Congress, Politics, Society

Illinois Democrat Gives Mitch McConnell A Needed Boost With An Obscene Bailout Demand

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been under fire for his suggestion that states declare bankruptcy rather than seek federal bailouts.  McConnell’s view is that many states like Illinois were near bankruptcy in years before the pandemic because of irresponsible union contracts that agreed to crippling pension plans.  There are good-faith reasons to question the proposal as voiced by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as well as reasons to advocate the bankruptcy approach, including a concern of how such declarations will impact loan money rates etc.  However, the President of the Illinois Senate Don Harmon just gave McConnell a massive boost by demanding a $40,6 bailout, including a $10 billion pension bailout.  I have previously criticized my home state for these contracts that were cavalierly accepted by politicians over the years with little concern for the ballooning debt.

In a column on Friday, even editorial board of the Chicago Tribune has criticized the Illinois Senate’s request for the $41.6 billion federal bailout:

“Let’s stipulate that Don Harmon, rookie president of the Illinois Senate, laid a rotten egg with his recent letter asking members of Congress to give Illinois a $40.6 billion bequest. Assorted politicians and pundits have scorned Harmon’s inclusion of a $10 billion pension bailout, as if a sudden pandemic created a pension crisis that, in fact, Harmon and his fellow Springfield lawmakers spent decades creating,.”

The Tribune editorial board added that “taxpayers across the country should not be responsible for Illinois’ financial mismanagement and particularly its unfunded pension liabilities.”

This could emerge as a blue/red state division.  McConnell is not backing down.  However, it is highly unlikely that the Congress would amend the law to allow such an unprecedented move toward widespread state bankruptcies.  There will be some form of bailout but that does not address the underlying questions.

The media has pounced.  However, there is a valid concern as raised by the Illinois demand about the use of bailouts to address waste or excessive spending before the pandemic.  It is a difficult question to balance.  States that have been more financially responsible do not want to subsidize states that have a long history of debt spending.  Instead of discussing this issue, the media is hitting McConnell as wanting states to go bankrupt. In other words, in attacking McConnell for playing politics, many are playing politics by making McConnell (not the underlying concerns) the focus of the bailout question.  There is a difficult question here in how we are going to address pre-pandemic debt while getting states back into operation.  There is also a growing question about a debt that could destroy the dreams and future of an entire generation.

114 thoughts on “Illinois Democrat Gives Mitch McConnell A Needed Boost With An Obscene Bailout Demand”

  2. “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

    – Warren Buffett

  3. McConnell Wants To Let States Go Bankrupt

    But McConnell’s Kentucky Is A Mess

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky might want to rethink his position on federal aid for the states during the Covid-19 pandemic. He has said states should fend for themselves, but it turns out that Kentucky’s finances are in poor shape.

    “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” McConnell said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday. “My guess is [the states’] first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that. That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of.”

    But Kentucky ranks 46th out of the 50 states on a range of financial metrics, according to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. And the state rates 44th out of 50 according to Truth in Accounting, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that analyzes government fiscal data.

    Kentucky, for its part, has roughly $26 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and $4 billion in unfunded retiree health care obligations. And the state has about $12 billion in bonds outstanding. All those financial obligations amount to about 24% of total personal income earned in the state—compared with an average of 15% for all 50 states. That ranks 44th out of 50 states, according to the Pew Trusts.

    Financial obligations grow when revenue falls short of expenses, as it has done in Kentucky for 11 of the past 15 years, according to Pew.

    Regarding revenue, tax collections for all 50 states are up about 15% on average since the peak quarter before the 2008-09 financial crisis. Kentucky’s collection is up about 6% over the same span.

    Population change may have something to do with weaker-than-average growth of the tax base. Kentucky has grown about 0.4% a year from 2008 to 2018. The 50-state average is 0.6% over the same span. Personal income-tax rates are 5% in Kentucky, in line with the national average.

