Your Opinion: Taxpayers will bail out Detroit

Dear Editor:  

Have you written your representatives in Congress, or are you in favor or your tax dollars being used to bail out the corruption and incompetence in Detroit?

Obama has recently "found" $320 million (a handout of $450 for every man, woman and child in Detroit) that it can funnel to Detroit. No doubt it will soon find a lot more that it can re-direct to bail out the Democratic voters in Detroit.

The Detroit Free Press has issued a report on the history of the mismanagement that has been going on in Detroit for years. You can read the report at http://www.freep.com/interactive/article/20130915/NEWS01/130801004/Detroit-Bankruptcy-history-1950-debt-pension-revenue

From one of the initial paragraphs "amid a huge exodus of residents, plummeting tax revenues and skyrocketing home abandonment, Detroit's leaders engaged in a billion-dollar borrowing binge, created new taxes and failed to cut expenses when they needed to. Simultaneously, they gifted workers and retirees with generous bonuses. And under pressure from unions and, sometimes, arbitrators, they failed to cut health care benefits - saddling the city with staggering costs that today threaten the safety and quality of life of people who live here."Â 

I especially liked this section heading, "Cause and Effect: People Leave, Taxes Go Up, More People Leave." The same principle holds true for business, both in Detroit and the United States. Businesses leave because of high taxes, labor costs and government regulation. Higher taxes, higher labor costs and more regulation occur, more businesses to head for greener pastures. 

The following dollar figures have been adjusted for inflation. In 1980 Detroit's per capita debt was $1,600. It grew to $4,600/capita by 2000 and currently is $11,000/capita.

For the United States our 1980 per capita debt was $11,000. It grew to $27,000/capita by 2000 and is currently $47,000/capita. Do you notice a similar trend?  Who will bail out a bankrupt United States? Those in D.C. can't even use the excuse of a declining population or declining revenues for the dramatic increase in per capita debt. Future generations will be saddled with paying the interest on this massive debt.  

Lest you believe the drivel from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid about the need for higher taxes you need to understand that there have been only three years in history of the United States where it has collected more in taxes than it will this year.