The Detroit Detox

There are a host of municipalities standing by, holding their collective breath as they wait to see what the federal government will do about Detroit. IF the US government writes a check to Detroit, get ready. The flood gates will open and, in the twinkling of an eye, the US Treasury will be bone dry -- or at least as dry as Death Valley in the middle of August. In a letter authorizing Detroit's bankruptcy filing, Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, noted a few problems that have contributed to Detroit's dilemma:

• The city's unemployment rate has nearly tripled since 2000 and is more than double the national average.
• The homicide rate is at historically high levels, and the city has been named among America's most dangerous for more than 20 years.
• Detroiters wait an average of 58 minutes for police to respond, compared with the national average of 11 minutes.
• An estimated 40% of the city's street lights didn't work in the first quarter of 2013.
• Roughly 78,000 city structures have been abandoned.

Consider this : "The combination of lost auto industry jobs and rising crime rates prompted many middle-class whites and African Americans to flee Detroit over the past few decades. That exodus left behind an overwhelmingly poor and nearly 83% African-American population, making Detroit the nation's largest black-majority city." Kevyn Orr, the city's appointed emergency manager, has said Detroit's financial responsibilities -- in total -- could be as much as $20 billion. In October of 2012, President Barack Obama said: "We refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. We bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later, that bet is paying off in a big way.” That was then. This is NOW. "The municipal workers’ pension plans (that face 90% losses) will be bailed-out via the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)" The PBGC is a US Government Agency. That means, of course, taxpayer money. How could this happen? Detroit is the largest city to file bankruptcy in US history. Spending money you don't have is a very effective way to bankrupt anything or anyone. Detroit tried taxing the rich, you know, the foundation of Obamanomics, and what did they get for their effort? Well, a ride through the city observing the hulking multi-story -- empty -- factory buildings and the explosive unemployment rate should answer that. THE RICH LEFT -- and took their businesses -- and JOBS -- with them. Detroit has been circling the drain for decades. The decline in the auto business and the population moving away was a symptom, not the cause, of the city's collapse. When you cut through all the Bovine Scatology the answer is clear. Consider this from an article by John Hayward at Humanevents.com: "And let’s not dump too much of Detroit’s crisis at the feet of those automakers, because that corrupt Democrat Party elite spent the city into penury, racking up enormous long-term debt. They spent money like tomorrow would never come, but yesterday tomorrow came. Bloated pensions are just another form of deficit spending: commitments given to today’s workers, without worrying about who’s going to pay the bills when they come due. At some point, the spendthrift government can’t borrow enough money to keep the shell game floating any more. Who wants to buy bonds from a city that’s talking about 90 percent haircuts for creditors?" Mr. Hayward continues: "All of a sudden, the politicians who spent decades assuring their constituents that debt and deficits are no big deal throw up their hands, declare nothing can be done to escape the fiscal black hole they’ve created, and retire to their lavish estates. Detroit is end-stage Obamanomics." So. We watch the dance in DC take shape, over the weeks and months ahead, as the democrat controlled government figures a way to bail out Detroit without appearing to bail out Detroit. Then, we watch as one municipality after the other lines up at the trough until the entire country goes the way of Detroit. But, HEY! This is redistribution of the wealth. This is Obama's socialism. I seem to recall having mentioned in the weeks, months, and years past that the end result of socialism is always the collapse and death of the host country . It never fails.

"The Detroit death spiral is Democrat corruption, which drives people out of the city, which leaves fewer taxpayers to finance the next round of Democrat corruption."

This is a sad story but it is not unexpected -- well, it is not unexpected by conservatives, who've been predicting it for decades. And -- just as we've been proven correct about Detroit, unfortunately, we will be correct about the financial collapse of the United States. I take no joy in saying that -- at all. © J. D. Longstreet