    Edited from: “Blue States Aren’t The Only Ones With Debt Problems. McConnell’s Home State Of Kentucky Is A Mess”

    Barrons, 4/24/20

  4. America’s Wealthiest States Are BLUE

    Since 2010, American fiscal federalism has been defined by three overwhelming facts.

    First, the country’s wealthiest and most productive states are overwhelmingly blue. Of the 15 states least reliant on federal transfers, 11 are led by Democratic governors. Of the 15 states most reliant on federal transfers, 11 have Republican governors.

    Second, Congress is dominated by Republicans. Republicans controlled the House for eight of the last 10 years; the Senate for six. Because of the Republican hold on the Senate, the federal judiciary has likewise shifted in conservative and Republican directions.

    A state bankruptcy process would thus enable a Republican Party based in the poorer states to use its federal ascendancy to impose its priorities upon the budgets of the richer states.

    When Cuomo protested McConnell’s bankruptcy idea, the New York governor raised the risk of chaos in financial markets. But McConnell does not advocate state bankruptcy in order to subject state bondholders to hardship. Obviously not! When McConnell spoke to Hewitt about fiscally troubled states, he did not address their bond debt. He addressed their pension debt. State bankruptcy is a project to shift hardship onto pensioners while protecting bondholders—and, even more than bondholders, taxpayers.

    Republican plans for state bankruptcy sedulously protect state taxpayers. The Bush-Gingrich op-ed of 2011 was explicit on this point. A federal law of state bankruptcy “must explicitly forbid any federal judge from mandating a tax hike,” they wrote. You might wonder: Why? If a Republican Senate majority leader from Kentucky is willing to squeeze Illinois state pensioners, why would he care about shielding Illinois state taxpayers? The answer is found in the third of the three facts of American fiscal federalism:

    United States senators from smaller, poorer red states do not only represent their states. Often, they do not even primarily represent their states. They represent, more often, the richest people in bigger, richer blue States who find it more economical to invest in less expensive small-state races. The biggest contributor to Mitch McConnell’s 2020 campaign and leadership committee is a PAC headquartered in Englewood, New Jersey. The second is a conduit for funds from real-estate investors. The third is the tobacco company Altria. The fourth is the parcel delivery service UPS. The fifth is the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical corporation. The sixth is the home health-care company, LHC Group. The seventh is the Blackstone hedge fund. And so on and on.

    A federal bankruptcy process for state finances could thus enable wealthy individuals and interest groups in rich states to leverage their clout in the anti-majoritarian federal system to reverse political defeats in the more majoritarian political systems of big, rich states like California, New York, and Illinois.

    Edited From: “Why Mitch McConnell Wants States To Go Bankrupt” by David Frum

    The Atlantic, 4/25
    ……………………………………………………………

    One should note McConnell’s home state of Kentucky is one of our poorer states. Kentucky takes ‘more’ money from the Fedral government than it pays in taxes.

    1. MORE FROM ABOVE:

      No question, many states face serious problems with their unfunded liabilities to state retirees. Illinois’s liability nears $140 billion, and its municipalities are liable for additional billions. California’s state and local unfunded liabilities amount to $1.5 trillion.

      Those liabilities are often described as “pension” liabilities, but they are driven above all by faster-than-expected increases in retiree health-care costs. They need to be addressed, and addressing them will be a tough policy challenge. It will be a tough legal challenge, too, since those liabilities are often—as in Illinois—inscribed into the state’s constitution.

      Difficult and important as these problems are, they are not urgent problems. They existed 24 months ago; they will remain 24 months from now. From a strictly economic point of view, McConnell’s schemes for state bankruptcy are utterly irrelevant to the present crisis. Reducing future pension liabilities will not replenish lost revenues or reduce suddenly crushing social-welfare burdens.

      But McConnell seems to be following the rule “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” He’s realist enough to recognize that the pandemic probably means the end not only of the Trump presidency, but of his own majority leadership. He’s got until January to refashion the federal government in ways that will constrain his successors. That’s what the state-bankruptcy plan is all about.

      McConnell gets it. Now you do, too.

