Andy McCarthy writes:
To get an idea of just how disastrous this policy is, read Stephen Moore’s article from March 24 issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Moore takes a look at the mountains of debt facing local governments and sees “the next great financial bubble in America–a fiscal time bomb that could cause your local and state tax bills to double or even triple in years to come.” At the time, Moore noted that the city government of Vallejo, Calif., had narrowly averted filing for bankruptcy because it could “no longer afford to pay the extravagant salary and retirement benefits of its public employees.” In fact, Vallejo went on to declare bankruptcy two months later in May, and unions are now locked in a legal battle with the city government. Moore observed that “Part of the problem is that the real estate crisis is especially pronounced in California and, as housing values fall, so do city property tax collections…. With hundreds of thousands of public employees in California, you have the potential for catastrophic long-term financial distress.”
Would it be “very unpatriotic” for Congress to pass a measure that potentially saddles the federal government with many billions of dollars of debt incurred by irresponsible local governments and benefits Nancy Pelosi’s California congressional delegation in particular? I suppose it would be unfair to single out Pelosi, since this boondoggle is sure to benefit lots of other governments who have conceded far too much to union bosses … like, say, Barack Obama’s Chicago:
