YOU CREATED THE PROBLEM AND NOW YOU WANT HELP?? FAT CHANCE!!
Appearing last night on Chris Hayes, AFSCME President Lee Saunders made the (I think pretty much hopeless) case that Detroit’s bankruptcy filing is illegal, and argued (I think correctly) that city workers should be paid what they were promised in pensions. But he also endorsed a federal bailout, arguably the least likely (and worst possible) outcome:
We’ve got to deal with this, Chris. I believe not only as it affects Detroit but the national government. This administration has a responsibility to deal with the problems and impact on urban centers across this country. The engines — the engines of states who are experiencing financial difficulty. I’m not saying we’ve got to bail everything out, but if we can rescue cities and countries in Europe, if we can bail out Wall Street — which we did — if we can rescue the auto industry, which was the right thing to do, then i think we’ve got to think about creative measures in which we can help urban centers across the country experiencing financial difficulty.
As repugnant as a bailout is, conservatives should think carefully about the consequences of what happens next. I think there’s a very good case to start rooting for the unions here. Yes, they were much of the problem in Detroit — not necessarily because pensions are excessively large, but because of chronic overstaffing, featherbedding, and the early-retirement deals they negotiated.
But some good can come out of this. The best hope is either that the unions win or that after they lose, the bankruptcy court shaves the city’s bondholders clean and then forces the sale of the city’s artwork and other assets in order to pay promised pensions to the maximum extent possible. This isn’t only justice for the workers involved — who as Hayes points out merely worked and banked on the unrealistic promises they were made. It’s also forward-looking if you care about the deleterious effects of big government.
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