      Edited From: “Why Mitch McConnell Wants States To Go Bankrupt” by David Frum

      The Atlantic, 4/25

      1. In short, Republicans doing what they always do – protect the rich who own an ever bigger part of America’s wealth while blaming our problems on the n….rs and middle-class wage earners. The rubes think a clown like Trump who swings yet another tax cut for people like him somehow cares about them.

        Dumb asses even defend the clown stuff.

        1. What a load of crap. The Democrats do the same thing. That is why they gave Bernie the shaft. Sheeesh, The Queen of Abortions, Good Catholic Nancy Pelosi, holes up in her mansion sucking down expensive ice cream, and you are still trying to run the old “Republicans are the party of the rich” bullcrap???

          While you Democrats are trying to bring in millions of illegal cheap laborers into country??? Sorry, but NO SALE! Maybe back in the 1930s, but not no more. Even Democrats get it!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufduP0bLfAY

          Squeeky Fromm
          Girl Reporter

          1. Yeah, Bernie “got the shaft” by losing the election again while Republicans who love them some tacky Trump gold, denounce Pelosi who at least passes pills putting a watch dog on the bail out $$ and spreading it to those who don’t get invites to Mar a Lago while eating her expensive ice cream. Meanwhile ignoramuses like Sadie Mae Glutz blame it on the n…….rs.

          2. Squeaky, you provide no hard stats. So I had to get them myself. Here’s an excerpt from “Business Insider” that was published in February of 2019
            ………………………………………………..

            On February 11, the US national debt eclipsed $22 trillion for the first time.
            Since President Donald Trump took office, the US has added over $2 trillion in new federal debt.

            The US national debt passed $22 trillion on February 11, the first time the federal debt had breached that threshold.

            The landmark came just over two years after President Donald Trump, who once promised to eliminate the federal debt in eight years, took over the Oval Office.

            But compared with some other recent presidents’, Trump’s debt accumulation is not as stunning as it first appears.

            The US Treasury has been tracking day-by-day debt accumulation since the start of 1993, meaning daily debt figures are available for the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump.

            In raw terms, Trump added the second-most debt of any recent president. According to the Treasury data, the US added $2.07 trillion — $2,065,536,336,472.90 to be exact — in new debt between Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017, and February 11, when the country pushed past $22 trillion. (The US added another $2.8 billion through February 15, the latest daily figures available.)

            That is less than the $3.46 trillion added between Obama’s inauguration in January 2009 and February 11, 2011, but it is more than the $676 billion added under Bush and the $617 billion added under Clinton in their first 752 days as president.

            One important difference between Trump’s debt figures and Obama’s is that Trump has added a massive amount of debt while the US economy has been strong, whereas Obama took over during the depths of the financial crisis.

            Edited from: “The U.S. National Debt Just Passed $22 Trillion. Here’s How Trump’s $2 Trillion In Debt Comares To Obama, Bush And Clinton”

            Business Insider, 2/20/19

        2. Anon isn’t too bright. He thinks that
          Jeff Bezos
          Bill Gates
          Warren Buffet
          and
          Mark Zuckerberg are raving Republicans supporting Trump. Down the list is Michael Bloomberg who ran as a Democratic candidate for President.

          One can’t get dumber than what we see from Anon

          1. Alan, explain why Trump thought Jeff Bezos needed a tax cut. It makes no sense whatsoever from any economic standpoint. What’s more, it’s even more ridiculous when one considers Trump’s personal animosity towards Bezos regarding the WaPo.

            1. The tax cut wasn’t for Jeff Bezos, it was to improve the economy which it did. You have a gripe with the tax system which is one of the most progressive in the world. I disagree with the tax system as well and would gladly substitute the present system with a consumption tax and would even be open to an additional income tax on the wealthier group.

              What is your plan?

          2. “One can’t get dumber than what we see from Anon”

            Yes, one can. We call him “Allan the Idiot.” Likes to think he’s a smart guy. Wants to be a smart guy…, but?

