negligence by legislatures is a Liberal tenet. Besides, raising taxes doesn’t always translate into higher revenue.

    The “fix” to the financial plight of the states in troulble will entail a lot of pain. And like it or not, state employee unions will have to suck up and endure their share of it.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    It’s the Margaret Thatcher conundrum. They’ve run out of other people’s money. Now they can tell people approaching the till, promisory notes in hand, to go pound sand. Or, they can just raise the funds. Option B sounds good until those funds get raised from you. Eventually, someone will not loan, CA, IL, NJ or whichever scofflaw state the money by buying bonds. Then, it gets to be a game of who the govt. can shake down and rob.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    irresponsible (blue) states, ie the protection of the national treasury from being used to bail out the spendthrift, and not that the protection of the taxpayers (if any are still left) in red states. I was simply pointing out that current B/R law doesn’t allow states to file as a debtor.

    I also would not like to see neighboring states descend into chaos and harm the nation as well, and so am exploring the issue, incl proposals like DeMint’s.

    more later

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • acat

    I’m more looking forward to watching the Bears on Sunday…

    Mew

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    get to lose to the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://thesandsinstitute.org Vassar Bushmills

    …but also on tenor. We need a lot of public foot stomping to lead into the 2012 election, when, God willing, a new Congress and president can end this misery by decertifying public unions and slashing payroll and pension plans.

  • http://www.mi7.co/ angelocracy

    Never thought we would be talking about states go ing bankrupt

  • dsmurf

    Bush deficit was in 2003-2004? After the stock market nearly went straight up from 1994-5 – 2000, all those capital gains from the stock market bubble made Clinton look like a conservative and the Dems claimed fiscal responsibility due to the Clinton years. The dirty little secret from Stock Traders Almanac is that the equities market does best under a R Congress and a D President.

    “Moreover, the threat of ObamaDems grew to grave proportions over the past two years as they fought the debt of the Bush years by more than tripling it. God save us from the saviors akin to Greece!”

    So when Bush left office with a 167 Billion deficit, that was due to the peak of the housing bubble, and that with a war that needed to be fought, (unless the country should have wrung their hands for another 8 years groaning about how the first Bush never finished the job of deposing of Saddam or to wring the hands over the suspected WMDs. ( sorry I digress )
    So now with a record equity rally, it would be fair to say that the Obama administration has nearly expanded the deficit 10 fold since the end of the Bush presidency, whereas Bush’s deficit was taken at the bottom of the 2001-2003 Bear market. What a contrast indeed in which capital gains are dwarved by spending and Obama looks like he is getting plenty of Fed help with all of their bond buys. I suspect the bottom would drop out if Bernanke gets handcuffed from buying bonds, or if bonds continue to sell off and rates started to rise and made the USD strong due to exploding bond yields.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    was so hard that they changed laws and avoided same since then…until now

  • Finrod

    I saw that idea proposed a while ago, and I think it’s a great one. If California wants to go bankrupt, let them– and take away their statehood along with their representation in the House and Senate. Re-admit California as three states: NoCal, SoCal, and Coastal California. Coastal California is where the liberals are anyways; the other two new states would be newly competitive. Same with Illinois: readmit as Chicagoland and the rest of the state as two separate states, so that Chicago can no longer drive the rest of the state into the ground.

    States wouldn’t think of bankruptcy as a fix-all if it means that all the state officials from the governor to the janitors lose their jobs.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    many ultra-liberal red states out of the Union for years and force them pass certain constitutional amendments to get back in. I regret the Fort Sumter secession strategy that was tried two centuries ago….smile

  • d_lamar

    Maybe we need to revive the war of northern aggression, but this time in reverse. Force some states out of the union because:
    1. They don’t share our traditional American values.
    2. They are not and never will be financially solvent and self-supporting.
    3. By their actions, they share more allegiance to our enemies that to America.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • streetwise

    nt

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    I would like to fill the present hen house with gals I turned to the right, i.e. the cool side of the pillow…pun intended

  • capeconservative

    Living in the bluest of blue states, I must say that rather than diss entire states for the abuses of liberals and welfare recipients residing in the large cities, I’d go along with earlier suggestions of ‘Chicagoland’ vs the rest of the state etc. Or a 3-part CA. Believe it or not, there are MANY conservatives still living in MA – but the big cities with their huge public employee unions and liberal policies and people who expect to stay home and receive welfare checks overwhelm hard-working taxpayers. As many British leaders have reminded us, the going gets pretty rough when you run out of ‘other people’s’ money.

  • Dan Perrin

    ?According to a study by Daniel DiSalvo, a political scientist at City College in New York, state and local workers now earn an average of $14 more per hour in wages and benefits than their private sector counterparts. In general, the average state government worker reaps retirement benefits several times richer than a counterpart in the private sector, a critical reason why public pension costs have become unsustainable. For example, state and local governments contributed $3.04 per hour toward each employee?s retirement in 2007, according to U.S. Labor Department figures, while private employers paid 92 cents an hour.

    Public and private sector workers live in separate economies. The public sector unions are flourishing. The private sector has had to let go many of its workers as economic conditions have worsened. They suffer through frequent turnovers, relentless downsizing, stagnant wages, and rising health insurance premiums. They often fund their own retirements through 401(k)?s and similar plans, which rise and fall with the tides of the economy. By contrast, the public sector is a haven of security and stability, where people have jobs for life and performance measurements are rare. Most public sector workers enjoy job security and boast defined benefit retirement programs. The number of government jobs rose even as overall unemployment in this recession jumped past 10 percent.?

    http://www.redstate.com/dan_perrin/2011/01/25/the-dems-next-obamacare-and-bailout-moment/

  • The_Gadfly

    well, those are the two I’ve been reading about and know of directly. I expect that if we have expats in other blue states they’ll be able to continue to expand upon your list until the exceptions devour your proposed rule.