I’m sure all of you read the paper and are aware that bankruptcy is finally being seriously contemplated for states such as New Jersey, Illinois and California. These three, and a few others, have for years been electing irresponsible jerks to power who have run up debts that can never ever be paid. We can not be obligated to do something that we simply can not do.
I, for one, have never supported any of this spending and refuse to make the kind of sacrifice it would take to make good on all these obligations. If any of my liberal neighbors, who supported all this crap, care to pay what it would take to save the “honor” of the squirrels who made these promises, let them. Leave me out of it. I’d rather move away than pay for the Cadillac Rolls Royce pensions and health care benefits of people who supposedly work for me, yet are paid twice what I get. And bond holders must learn that investing in New Jersey state bonds, despite what the corrupt credit ratings agencies would lead you to believe, is no safer than investing in GM or Chrysler bonds. Caveat emptor, baby.
I don’t like to brag, but this is what I wrote last July, before anyone was talking about bankruptcy:
When a person or a business acquires more debt than they can possibly pay off, they go bankrupt. The competing claims on any assets are ironed out in bankruptcy court. In a chapter 11 bankruptcy, new management is installed and a more realistic business plan implemented. This is what New Jersey ought to do.
Why should we hardworking taxpayers be forced to make good on these outrageous obligations our politicians have made us liable for? Do you want to sacrifice for a decade or more in order to protect the honor of that pack of weasels otherwise known as the New Jersey State Legislature? Not me. I’d rather disown all their promises to the unions and interest groups and keep the money for my own family.
If I were the judge in such a bankruptcy I would tell all current and retired state workers that they will receive what workers in the private sector receive in pay and benefits for similar work. That alone would probably reduce our obligations by about 50% since they are currently paid so much more than the rest of us. I would then liquidate at least half of all state agencies and commissions, fire their workers, and sell their assets to help pay off debt. I would also rescind all mandates that the state has placed on our cash strapped municipal governments. Lastly I would require that New Jersey have a balanced budget so they can never run up this kind of debt again. To prevent the balanced budget requirement being used as an excuse to raise taxes, I would have a hard cap on tax increases, tied only to inflation and population growth
Next time you hear a liberal fretting over the “income gap” please remember that the real gap is between the incomes of people in the government and the rest of us. This is not the Delaware Water Gap. It is the Grand Canyon. But the public workers unions think “sacrifice” means getting slightly smaller yearly raises. We in the real world have forgotten what raises even are. It’s not even in our vocabulary anymore.
Government exists to protect our rights, to protect our freedom, to protect our property. It does not exist to demand sacrifice from the people. That is the government of tsars and generalissimos.
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