            He isn’t.

            1. Alan’s the nasty guy who formed a dull-but-profitable business. And based on that success, he fancies himself as a tower of common sense-based wisdom. But Alan is really a character straight out of “Dr Strangelove”; a Cold War caricature who’d be hilarious if he wasn’t serious.

              1. Paint Chips, you fail in all areas.

                My businesses are dull? I don’t think so but as usual you are fantasizing.

            2. Anonymous the Stupid. Compare your comments to mine. Yours are almost all Stupid. Look at yourself in a mirror and see the word STUPID written across your forehead.

  5. BofA: “It will be highly disruptive to the municipal bond market broadly and will result in significantly higher borrowing rates at a time when those costs are least absorbable…”

    That’s why you save for a rainy day. It’s a simple lesson, but lessons are only learned when punishment is delivered. Otherwise, the lesson is you’ll be bailed out regardless so why save for that rainy day in the first place. The States need to reorg anyways to get rid of the contractual liabilities that were bankrupting them before the virus came along and speeded up the process.

    1. Ivan, most states have a rainy day fund. But this pandemic is likely to wipe-out all those funds.

      1. That’s too bad. They should have saved much more. They should have kept their debt levels low while the sun was shining. As Obama would say: “This is a teachable moment.”

        1. Ivan, funny you should say that. During the past 20 years this country could have kept its debt much lower. But George W cut taxes ‘before’ invading Iraq. In fact, George W became the first president in history to cut taxes ‘before’ going to war.

          Then, after Obama had modestly brought the level of debt down, Trump and the Republicans rammed through the 2017 tax cuts that overwhelmingly favored the Richest 3%. That tax cut defied classic wisdom by cutting taxes during a robust economic expansion. You see, historically expansions were used to pay-down debt. But that 2017 tax cut greatly added to our debt in the best of times.

          The good times are over so we lost valuable time in paying down the national debt. Consequently the recent $2 trillion pandemic relief fund will balloon our debt to Word War II levels.

          The truth is Republicans are poor managers of the Treasury.

          1. “Then, after Obama had modestly brought the level of debt down, ”

            Oh I thought you were talking this planet, not Earth 17 in another Alternate Universe. I was just about to ask you exactly where up your rear end you pulled that statement from.

            Squeeky Fromm
            Girl Reporter

      2. ” most states have a rainy day fund. But this pandemic is likely to wipe-out all those funds.”

        Actuarily speaking the rainy day fund of the states in trouble was depleted long ago way before this pandemic. All the pandemic did was move the day of reckoning up.

        In the crash we saw how states handled the problems. Florida and Texas didn’t take on debt and both came out well even though Florida in particular was one of the worst hit states. New Jersey and IIliinois took on debt and didn’t do so well. There is no secret to success.

    2. Ivan, you mean like not passing $trillion tax cuts for rich guys when the sun is shining?

  6. My wife is a Chicago native and she was disgusted with the state’s government long before COVID-19 left bats for humans (if it ever did.) The state ruined its finances by spending money it didn’t have. My wife frequently asks where the pot tax money is going. There’s nothing wrong at all with states going bankrupt. Many of them have been on the verge of it for a long, long time.

  7. I suspect Mitch was being sarcastic

    Just in case states do declare bankruptcy, start checking your investment portfolio for state specific municipal bond funds. They are federal & state tax exempt.

    In a research report BofA said the $3.8 trillion muni market where states, cities, schools and other issuers sell debt would “certainly sell off” if the idea garnered support.

    “It will be highly disruptive to the municipal bond market broadly and will result in significantly higher borrowing rates at a time when those costs are least absorbable,” the BofA report said.

    Currently, only cities and other local governments can use Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy to restructure their debt if allowed by their states. Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, commenced a form of municipal bankruptcy in 2017 after the U.S. Congress authorized it.

