TANSTAAFL: "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch". "Money doesn't grow on trees". "Wealth must first be created before it can be 'redistributed,' and 'redistribution' prevents wealth creation". "You can't spend money you don't have". "You can't spend yourself rich".
Why all of the above? Because sooner or later, the piper must be paid.
Say hello to the piper, Illinois.....:
The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday unanimously ruled unconstitutional a landmark state pension law that aimed to scale back government worker benefits to erase a massive $105 billion retirement system debt, sending lawmakers and the new governor back to the negotiating table to try to solve the pressing financial issue. [emphasis added]
....and Chicago:
Decades of craven trade-offs by Chicago and Illinois politicians hit taxpayers with costly consequences once again Tuesday. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the city’s credit rating by two notches, to junk. That means Chicagoans likely must pay much higher interest to borrow money for the city’s many needs. And the spreading awareness that Illinois governments can’t control their pension crises casts new suspicion on the creditworthiness of cities, suburbs, towns and school districts Statewide — that is, on many of the 7,000 local governments here in what we've called the Government State.
In slashing Chicago paper below investment grade, Moody’s said Friday’s pension ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court dims the city’s options for fixing its problems: “The negative outlook also reflects our expectation that Chicago’s credit quality will weaken as unfunded liabilities of (City Hall’s four pension funds) grow and exert increased pressure on the city’s operating budget.”
Warnings of the last decade are coming true: You can blame the collapse of this city's, and this State's, credit ratings on the Chicago and Illinois pols who traded sweetheart pension deals to public employee union officials in return for campaign money and muscle.
Understand two other very important things: (1) The self-inflicted fiscal hell into which Illinois and its largest city are disappearing is the same destination toward which every other non-right to work State and municipality is heading, and (2) this is what Governor (and eventual President) Scott Walker took on and defeated in the State to the Land Of Obama's immediate north over Big Labor's rabid, maniacal opposition.
The lesson? The Left is not going to, in the words of Dylan Thomas, "go gentle into that good night"; they will "rage, rage, against the dying of the light". And they're going to make everybody else pay for it.
Exit questions: Think Illinois GOP Governor Bruce Rauner - who was ostensibly elected to, you know, actually responsibly address this crisis in real-world terms, which means following in Governor Walker's footsteps - will get his constitutional amendment "allow[ing] the state to move forward on common-sense pension reforms" past a majority of Illinois voters? Think Governor Rauner will even live out his term? The latter question is far less rhetorical than the former.
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