THE REAL REASON YOUR TAXES IN CALIFORNIA GO UP: CalPERS is about to BURY Californians deeper in debt

THE REAL REASON YOUR TAXES IN CALIFORNIA GO UP: CalPERS is about to BURY Californians deeper in debt. Already underwater by over 30%, now gambling on reaching unreasonable investment returns to placate public labor unions and local government officials https://t.co/83UEn557ZR

— Travis Allen (@JoinTravisAllen) December 18, 2017

Illinois Will Collapse in 3…2….1…..

Illinois Will Collapse in 3…2….1….. https://t.co/gEZZ2QSu0F

— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) July 2, 2017

Illinois careens into financial meltdown

Illinois careens into financial meltdown – and not even the lottery is safe- via @brookefoxnewshttps://t.co/FGZduugMMA

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 20, 2017

"Illinois will not meet a court-set deadline Tuesday to increase spending on backlogs of Medicaid payments, pushing the problem off until the end of the month as the state’s unprecedented budget impasse is on the verge of entering its third straight fiscal year."


..."Illinois owes Medicaid providers $2 billion for care provided to more than 3 million people"


..."the state's total unpaid bill of $15 billion — or 40 percent of Illinois' operating budget."
 ..."state’s backlog of unpaid bills will skyrocket to $28 billion by June 2019"

California public workers may be at risk of losing promised pensions

◼ Judge says cities in bankruptcy are free to cut pension obligations in the same way they can cut other debt - LA Times

As millions of private employees lost their pension benefits in recent years, government workers rested easy, believing that their promised retirements couldn't be touched.

Now the safety of a government pension in California may be fading fast.

Feeling the heat is the state's huge public pension fund, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, known as CalPERS.

The fund spent millions of dollars to defend itself and public employee pensions in the bankruptcy cases of two California cities — only to lose the legal protections that it had spent years building through legislation.... KEEP READING

This CPC study compiles for the first time the officially recognized unfunded pension liabilities for every city in California. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of the pension funding challenges facing California's cities.

◼ California City Pension Burdens - Marc Joffe/California Policy Center

PENSION DEBT EXPLODES IN CALIFORNIA

◼ Controller John Chiang drops bombshell on California public pensions - Dan Walters/Sacramento Bee

State Controller John Chiang dropped a political bomb the other day, “unfunded liabilities” – the gap between assets and liabilities for current and future pensions – exploded from $6.3 billion in 2003 to $198.2 billion in 2013.

The unfunded liability problem hits cities the hardest because of their high payrolls. Many have seen their retirement tabs quadruple, such as the 2003-13 increase from $98 million a year to $375 million for Los Angeles’ city police and fire pensions.

Three California cities have declared bankruptcy in recent years, in large measure due to pension debts, and the judge in Stockton’s case declared those debts may be reduced in bankruptcy, although he didn’t compel Stockton to do so....

Fifteen years ago, in a spasm of abject irresponsibility, then-Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature pumped up pension benefits for state employees on blithe, unsupported assurances from a union-friendly CalPERS board that high investment earnings, not taxpayers, would cover the cost. And many local governments blindly followed suit.

Davis was rewarding unions that helped him get elected in 1998. Now the piper must be paid, and the cost is very steep.

“We’re beyond bankrupt here in California..."

◼ Don't believe the media, There Is No California Comeback - Heritage/The Daily Signal

Obama, Democrats Self-Destructing Over Immigration Policy

The Conversation, at Breitbart:

◼ The conventional wisdom headed into the November mid-terms was set, illegal immigration was going to divide the GOP and lift the sagging image of Obama and his fellow Democrats, possibly even giving them a chance in what most concede will be a difficult election year for them. - Dan Riehl

Now, that's all changed and not even the usually Obama-friendly Washington Post can ignore it.

But with the current crisis on the Southwest border, where authorities have apprehended tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children since October, that calculus may be shifting.

Not only has the issue shifted from supposedly favoring Democrats, to now favoring the GOP, it's also Democrats, not Republicans left struggling with a divided party as we prepare to move into the Fall.

◼ Obama's border invasion is the crisis next door for everyone - John Hayward in response

I think one reason this situation is souring badly enough for even the Washington Post to sound red alerts is that it's the crisis next door for everyone. It's not just about pumping states that don't vote Democrat full of illegal aliens. They're getting resettled all across the country, leading local officials and law enforcement to raise a hue and cry from coast to cost.

For example, sheriffs are speaking out in Boston, of all places....