  8. Anyone who could not see this day coming way back in the 70’s with regard to these totally unworkable union state worker’s contracts was willfully remaining ignorant for the sake of democrat party loyalty. None of the states with such union caused financial difficulty should get a penny from the federal government. Let them be held accountable, at long last, for their cavalier attitude towards the future generations of their state’s citizens. NOT ONE PENNY.

  9. Pension plans that are “defined benefit” as opposed to “defined contribution” will always run into trouble.

    But here’s a post-pandemic question: If certain government workers were sent home as non-essential employees, why were they hired in the first place?

    1. No, they’ll run into trouble if they employ actuaries who do their jobs poorly or if the trustees ignore the actuaries. I do agree with you that defined contribution programs are safer for institutions and should be preferred.

  10. This is very important to state Democratic party leadership and they have no intention of letting this demand drop. Why? Because the party’s political contract with employee public employee unions demands that high end, unfunded pension plans be sacrosanct at the cost of all other state services. The Illinois Democratic party made this pact with this metaphorical devil, and now it is locked in at the price of its very existence. Too bad for those of who live in downstate Illinois, who will end up filling the gap with crippling property taxes. Just watch.

    1. And remember that Franklin Delano Roosevelt HATED public employee unions.

  11. (music)
    Just got in from I’ll annoy, lock the front door o boy!
    Do, do do, looking at my bad toys!
    Mitch may be a dork..
    But Illinois’s a quark.
    Stand your ground, with a hound ..

    Etc

  12. Darren’s posts remind everyone that he’s sick of us. He should enjoy some entertainment:

  13. A cursory look at replies indicate
    that the Dems are now exposed
    for their mismanagement over the years.
    The Governors want control let them
    deal with the Mess not the Federal
    Government.

    1. Which is a meaningless statistic. How does much of other states wealth does New York siphon off thru Wall Street, for example. That would not show on your stats. Plus Connecticut is a big defense spending state, and I am not sure that shows in your stat. Plus, the “non-contributing” states tend to have a slew of blacks, about half of which are worthless and suck up money. For example, blacks make up about 1/3(33%) of Louisiana and only about 15% of New York. Only about 10% for Connecticut. So Louisiana has a lot of dead weight to carry around. Made worse by liberal Democrats in New York and Connecticut passing bills to give money to the dead weight.

      I think the same thing has happened to California with all its illegal aliens.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_African-American_population

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

      1. Does Turley know he has white supremacist posts on his blog every day.

        What is Darren doing? Is that not his job?

        2. Did someone say “white supremacist?”

          Excuse me, “Crazy Abe” Lincoln would like to say a few words just to flesh out the discussion and enjoying his constitutional freedom of speech.

          Go ahead, Abe.

          Ahem!

          “If all earthly power were given me,” said Lincoln in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, “I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution [of slavery]. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land.” After acknowledging that this plan’s “sudden execution is impossible,” he asked whether freed blacks should be made “politically and socially our equals?” “My own feelings will not admit of this,” he said, “and [even] if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not … We can not, then, make them equals.”

          – Abraham Lincoln
          _______________

          I understand that “Crazy Abe” was inquiring about the temporary donation of a few good cruise ships but, suddenly, his mind was changed. “Crazy Abe” was, after all, a patriotic American and he grasped fully the nature and character of the nation as prescribed four times by its Founders in their Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798 and 1802, passed within the year of the adoption of the Constitution, that citizens must have been “…free white person(s).” Who among us knows which nation, of which “original intent,” we’re in? Who among us knows the nature of persisting incongruously and against the grain?

      2. Next time, drop the pin and throw the grenade, not vice versa. You destroy your own point and credibility with ignorant racially tinged logic.
        Is that you Hillary?

        1. Call it racially tinged all you like, but the question is, am I right? I suspect a lot of white people don’t want to think about that. But here is the reality – American black women have a 77.3% illegitimate birth rate. How well off financially do you think that group is going to be? Only about 69% of blacks finish high school, and I suspect a large number of them have been socially passed along from grade to grade. So again, how well off financially do you think that group is going to be? About 1/3 of black males have criminal records, so how well off financially do you think that group is going to be?

