Posted on 07/26/2013 9:25:06 AM PDT by jazusamo
Union leaders are calling on Congress and President Obama to provide a federal bailout to the city of Detroit.
The executive council of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, called for an “immediate infusion of federal assistance for Detroit” to be matched by the State of Michigan, which they say has not done enough to keep the city from going through bankruptcy.
“Bankruptcy must not be used as a tool to impoverish City of Detroit workers or retirees. City workers have already made severe concessions to keep the city afloat,” the executive council said in a statement. “They are not to blame for Detroit’s financial problems, yet they have been making sacrifices all along the way to help the city out.”
The executive council, which consists of more than 50 leaders from various organized labor groups, are angry about pensions for retired workers facing suspension if Detroit goes through Chapter 6 bankruptcy.
“It appears that Governor [Rick] Snyder and [Emergency Financial Manager] Kevyn Orr are pushing Detroit into bankruptcy to gut the modest benefits received by Detroit’s retired public service employees,” the AFL-CIO’s statement reads.
Snyder appointed the emergency financial manager in March to try and help the Motor City sort out its finances.
The governor has come under fire for hiring a Washington bankruptcy attorney, which the AFL-CIO said shows bankruptcy was his plan all along.
“Mr. Orr’s decision to file for bankruptcy can be taken as confirmation that he was hired, secretly and ahead of a declared financial emergency, because he is a bankruptcy expert,” the organization writes.
Orr represented Chrysler during the car company’s 2009 bankruptcy and restructuring.
Snyder said on Sunday that he can “empathize” with the city’s retirees, but said the decision to go into bankruptcy had to be made, given the city’s financial state.
He noted that, due to cutbacks, most of the city’s street lights no longer work and police often take up to an hour to respond to calls.
“There were no other viable options,” Snyder said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Earlier this week, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he had been receiving “great support” from the White House, but that it would be difficult to ask for direct assistance.
“They have been helpful, but now that we've done our bankruptcy filing, I think we've got to take a step back and see what's next,” he said on ABC’s “This Week. “I'm not sure exactly what to ask for. I mean, money is going help, no doubt about that, but how much?”
Members of Congress have rejected the calls to bailout the city.
On Thursday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) filed an amendment to appropriations legislation that would ban the federal government bailing out financially troubled cities.
“There's no good reason why Detroit or any other American city ought to receive a taxpayer-funded bailout from Washington," Cornyn said. "I hope that the normal bankruptcy process will be allowed to go forward, and I hope that the bankruptcy follows the rule of law, and the Obama Administration resists any temptation to meddle in the process and play politics."
Detroit would be about $600 million in the red this year, if it hadn’t pulled out loans to finance the deficit.
Orr said in his earlier report about the city’s finances that it had “exhausted” its ability to borrow anymore and will finish out the current budget year with a $162 million cash-flow shortfall.
Detroit's bankruptcy would be the largest for a municipality in U.S. history.
Amen to that. Corruption in Detroit and their unions is a primary reason and the rest of the country should not pay for it.
Pat Robertson’s idea for an International Year of Jubilee sounds less and less wacky with every passing year.
"“It appears that Governor [Rick] Snyder and [Emergency Financial Manager] Kevyn Orr are pushing Detroit into bankruptcy to gut the modest benefits received by Detroit’s retired public service employees,” the AFL-CIO’s statement reads.
Detroit has already gotten their bailout with the auto fiasco
“Corruption in Detroit and their unions”
California truckling to the “undocumented immigrant” lobby: same thing.
Any municipality, for that matter, that can’t handle its own financial matters (or national gooberment FTM) is just going to have to suffer the indignity and inconvenience and pain of bankruptcy.
Of course Barrack Clause having usurped the power of the purse from the Congress feels differently.
Does anyone really believe it won’t end up happening?
Which will open the door to federal bail outs for the hundreds of other cities teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
If Obama goes there, he will be declaring war on half the country, and they will respond in kind.
You forgot several states..Illinois, California among others..
now it’s michigan’s fault detroit failed. republican governor at the helm currently. nothing about granholm presiding while it continued to tank.
liberals are such juveniles. everything bad is everyone else’s fault, anything they consider good they can’t take credit for fast enough.
it’s not even the state’s’fault, it’s the people of detroit that have allowed this to occur the last 52 years.
Pure Detroit
http://youtu.be/l4ZQooPHHAA
And you can find out more at barak obama . com
Exactly what I said, too.
“If they start bailing out bankrupt cities, that is a slippery slope that has no end.
Some 200 cities are in dire financial condition, similar to Detroit. Probably, hundreds of other cities and towns have financial problems, too.
If the FED ever started bailing them out, hundreds of cities and towns would jump on that bailout wagon and want their ‘fair’ share.”
Exactly. Why didn’t the unions ask for bailouts for Stockton and San Bernardino?
CC
Anyone surprised?
The allure of OPM is just too strong for greedy liberals.
We ALL KNOW why Detroit is a mess. There is ONE KEY REASON. But nobody wants to state the obvious for fear of being called a racist.
All I will say here is that first-world, Christian, FREE MARKET Western culture works. Third-world, socialist, anything goes culture does not.
Unions and Democrats are the ONLY reasons that city is in bankruptcy.
Not my money AFL/CIO
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