Two weeks ago, Obama assured us (and warned the people of Central America) that all of these inbound illegal aliens would be repatriated. Last week, he said it's impossible to repatriate any of them, because he decided to take half of a law signed in 2008 seriously and ignore the other half. Is forcing him to drop the blatant lies he was telling two weeks ago progress?

◼ Rick Perry’s burden: Texas already spent $500 million on border crisis - Washington Times
◼ AZ Rancher: 'Border Is on Fire and Washington Is Sending Us Gasoline' - FOX
◼ LOCAL MICHIGAN RESIDENTS ENRAGED OVER PLAN TO HOUSE UNACCOMPANIED ILLEGAL TEENS IN THEIR TOWN - Dr. Susan Berry/Breitbart
◼ AZ PROTEST ORGANIZER: AMERICANS 'RESENTFUL' FEDS DUMPING ILLEGALS - Tony Lee/Breitbart
◼ Journal flash poll: New Mexicans cold on Obama immigration response - Albuquerque Journal
◼ Democrats continue to pile on Obama for skipping the border - CNN
◼ NEW YORK TIMES: BORDER CRISIS 'A MYTH' - Tony Lee/Breitbart
◼ Iowa Governor: I Do Not Want To House Immigrant Children In My State - CBS DC
◼ Outbreak on the Border - Washington Free Beacon
◼ Obama's Request: 4x as Much to House Illegals as to Secure Border - CNS
◼ Graffiti on proposed shelter for immigrant children in Maryland: ‘No illeagles here.’ - Washington Post
◼ Illegal immigrants flown to Bay State - Boston Herald
◼ Endless wave of illegal immigrants floods Rio Grande valley - FOX
◼ Obama the pariah - The Hill
◼ The border crisis isn’t Obama’s Katrina – it’s worse - HotAir
◼ Political fallout from underage illegal immigrants may spread far from the Rio Grande Valley - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone
◼ Obama, the Border, and Borderline Judgment - Real Clear Politics

Powerful New Documentary Tells Story Of Fall Of Detroit

◼ Detroit is a shell of its former self. Hunkered down against the growing solitude surrounding the remaining habitable zones, the palaces of corporate power serve as little more than a reminder of glories past. What happened? How did this American treasure become the desolate and dangerous home of hulking wrecks, abandoned homes, and broken dreams? - IJ Review

The new documentary Bankrupt: How Cronyism and Corruption Brought Down Detroit, from Mister Smith Media and FTR Media, explores the road to perdition American automobiles cruised down in their partnership with government. A story of the love the people had, and hope to have again, for this city of metaphors.

The full documentary, above, is available for free for a limited time. It’s a chance for us to find out not only what went wrong, but what can go wrong in the future. A cautionary tale of the age of Too Big To Fail.

If Jerry Brown says there is a surplus, isn't it time for a TAX CUT in California?!

◼ If you think there is something "fishy" about Jerry Brown's surplus, get the facts today! Get Taxifornia: Liberals Laboratory to Bankrupt America, a Politico weekly Top Seller, now available in hardbound and eBook at Amazon, here

Pacific Grove is going broke, and the story of how the city got to the edge of financial disaster is a story of corruption and power, hidden from public scrutiny or independent expert analysis. It is a story about public sector unions, powerful financial interests, and complicit city management, working together to fleece taxpayers and enrich themselves, heedless of rising debt or the inevitable ruinous consequences.

◼ The Fall of Pacific Grove – How it Began, and How City Officials Fought Reform - UnionWatch

Part 1 of 7: Pacific Grove is a quiet town of 15,000 residents located on the northern tip of the Monterey peninsula, with the larger resort town of Monterey to the east, and Pebble Beach to the west... Pacific Grove is an idyllic place. But Pacific Grove is going broke, and the story of how the city got to the edge of financial disaster is a story of corruption and power, hidden from public scrutiny or independent expert analysis. It is a story about public sector unions, powerful financial interests, and complicit city management, working together to fleece taxpayers and enrich themselves, heedless of rising debt or the inevitable ruinous consequences. And what is happening in Pacific Grove is representative of what is happening in every city and county in California.

...How deep is the Pacific Grove financial hole? It is bottomless! Pacific Grove is not alone. For example, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, has placed neighboring Monterey on its “Watch List.”

Of those 109 recalls, 73 succeeded (51 removed in a vote and another 22 resigned) — a 68 percent success rate.