          Here is an indication:
          ———-

          -Single black women without a bachelor’s degree ages 20–39 have a net worth of $0.

          -Single black women without a bachelor’s degree ages 40–59 have a net worth range of just $1,000 to $2,000.

          -Single black women without a bachelor’s degree age 60+ have a net worth of just $12,000.

          -Single black women with a bachelor’s degree ages 20–39 have a net worth range of -$11,000 to $0.

          -Single black women with a bachelor’s degree ages 40–59 have a net worth range of just $6,000 to $9,500.

          -Single black women with a bachelor’s degree age 60+ have a net worth of just $11,000.

          https://www.blackenterprise.com/the-net-worth-of-the-single-black-woman-devil-in-the-details/
          —————-
          Of course the report at the link blames all that on racism. but what else do you expect? For the younger ones, I blame it on them, and on their mothers for bringing them into the world with whatever random POS they were laid up with at the time.

          Squeeky Fromm
          Girl Reporter

        2. Trust me.

          You pull the pin and throw the grenade.

          Given the situation, there is not a lot of focus on actually dropping the pin.

      3. Squeeky, once again your estimation of Blacks makes us seriously wonder why you want to stop Black women from having reproductive choices. It’s like your comments could be Exhibit # 1 to illustrate the hypocrisy of White, Red State Conservatives.

        2. Because as lousy as they are as a group, they are still human beings. The things that make them worthless could be fixed within a few years, but I suspect that will not happen because the Democrats like their voters/cheap labor barefoot and pregnant and broke.

          Squeeky Fromm
          Girl Reporter

    2. A misleading statistic that I hear being thrown around by Gov Cuomo and others lately. Federal funding is really federal spending, which includes federal payrolls, federal military contracts/bases, social security and Medicare. The latter is important because many NYers leave the state when they retire. It’s not just Washington DC writing checks to the states.

    3. He words moral hazard come immediately to mind. Give the farm away to keep getting re-elected and just wait for a national crisis to demand federal subsidy.

  15. I don’t support the pension request but states cannot legally declare bankruptcy. MCCONNELL should back down off his high horse but then he doesn’t really care about this issue or any other. He’s happy to shunt billions to companies who have been sucking up billions like the oil companies and the banks. He was happy to give coordinating billions in tax brakes under the guise of saving and creating jobs and then watched as they fired workers and engaged in massive stock buybacks.

    He has made it clear that the lion’s share of financial assistance in this time of Covid 19 will be handed out to Republicans and corporations without regard to need. You can construct any argument you want to try and excuse him but you can’t. He’s a petty, vindictive man whose loyalties are to his own pocket and powers as well as those of his leader, DONALD Trump.

  16. Illinois and The DEM’s are fools, they have mismanaged Illinois and other States for years, made a lot of promises for retirement benefits, under funded the pension plans, mismanaged them and now its The Virus that they look to save them.

    Mitch is right. NO funds to bailout states mismanagement. OK to help states with expenses on the Virus BUT NO to mismanaged and bad management and etc. to States, mainly DEM/Blue states.

    Nancy Pelosi will load up the 4th bill but suggest it will be cut cut cut cut down with many of her goodies.

    Stand firm Mitch

    1. State
      federal district
      or territory Gross collections [1]
      ($ in 000)

      California 456,555,954
      New York 281,220,376
      Texas 280,048,364
      Florida 205,694,126
      Illinois 161,189,282
      Ohio 140,891,209
      New Jersey 138,976,784
      Pennsylvania 136,268,950
      Massachusetts 117,998,443
      Minnesota 99,354,057

      1. We just shut down the entire nation for a problem that was geographically limited to a tiny area of the nation, the NY Metropolitan area. A few other areas had significant outbreaks but the country as a whole was mostly spared. The leading cause for the transmission of the Covid virus in NY and likely some other hotspots so happens to be the transit systems. Did NY close their transit systems? No. Did they open their nursing facilities to the disease? Yes.

