Connecticut is drowning in debt. Should the rest of us have to pay?

[TalkRadio1]

Over the past few years, several of today’s 50 states have descended into unmanageable public indebtedness. In Illinois, vendors wait months to be paid by a state government that is $30 billion in debt and one notch above junk bond status. And in terms of per capita state debt, Connecticut ranks among the worst in the nation, with unfunded liabilities amounting to $22,700 per citizen.

Each profligate state is facing its own budgetary perdition for different reasons, but most share common factors. The explosion of Medicaid spending, even before Obamacare, has devoured state funds just as it and its entitlement cousins, Medicare and Social Security, have done at the federal level. This has crowded out other vital public activities, as striking teachers in most states experiencing such hardships know.

In parallel, public pensions of sometimes grotesque levels guarantee that the fiscal strangulation will soon get much worse. In California, some retired lifeguards are receiving more than $90,000 per year. A retired university president in Oregon received $76,000 per month — and no, that’s not a typo. These are the modern-day welfare queens, and they are the reason for some of the nation’s worst budget crises. California’s pension shortfall, $250 billion under the rosiest of assumptions, is more likely close to $1 trillion.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.777e6b07037b

 

[someoneyouknow]

I believe it was Gerald Ford, during his short stint holding down the fort, who told New York to go pound sand when it too was mired in debt.

Same with here. Of course I said the same thing about the banks and Wall Street, and look at the trillions we taxpayers had to cough up so they could pay out their bonuses.

 

[bellisarius]

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." - Alexis de Tocqueville

The same holds true for the states. And if the Federal government is allowed to bail out profligate states, who is to bail out the Federal government?

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.777e6b07037b

WTF...76 grand a month? It only takes him seven months to make more than what the President makes in a year.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Has NotIshmael been in here to regurgitate his usual de Toqueville trope?
*scans posts*
Yup.

#LaPlusCaChange

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

https://i.imgur.com/PwomA5f.jpg

 

[Jada59]

Well... They do have Foxwoods. That's a redeeming quality.

 

[SissySalina]

Since you bailed out New York City you have to do it for all.

 

[Queersetti]

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." - Alexis de Tocqueville

The same holds true for the states. And if the Federal government is allowed to bail out profligate states, who is to bail out the Federal government?

He didn't say that.

 

[toeskr]

He didn't say that.

Okay cool. What did he say?

 

[Que]

He didn't say that.

Good Reads agrees with you and claims that it is misattributed, but doesn't bother to elaborate on who actually said it. Nor did you.

Dozens of sources a tribute him with a quote.

So if he didn't say it who did?

It is more or less the same thought that was expressed by Basquiat who I believe was first. My understanding was that Alexis de tocqueville was paraphrasing Basquiat.

What say you?

 

[IG_88]

Good Reads agrees with you and claims that it is misattributed, but doesn't bother to elaborate on who actually said it. Nor did you.

Dozens of sources a tribute him with a quote.

So if he didn't say it who did?

It is more or less the same thought that was expressed by Basquiat who I believe was first. My understanding was that Alexis de tocqueville was paraphrasing Basquiat.

What say you?

It seems to be that nobody really said it. Or at least not exactly that. But it is generally agreed upon that it most certainly was not the Alexis dude. Heh, Alexis for a guy. What a pussy.

 

[bellisarius]

He didn't say that.

Good Reads agrees with you and claims that it is misattributed, but doesn't bother to elaborate on who actually said it. Nor did you.

Dozens of sources a tribute him with a quote.

So if he didn't say it who did?

It is more or less the same thought that was expressed by Basquiat who I believe was first. My understanding was that Alexis de tocqueville was paraphrasing Basquiat.

What say you?

Considering that de Tocqueville's been misattributed for that statement for decades, and still is, finding the source is non-trivial. Apparently it is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tyler by a fellow named Elmer T Peterson although no such quote is found in Tyler's works. The attributed quote reads, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

 

[SpeareChucker]

They have to get in line behind California, NY and Illinois.


The votes are what matters, not the true need...

 

[SpeareChucker]

Considering that de Tocqueville's been misattributed for that statement for decades, and still is, finding the source is non-trivial. Apparently it is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tyler by a fellow named Elmer T Peterson although no such quote is found in Tyler's works. The attributed quote reads, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

Man, this brings back Lit memories...

Might as well throw in some Machiavelli too.

 

[SpeareChucker]

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." - Alexis de Tocqueville

The same holds true for the states. And if the Federal government is allowed to bail out profligate states, who is to bail out the Federal government?

Next time, quote Franklin.

That one is written in stone.

 

[Que]

Considering that de Tocqueville's been misattributed for that statement for decades, and still is, finding the source is non-trivial. Apparently it is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tyler by a fellow named Elmer T Peterson although no such quote is found in Tyler's works. The attributed quote reads, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

Isn't Frederic bastiat though the one that talks about plunder and the idea that the population eventually gets Keen to the idea that they can vote themselves some plunder?

I have always found the idea of misattribution to be fascinating. I mean if a misquote is so good that it gets repeated for decades and in some cases centuries then whoever actually penned the thought should be getting the credit because obviously someone had the thought at some point.

 

[SpeareChucker]

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.

Now, can we quote some Maggie Thatcher?

 

[bellisarius]

More Empires have fallen due to debt than have fallen to outside invaders. I think that sums it up.

 

[SpeareChucker]

And not unlike Rome, we have been substantially debasing our currency...

 

[Que]

And not unlike Rome, we have been substantially debasing our currency...

I think that's quite an understatement. In my lifetime alone we've debased our currency over 90%. The public is convinced that that bill will never come due.

 

[SpeareChucker]

I think that's quite an understatement. In my lifetime alone we've debased our currency over 90%. The public is convinced that that bill will never come due.

Hey, we've seen it stated over and over again, the debt can be erased by nothing more than a few keystrokes...

It really did not matter for most of a decade, and then Trump got elected.

 

[Rightguide]

I think that's quite an understatement. In my lifetime alone we've debased our currency over 90%. The public is convinced that that bill will never come due.

Probably 95% since the turn of the 20th Century.

 

[Rightguide]

Considering that de Tocqueville's been misattributed for that statement for decades, and still is, finding the source is non-trivial. Apparently it is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tyler by a fellow named Elmer T Peterson although no such quote is found in Tyler's works. The attributed quote reads, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

It moved 90% of the black community from the Republican to the Democratic Party.