◼ Power to the people? Remembering the year in recalls. - Joshua Spivak/The Week

After recalls suddenly grabbed hold of the nation's attention in 2012, anyone could have been excused for thinking they might have gone back to being little used, frequently ignored weapons this year. But 2013 proved such expectations wrong. Despite a sharp drop in their total number, recall elections once again managed to place themselves on centerstage in American politics.

Unlike in Wisconsin in 2012, the most prominent recalls of 2013 did not appear to be stark Democrat versus Republican fights. Instead, it was a hot button political issue — the fight over gun control — that allowed recalls to push their way into the spotlight.

Colorado, for instance, saw some of its most expensive state legislative elections in history: Two Democratic state senators — including the State Senate president — were kicked out and a third resigned, over the state's new gun control laws....

Already, there are at least 25 recalls scheduled for next year, starting on January 2.

Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict

◼ Their losses would be in addition to the millions who found their individual coverage cancelled for the same reason. Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute said that in addition to the individual cancellations, "at least half the people on employer plans would by 2014 start losing plans as well." - Jim Angle/FOX
◼ It is possible to march carrying a drumstick in one hand and a torch in the other. - Discussion at Lucianne
◼ Obamacare's Looming Landmine - Lewis Dovland/American Thinker
◼ Now THIS is depressing. - Discussion at Lucianne

We've all heard the "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" statements -- statements that now are being admitted to even by the administration as knowingly false when first made. We all know about the much higher premiums and deductibles faced by individuals, due in large part by the coverage mandated by the law.

What is being overlooked is the new and higher deductibles and total annual out-of-pocket expenditures, especially in the Bronze and Silver plans. The amount of these greatly exceeds the ability of most individuals and families to pay, thus providing the real possibility of personal bankruptcies due to medical bills and high losses for providers who cannot collect....

So what will happen? The family, being responsible citizens, will initially try to pay the bills, but that will soon prove impossible. They will ultimately default. And in any case, they will most likely end any college planning or retirement savings they were working toward.

But -- and this is the big but -- the entity chasing them for the money is not the government. Rather, it is the provider -- the doctor, hospital, lab, radiologist, etc. This permits the government to stand on the sidelines and shrug at the dastardly situation that government itself caused in the first place.

Once enough patients face this crisis, the provider will be painted as the devil, hurting all these working Americans and their finances. First there will be restrictions on how much the provider can ultimately collect. Eventually, providers will be eating a large portion of any of the money they don't collect at the point of service.

The government will neatly sidestep the mess they've set up on purpose, will be able to demonize the providers (who end up not getting paid), and can step in to "save the day." And saving the day means taking over the now-bankrupt assets of the provider side of the health care delivery system. Bingo: a full single-payer and provider system, under government control, without even having to fire a shot.

This is a main reason why the PPACA law is so bad. It is health insurance reform, not health industry reform. It does nothing to fix the cost problems we have in the delivery of health care. It addresses a nonexistent problem (lack of insurance) instead of the real problem (making health care affordable for all). All planned with an eye to wrecking the system from the bottom up.

◼ The Front Man - Kevin D. Williamson/National Review Online

In an important sense, the American people have no political say in the health-care law, for example, because Congress did not pass a law reforming the health-care system; instead, Congress passed a law empowering the Obama administration, through its political appointees and unelected time-servers, to create a new national health-care regime.

◼ It's Official: Obama Knew He'd Ruin Our Health Care - Rush

Stein’s Law

◼ Like Detroit, things that can’t go on forever don’t. - Charles Krauthammer/National Review Online

Detroit, for example, can no longer go on borrowing, spending, raising taxes, and dangerously cutting such essential services as street lighting and police protection. So it stops. It goes bust.

Cause of death? Corruption, both legal and illegal, plus a classic case of reactionary liberalism in which the governing Democrats — there’s been no Republican mayor in half a century — simply refused to adapt to the straitened economic circumstances that followed the post–World War II auto boom....

In Wisconsin, Republicans showed that they recognize the perils of unconstrained government growth and will take on the unchecked power of government unions. Democratic Detroit, on the other hand, has for 50 years conducted a contrary experiment in myopia and the most imprudent passivity.

It doesn’t take a genius to see what happens when the entitlement state outgrows the economy upon which it rests. The time of Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, the rest of insolvent social-democratic Europe — and now Detroit — is the time for conservatives to raise the banner of Stein’s Law and yell “Stop.” You can kick the can down the road, but at some point it disappears over a cliff.