        This has cost the nation trillions (more than what was spent) and will cost future generations dearly.

        Flattening the curve so not to overload the hospitals was the initial reason. Everyone should read today’s post by Darren Smith who did a fantstic job and should be thanked for his efforts.

        1. We just shut down the entire nation for a problem that was geographically limited to a tiny area of the nation, the NY Metropolitan area.

          The New Orleans commuter belt was most severely affected, followed by that of New York, then Detroit. Seattle was initially, but the flow of severe cases then receded to where the severity of their situation was no worse than average.

          As of yesterday, I believe New York has now surpassed New Orleans. The number of deaths per resident in the New York commuter belt (about 20 counties in New York and New Jersey) was over 1,000 per million. That in the Connecticut coastal urban complex was north of 600 per million. That in greater Hartford just shy of 600 per million. That around Boston is 450 per million. That around Springfield, Massachusetts is 450 per million. That around Providence is 200 per million. Around Worcester, Mass. is also 200 per million.

          As we speak, the death rate in the Philadelphia commuter belt is 185 per million, that around Baltimore is 100 per million, and that around Washington is 150 per million. That around Pittsburgh is about 70 per million; that around Richmond 100 per million; that in the Virginia Tidewater < 30 per million.

          The death rate around Detroit is just shy of 500 per million. That around Chicago is 180 per million. That around New Orleans is now 750 per million. That around Houston is 260 per million. That around Atlanta is 65 per million. (That around Albany, Ga is 900 per million).

          The factors which make this lethal appear to be quite localized. And we don't know what the salient factor is yet.

          1. “we don’t know what the salient factor is yet.”

            DSS, You don’t think the leading possibilities for spread are mass transit, visitors from abroad, density etc.? For higher death rates age and illness? For both social factors? That is off the cuff so I may have left out some things.

            1. You have a number of vectors, none are a solitary explanation. You have intensive use of mass transit in Japan, which has seen about 300 deaths in toto. In this country, New York is notable for it’s mass transit system, so you’d figure that. Well, Chicago and the Bay Area aren’t lacking in mass transit. I’ve seen speculation that the airport might be a source of Detroit’s problem. Well, you’ve got massive airports in Chicago and Atlanta. Mardi Gras has been identified as a source of the disaster in New Orleans, which is a possibility. New Orleans death rate exceeds that of Miami by a factor of 7, Miami’s tourist trade notwithstanding. You can figure the commuter population in coastal Connecticut would make extensions of New York’s problems, but why has this extended to Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts? (It hasn’t to Philadelphia or the Upstate cities in New York). They’ve identified the source of Albany, Ga.’s horrid problems: it was two (2) funerals held around 1 March.

              1. “You have a number of vectors, none are a solitary explanation.”

                DSS, there is no solitary explanation except Covid is a virus and does what viruses do.

                ” mass transit in Japan, ”

                Let me provide a bunch of off the cuff possibilities. First you need the carrier. Did Japan have as much interaction with persons from Wuhan. I think they paid better attention to who came into the country and out breaks were better and more strictly isolated earlier on. Japanese will wear masks when they are ill, and may have better hygiene, etc., but there can ba a load of reasons not even considered.Temperature and humidity can be one of those reasons. Though the differences in Temperature aren’t that great Tokyo is warmer, has more rain and doesn’t cool down as much at night.

                From the spread of disease in Metropolitan NYC one can probably see the spread based on the multiple types of transit plus the secondary spread of the wealthier group that went to various areas without mass transit.

                I am saying that for NYC mass transit (along with the rest stated) and subsequent migrations was probably the major cause and that area encompasses about 50% of the deaths in the US.

                Another important issue among families was closing schools so that in less afluent areas the grandparents may have been more active in taking care of the grandchildren.

          1. “Too drunk to fish, too stupid to post on the internet.”

            Anon, You would be correct if you were talking about yourself

            1. Anonymous the Stupid are you saying the next Anonymous the Stupid Award should go to Anon? He’s in the running.

      2. Thanks, Book. It’s fascinating that Minnesota ranks that high. In terms of population it’s considerably smaller than most the states on that list.

