President Donald Trump’s been around the DC Swamp long enough now to know how things work.
Specifically, time and again he’s seen Democrats ‘never let a good crisis go to waste,’ using them to advance their Left-wing political agendas.
The coronavirus pandemic is no different. Democrats have used the emergency to push for passage of the Green New Deal, universal basic incomes, and nationwide mail-in balloting.
Now, Democrats are poised to demand that the nation’s taxpayers subsidize years of bad Democratic policies in blue states that were broke or close to it before their leaders decided to shut down their economies.
And President Trump’s got their number, as Fox News reported:
President Trump on Monday openly questioned why “poorly run states” — which he claimed are all “Democrat run” — are seeking aid from the federal government amid the coronavirus crisis, seemingly piggy-backing off Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that they instead file for bankruptcy.
“Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help?” Trump tweeted Monday. “I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?
While the president did not specifically mention McConnell’s suggestion, his early reluctance to simply throw hundreds of billions more dollars while adding it to the already deep well of federal red ink matches that of the Senate leader.
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McConnell told Hugh Hewitt’s radio program last week that states should consider bankruptcy, as cities have done, in order to address their current debts, most of which have to do with pension benefits passed decades ago.
“I mean, we all represent states. We all have governors regardless of party who would love to have free money,” McConnell said in response to a question over what the federal government’s obligation is to help states. “And that’s why I said yesterday we’re going to push the pause button here, because I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments need[s] to be thoroughly evaluated.”
McConnell then specifically mentioned pensions, noting “[t]here’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”
Hewitt noted that many of these states have been governed by Democrats for years and, thus, they are responsible for their own debts (as are all states regardless of which party runs them).
“Yeah, I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route. It saves some cities,” McConnell said. “And there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”
Some states have passed legislation or constitutional amendments requiring balanced budgets and forbidding them from deficit-spending unless for specific emergencies. Others…have no such requirements.
Naturally, the blue states are pushing back. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for instance, blasted McConnell, claiming that New York contributes far more to the federal treasury than it receives, and that is just the opposite for McConnell’s state of Kentucky.
“One of the really dumb ideas of all time just came from Sen. Mitch McConnell. His suggestion to let states go bankrupt makes no sense. He says he doesn’t want a ‘Blue State Bailout.’ 15,000 people died — this is not the time for politics,” Cuomo said — without a hint of irony since, you know, his state has inflated the coronavirus death count and everything Democrats do is ‘political.’
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Plus, remember when all of these governors — including Cuomo — were telling Trump to essentially ‘butt out’ of their business when it came to shutting down their states over faulty coronavirus infection and death estimates?
Back then it was all about “federalism.” Now as they seek bailouts from Trump and the federal government, federalism is gone (again) and it’s all about “opportunism.”
States should be saving for rainy days (like now). It’s not the federal government’s responsibility to bail any of them out, especially when they’ve been mismanaged for years.
