Earlier this month, Detroit became the largest city in the US to file for bankruptcy. After 51 years of Democratic leadership, the city was so far in debt with no way to pay it off that it had no alternative but take the route they did.
Another shining example of Democratic leadership is Chicago. They have had a Democrat as mayor since Anton Cermak was sworn in in 1931. But Chicago economics were always as bad as Detroit’s. When Rahm Emanuel took over the Mayor’s seat in 2011, the city actually had a surplus of unallocated money totaling $167 million. One year later and under Emanuel’s leadership, those unallocated funds had dropped to $33.4 million and the city’s debt increased dramatically.
Alex Holt, Chicago Budget Director tried to explain the $133.6 drop in unallocated funds saying:
“We’re trying to be more transparent about what we’re really spending and taking in — not just carrying a bunch of people who took up money in the budget and left money on the table at the end of the year.”
“Let’s be straightforward about what we’ve got to spend and not pretend we’re gonna hire for a position we haven’t hired for, who know how many years when those resources are need to provide other services. … This is about matching revenues with expenses. You don’t want to over-tax people.”
However, according to Moody, if the city had fully funded their four under-funded city employee pension funds in 2012, all of the money would be gone and they would be further in debt. Consequently, they levied a triple-drop in Chicago’s bond ratings which had never been done before.
So how much debt does Chicago have? Would you believe that their debt now totals $29 billion. Only ten years ago, their debt was only $9.6 billion. To put it another way, ten years ago, the city had a debt of $3,338 per resident and today, it totals $10,780 per resident and climbing.
Amer Ahmad, the former City Comptroller argued that the growing debt was not a problem because of the city’s strong bond rating. A year later, the debt has grown and their bond rating just plummeted faster than any other city’s rating.
If you want to read more about the extent of Chicago’s financial woes, click here.
But keep one thing in mind. Chicago and Detroit are being run by the same kind of Democrats that are currently trying to run America. Rahm Emanuel served as Obama’s White House Chief of Staff from Jan. 2009 to Oct. 2010. Obviously he was well trained in Obamanomics as Chicago’s financial status continues to plummet under his leadership. One now has to begin to wonder how much longer will it be before Chicago is forced to follow Detroit’s example and file for bankruptcy protection?
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