Krauthammer vs. Sally Kohn: Detroit Not A GOP Failure, "It's Been Run By The Democrats For 60 Years"

◼ CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Sally, Detroit is not really an example of the failure of GOP economic policy. It's been run by the Democrats for 60 years, and you can cite all the studies about how bad austerity is, all you have to do is look at Detroit and you get an idea of how bad the absence of austerity is, it's a city in ruin. - Real Clear Politics

KOHN: I'm not saying that we need to bail out Detroit; I'm not saying that's the right answer. But look, we have to know that the problems in Detroit are deeper than any party. And I put the blame on Obama too for embracing these austerity politics. But, you know, in the '60s, 56% of jobs in the Detroit area were in the city and by the '90s, it was 18%. We have had six decades of divestment in that city that we all are responsible for. It's all our of economic policies. (Special Report, July 22, 2013)

◼ Iowahawk shreds lib Detroit-excusers in one spectacular analogy - Twitchy

Blaming Detroit's problems on "divestment" is like blaming a meth addict's teeth on the price of toothbrushes.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 23, 2013

Democrat Work Zone

Statism is turning America into Detroit – Ayn Rand's Starnesville come to life

◼ ...No wonder the president would rather talk about Trayvon Martin. If you want to see Obamanomics taken to its conclusion, look at Starnesville. And tremble. - Daniel Hannan/The Telegraph

Look at this description of Detroit from today’s Observer:

What isn’t dumped is stolen. Factories and homes have largely been stripped of anything of value, so thieves now target cars’ catalytic converters. Illiteracy runs at around 47%; half the adults in some areas are unemployed. In many neighbourhoods, the only sign of activity is a slow trudge to the liquor store.

Now have a look at the uncannily prophetic description of Starnesville, a Mid-Western town in Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel, Atlas Shrugged. Starnesville had been home to the great Twentieth Century Motor Company, but declined as a result of socialism:

A few houses still stood within the skeleton of what had once been an industrial town. Everything that could move, had moved away; but some human beings had remained. The empty structures were vertical rubble; they had been eaten, not by time, but by men: boards torn out at random, missing patches of roofs, holes left in gutted cellars. It looked as if blind hands had seized whatever fitted the need of the moment, with no concept of remaining in existence the next morning. The inhabited houses were scattered at random among the ruins; the smoke of their chimneys was the only movement visible in town. A shell of concrete, which had been a schoolhouse, stood on the outskirts; it looked like a skull, with the empty sockets of glassless windows, with a few strands of hair still clinging to it, in the shape of broken wires.

Beyond the town, on a distant hill, stood the factory of the Twentieth Century Motor Company. Its walls, roof lines and smokestacks looked trim, impregnable like a fortress. It would have seemed intact but for a silver water tank: the water tank was tipped sidewise.

They saw no trace of a road to the factory in the tangled miles of trees and hillsides. They drove to the door of the first house in sight that showed a feeble signal of rising smoke. The door was open. An old woman came shuffling out at the sound of the motor. She was bent and swollen, barefooted, dressed in a garment of flour sacking. She looked at the car without astonishment, without curiosity; it was the blank stare of a being who had lost the capacity to feel anything but exhaustion.

“Can you tell me the way to the factory?” asked Rearden.

The woman did not answer at once; she looked as if she would be unable to speak English. “What factory?” she asked.
Rearden pointed. “That one.”

“It’s closed.”

Now here’s the really extraordinary thing. When Ayn Rand published those words in 1957, Detroit was, on most measures, the city with the highest per capita GDP in the United States.

"If I had a city, it would look like Detroit"

◼ Hot new legal consideration: Does it honor President Obama? - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin

Yesterday, Michigan Ingham Country Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled that Detroit’s bankruptcy filing must be withdrawn because it is in her opinion unconstitutional (in Michigan, ◼ “reality is unconstitutional”).
Before issuing her ruling, Aquilina said ◼ this:

“It’s cheating, sir, and it’s cheating good people who work,” the judge told assistant state Attorney General Brian Devlin. “It’s also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy.”

◼ Detroit Surrenders As If It Had Been Invaded - Mark Steyn/IBD

...To achieve this level of devastation, you usually have to be invaded by a foreign power. In the War of 1812, when Detroit was taken by a remarkably small number of British troops without a shot being fired, Michigan's Gov. Hull was said to have been panicked into surrender after drinking heavily.

Two centuries later, after an almighty 50-year bender, the city surrendered to itself.

The tunnel from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit is now a border between First World and Third World — or, if you prefer, developed world and post-developed world....

