Mitch McConnell Says Struggling States Should File For Bankruptcy

Over the past month, the economic shutdown resulting from the coronavirus pandemic - which as we hear every day was "nobody's fault" just to make sure there are no unpleasant mentions of moral hazard during the biggest bailout in history...

... has emerged as the perfect excuse for anyone and everyone in need of additional funds or a full-blown bailout to come begging for some generosity. Unfortunately for insolvent US states, they may be too late to get a piece of the bailout pie because as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said Wednesday, he is open to allowing states to declare bankruptcy - rather than sending governors more federal money to deal with their own ballooning deficits. Because after $10 trillion in fiscal and monetary funds was allocated to bailout mostly America's rich in just the past month, somehow states don't quite cut it.

McConnell made the comments on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" amid a growing chorus of state governors imploring the federal government for urgent fiscal help and congressional Democrats seeking to work with the Trump administration to provide it. McConnell, instead, said he "would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route," an option that is not currently available to them - as he called for a "pause" in such aid from Washington.

"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 on what the federal government should do to help states in tricky financial situations. "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 also said that many states are struggling with funding pensions or similar programs, saying "[t]here's not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations." And yet, when it comes to corporations, that's precisely what the Republican side is doing, so who gets to decide where the line is drawn.

After Hewett weighed in, criticizing liberal states that racked up significant liabilities, McConnell said he favored letting states declare bankruptcy, as local governments are allowed to.

"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."

Who told Mitch to do this? Is this order coming from the owners banks or from someone else? Any idea what this would do to the country's economy? And if states get to declare bankruptcy do we little folks get to have a debt jubilee?

Of course the democrats are standing up against this plan of Mitch's. Of course they are...

Democrats, predictably, were not happy: "Democrats are disappointed that the Administration has not agreed to more funding for state, tribal, and local governments on the front lines of this crisis who desperately need an infusion of funds to pay the essential workers who keep us safe," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said in a joint statement Tuesday, quoted by Fox News.

"However, we are pleased that the President has committed to addressing this critical priority in CARES 2 and will work with urgency to see that this commitment is fulfilled," they continued, indicating that the president was on their side of the issue rather than McConnell's.

This should have been in the first bailout bill not just a consideration when you don't have any leverage to push it through. But then that was the feature not the bug.

Saw this on DK today. Kemp the governor of Georgia wants to send people back to work. And if people don't think it's safe to do it? Tuff...

If there's no state order calling for businesses to be closed, the people who are unemployed can no longer claim that their unemployment is involuntary, even if it would be utter idiocy for them to return to work. A hair dresser or a massage therapist cannot maintain social distance. But they can certainly file for relief ... unless the law says they can work.

I forgot to grab the link.

But wait there's more... we will now hear from the pot calling out the kettle.

The Paycheck Protection Program was intended to send help to the small businesses that needed it most, but President Trump adopted an approach to help his high-priced friends. We've got to do better.

Here's what I would do if I were president: https://t.co/NXMrGe56Pg

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 21, 2020

Biden: "The TARP PPP was intended to send help to home owners small businesses that needed it most, but president Obama Trump adopted an approach to help The Banks his high priced friends.

Fixed it for you, Joe. But boy doesn't that take big brass ones to say that. Or maybe he forgot what he and MyBoss did during the 8 year reign?

This doesn't look good for all kinds of reasons. Anyone want to bet that the government actually have a plan to keep production running in case of an epidemic? I do, but congress doesn't want to do anything to help main stream Americans because they want the chaos that is coming. This is why no help came to us and why it went to the corporations instead. People keep blaming Trump for how he let this epidemic play out, but what if it wasn't his decision alone to do that? We watched how Bush treated Katrina and Trump Puerto Rico so is really out of the reach to think that there is something sinister going on?

Food-Shortage Fears Well-Founded? Tyson Closes Two Major Pork Plants Over COVID Concerns

Unless they want the country to explode into civil unrest and then they can declare martial law and really get to where we have been heading since 9/11/2001 or earlier

Brown said that so long as most people believed that states were making progress on battling coronavirus, they would accept and adhere to lockdown laws for the time being.

If congress got people money like the rest of the sane world is doing so that people can keep their business from going under and so that people don't lose their homes and can buy food I doubt we'd be seeing the protests. Another feature...? Aw I got it.

It's planned obsolescence is the Prime Directive of every corporation because all these frauds increase profits, which flow to an increasingly thin slice of America's financial elites.

The entire stock market rally of the past 20 years is nothing but a gigantic fraud based on stock buybacks funded by debt. Stocks go up because the majority owners of the stock borrow money from a banking sector that gives nearly free money to financiers and corporations. The corporate insiders buy back shares with the borrowed money, and the company services the loan.

The company's income is devoted to paying the debt taken on to boost the personal wealth of insiders. That's fraud. Or if you prefer, embezzlement.

Take away the stock buyback scam and the U.S. stock market collapses. Take away a Federal Reserve devoted to lavishing nearly free money on financiers and corporations and the buyback scam collapses.

Consider WeWork, all the scooter start-ups, Netflix and Tesla. WeWork was a scam from the start, but there was so much money to be skimmed in selling the fraud to the public that everyone in Wall Street and the corporate media promoted the scam by refusing to look at the actual business.

The same dynamic fueled the absurd explosion of scooter start-ups, as if the business model could ever be profitable. No, the business could never be profitable, but unloading worthless shares in multiple rounds of venture capital was extremely profitable--for insiders.

This is worth a read. So what we're seeing is congress covering up Wall Street's fraud. Got it yet?