  17. So, sanctuary states like New York, California and Illinois are running out of money for their citizens?
    March 2019, New York state budget, $500 million for health care fore illegals. California $75 million for illegals to receive $600 check, etc.

  18. California’s pension mess is just as bad. Hate to see what NY is like.

    1. As of 2011, New York and Wisconsin had the most actuarially-sound pension systems in the country.

      2. Wisconsin is required to fund its employee post-retirement benefits currently and our tax rates have long reflected that. Until recently it gave Illinois (our southern neighbor) a huge competitive advantage but their can finally met the end of the road. To bailout their pension plan would be a big slap in the face for the states that didn’t kick the can. Further it would set a terrible precedent going forward.

        1. This is very important to state Democratic party leadership and they have no intention of letting this demand drop. Why? Because the party’s political contract with employee public employee unions demands that high end, unfunded pension plans be sacrosanct at the cost of all other state services. The Illinois Democratic party made this pact with this metaphorical devil, and now it is locked in at the price of its very existence. Too bad for those of who live in downstate Illinois, who will end up filling the gap with crippling property taxes. Just watch.

    2. Not due to the pension problems, though they probably add to it, I am considering selling my home in Manhattan. It’s upscale and in a wonderful location for me but it just doesn’t seem to be worth it any longer. I am sure property values are in the toilet so I might just have to hold it for many years even if I choose not to return.

  19. I do not want to bailout crooked Illinois, or crooked New Jersey, or any other crooked state. Here is the common sense approach. First, go back to what a pension is supposed to be. It is supposed to be something that supports people who are old and no longer working. It is not supposed to be something that allows old people to live it up in style, jet off to Europe, and $16 per pint ice cream. That is something that should come from their own earnings during their working years.

    But many state employees get pensions in excess of $100,000 per year because of their high earnings – like mayors, and state hospital doctors and state university professors and admin. Meanwhile Joe Cop and Bob Fireman get maybe $3-4,000 per month.

    There needs to be a maximum pension in a state of about that $3-$4000. Doctors and professors and other high earners had enough income while working to sock all kinds of money aside, and they should have. They should not reap a bonus and continue to be overpaid when not working.

    That is what a state bankruptcy can do. Reset the scale downwards to where Joe Cop doesn’t starve, while Fred Doctor lives it up on the pension money.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. That’s absolutely right Squeeky. In my business, I see 1099’s for CalStrs and CalPers typically exceeding $100k. Contrast that with DFAS pensions like mine that are typically less than a 1/3 of theirs. Even a 100% disabled vet barely makes $50k. And during this crisis, which group are furloughed or laid off because they are considered non-essential employees?

      1. And the same is true for social security. The richer people will get the max per month, around $2,800 while the average retired person gets about $1,350. Some get a lot less. The richer ones will have to pay some tax on theirs, but still the inequities continue.

        Then, if they get a 5% COL adjustment, the richer person gets about $140 extra, while the poor ones might get $65. Why don’t they reverse-ish that for a while and get the broker ones caught up a little.

        Hopefully, the whole coronavirus bailout thing while wake up America to the fact that we can print a trillion or two her and there without any bad effects.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

        1. “but still the inequities continue.”

          Squeeky, since Social Security is paid based on how much income is earned what you are saying is that you do not believe that Social Security payments should reflect how much was paid in.

          There are two things that even change the dynamics more. The lowest income group get a boost from the amount they would be getting if the calculations were the same for everyone. The second thing is that people with a moderate amount of income will have 85% of their social security taxed. If one uses a bracket just slightly higher than 25% one-quater of the money disappears as taxes.

          This is not a good place to further the game of ‘the richer get richer’ since as you do that Social Security turns into a welfare program.

  20. ILLINOIS DEMOCRATS CREATED THE MESS…..LETS SEE THEIR PLAN TO FIX!!!!!

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