◼ Detroit's foreseeable bankruptcy: Coming to a nation near you? - Andrew Malcolm/IBD

...Detroit has about 700,000 people now, more than 80% black. In the 1950's it had nearly two million residents and was the nation's fourth-largest city.
Thursday, their city became the largest U.S. municipality to declare bankruptcy. Others may soon follow. And in a disturbing, eerie way those festering financial problems locally are likely precursors of a similar simmering national debt dilemma.
Perhaps these words ring a bell for Americans watching their federal government in Washington: Over-spending, lack of jobs, no fiscal restraint, chronically high unemployment, bloated entitlements, inept politicians, corruption, ineffective governing, missing political courage. Figuring someone else will handle the debt down the road....

◼ CA take note: MI state judge tests federal bankruptcy law - John Seiler/Cal WatchDog

For municipal bankruptcy, all eyes across the nation now turn to Detroit.

The latest: Michigan Circuit Court Judge Rosemary Aquilina ordered Detroit’s bankruptcy filings be withdrawn because they violate state law guaranteeing that pensions must be paid to public employees. The bankruptcy filing seeks to reduce all city liabilities, including pensions, by 90 percent.

Reported the Detroit News:

” ‘It’s absolutely needed,’ said Judge Rosemary Aquilina, observing she hopes Gov. Rick Snyder ‘reads certain sections of the [Michigan] constitution and reconsiders his actions.’….

“ ‘It’s cheating, sir, and it’s cheating good people who work,’ the judge told assistant state Attorney General Brian Devlin. ‘It’s also not honoring the president, who took [Detroit’s auto companies] out of bankruptcy.’”

She gets wrong what happened. Federal bankruptcy court would have dealt with the Chrysler and GM bankruptcies. But President Obama and the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress stepped in and passed bailout legislation. The two auto giants were declared “too big to fail....”

◼ If Obama Had A City, It Would Look like Detroit - Richard Butrick/American Thinker

Detroit is a warning. For those who choose to heed it. Chicago is another example

◼ K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Chicago Blues: Tenured Teachers Laid Off. - Instapundit
◼ Having closed 11 percent of the city’s public schools in May, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has now been forced to fire 2,000 employees, including 1,000 teachers—half of whom were tenured. - The American Interest

It’s an interesting web the union has spun for itself: its power to negotiate lavish pensions for teachers has helped bankrupt the city, which is now forced to sack teachers. And with Chicago’s budget deficit at $1 billion and revenue declining, there’s no end in sight, and no tenure and no pension is safe. How teachers react to the declining ability of unions to secure their interests in one of America’s great blue cities will tell us a lot about the blue model’s current bill of health.

The immediate impact on children and families of Chicago’s fiscal failure is obvious enough, but the long-term impact is perhaps even more grim. The city’s budget cuts, harrowing crime rate, and broken politics are forcing people out: Chicago’s population has declined to numbers not seen since before the 1920s, with the black population falling by almost a fifth in the past decade alone.

This trend means even less revenue for the city, even fewer children to fill the classrooms, and even more talent and potential lost.

◼ CPS lays off more than 2,000, including 1,000 teachers - Chicago Tribune

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis expressed dismay over the layoffs.

On Detroit Bankruptcy, All Three Networks Skip the Sky High Taxes, Dem Control for 50 Years

◼ Instead, ABC, NBC and CBS acted as though the bankruptcy, what Brian Williams called "the slow-moving tragedy of decline," was something that just happened. - Scott Whitlock/Newsbusters

On Today, Gabe Gutierrez insisted that Detroit has "been in financial decline for decades." Like Liu on GMA, he offered the raw data, noting, "The tax base dwindled as the population plummeted from about two million in the 1950s to just 700,000 today."

But Gutierrez also claimed, "Many people saw this coming, but it still hurts." Why did people "see this coming?" The NBC journalist wouldn't offer an explanation.

Although the Today segment did not identify a clip of Democratic mayor Dave Bing, an onscreen graphic did note that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is a Republican....

◼ Billions in Debt, Detroit Tumbles Into Insolvency - New York Times

◼ State Judge Nixes Detroit's Bankruptcy Bid, Michigan AG challenges judge's ruling that Detroit bankruptcy is unconstitutional - Detroit Free Press

Orders her ruling to be sent to Obama since he 'bailed out Detroit' before...

◼ Judge with Democratic ties criticizes filing for 'not honoring the president' - - The Detroit News
◼ 'Motor City' Detroit files for bankruptcy with 100,000 creditors, Detroit has become the largest city in US history to file for bankruptcy, owing 100,000 creditors $18.5 billion. - Telegraph