What does it mean?
Hopefully, a breakup of the EU and NATO and, thereby, the avoidance of World War III.
By Paul Craig Roberts 6/27/2016 American Free Press
The EU and NATO are evil institutions. These two institutions are mechanisms created by Washington in order to destroy the sovereignty of European peoples. These two institutions give Washington control over the Western world and serve both as cover and enabler of Washington’s aggression. Without the EU and NATO, Washington could not force Europe and the UK into conflict with Russia, and Washington could not have destroyed seven Muslim countries in 15 years without being isolated as a hated war criminal government, no member of whom could have travelled abroad without being arrested and put on trial.
Clearly, the presstitute media lied about the polls in order to discourage the leave vote. But it did not work. The British people have always been the font of liberty. It was the historic achievements of the British that transformed law into a shield of the people from a weapon in the hands of the state and gave accountable government to the world. The British, or a majority of them, understood that the EU is a dictatorial governing mechanism in which power is in the hands of unaccountable people and in which law can easily be used as a weapon in the hands of unaccountable government.
Washington, in an effort to save its power over Europe, launched a campaign, willingly joined by presstitutes and the brainwashed left-wing, who flocked to the One Percent’s banner, that presented the effort to preserve British liberty and sovereignty as racism. This dishonest campaign shows beyond all doubt that Washington and its media whores have no regard whatsoever for liberty and the sovereignty of peoples. Washington regards every assertion of democratic rule as a barrier to its hegemony and demonizes every democratic impulse. Reformist leaders in Latin America are constantly overthrown by Washington, and Washington asserts that only Washington and its terrorist allies have the right to choose the government of Syria, just as Washington chose the government of Ukraine.
The British people, or a majority of them, gave Washington the bird. But the fight is not over. Perhaps it hasn’t really yet begun. Here is what the British can likely expect: The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and George Soros will conspire to attack the British pound, driving it down and terrorizing the British economy. We will see who is the strongest: the will of the British people or the will of the CIA, the One Percent, and the EU and neocon Nazis.
The coming attack on the British economy is the reason that leave supporters such as Boris Johnson are mistaken in their belief that there is “no need for haste” in exiting the EU. The longer it takes for the British to escape from the authoritarian EU, the longer Washington and the EU can inflict punishment on the British people for voting to leave and the more time the presstitutes will have to convince the British people that their vote was a mistake. As the vote is nonbinding, a cowardly and cowed Parliament could reject the vote.
Cameron should step down immediately, not months from now in October. The new British government should tell the EU that the British people’s decision is implemented now, not in two years and that all political and legal relationships terminated as of the vote. Otherwise, in two years the British will be so beat down by punishments and propaganda that their vote will be overturned.
The British government should immediately announce the termination of its participation in Washington’s sanctions on Russia and hook its economy to the rising nations of Russia, China, India, and Iran. With this support, the British can survive the Washington led attack on their economy.
The Brexit vote/ Soverignity, Economics, Controll
Southland road projects could be halted by budget impasse
Southland road projects could be halted by budget impasse
Likewise, road improvements on LaGrange Road, through Orland Park’s shopping district, may also come to a screeching halt, thanks to the budget impasse.
“It’s aggravating,” said Homer Glen Mayor George Yukich, after meeting Friday with state Sen. Christine Radogno and Rep. Jim Durkin, the two Republican leaders who have sponsored appropriations bills in their respective chambers, which Gov. Bruce Rauner has supported.
“They told us they don’t know which way the vote will go,” Yukich said, fearing that if it’s not approved, the construction project may not resume until next year.
The Illinois Department of Transportation issued a statement recently saying it has begun to inform its industry partners that “all of our projects in both construction and engineering phases will be shutting down starting June 30 due to the majority party in the legislature’s failure to pass a balanced budget.”
“There will be no interruption in our projects and programs if the General Assemblyreturns to Springfield and passes House Bill 6585/Senate Bill 3435,” IDOT said in the statement, calling it a “fiscally responsible solution.”
In Cook, Will, DuPage, McHenry, Kane and Lake counties, $665.5 million in projects could be impacted.
Utility work began over a year ago on 159th Street, through Homer Glen and Orland Park, which is being widened from two to four lanes from Interstate 355 at Gougar Road to just west of LaGrange Road, with drainage improvements, sidewalks and street lights. The project was initially scheduled to be completed in 2017, but Yukich figures that it may now take another year.
“Business owners aren’t freaking out yet. They still have access,” he said.
“If they don’t pass this now, I have no idea when they would act on it. Everyone has to work together and no one is working together,” Yukich said.
Will County’s own projects will still move forward, but roadwork being handled by the state in the county could be stopped, said Jeff Ronaldson, assistant county engineer.
In a statement, Rauner said, “Transportation is one of the cornerstones of our state’s economy,” and strengthening IDOT is one of his “top priorities.”
The stopgap funding measure will “allow important projects and programs to continue past June 30 without interruption (and) will keep IDOT’s summer construction program moving forward without delay,” he said.
Steve Brown, press secretary for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, blasted Rauner and IDOT, saying, “Their strategy is to create panic.”
Other projects that could be halted include:
•The widening of LaGrange Road to three lanes in each direction, with a landscaped median from approximately 131st Street to 179th Street. Orland Park can continue with its landscaping work, but some of that is contingent on coordinating with subcontractors on the project so village officials are unsure how much they can accomplish.
•The addition of turn lanes at the intersection of 151st and Harlem Avenue, including a right-turn lane on southbound Harlem for traffic going westbound onto 151, and an additional left-turn lane for eastbound traffic on 151 turning onto northbound Harlem.
•Reconstruction of a mile-long stretch of University Parkway, from the Metra station to Crawford Avenue, in front of Governors State University, in University Park.
•Additional lanes on U.S. 30 from Interstate 55 to Illinois 59 in Joliet/Plainfield.
•Bridge replacement on Torrence Avenue over the Grand Calumet River.
•Construction of a new alignment on Exchange Street in Crete.
•Reconstruction of the I- 55 and U.S. 41 interchange in Chicago.
•Construction of the Interstate 90/94 to Interstate 290 flyover bridge.
•Bridge rehabilitation and added auxiliary lanes at Illinois 171 at I-55 in Cook County
•Bridge repairs on Interstate 80 and various other locations over the Des Plaines River in Joliet.
•Drainage improvements, curb and gutter replacements along Route 7 in Lockport.
•Construction of 95th Street in Naperville/Bolingbrook, from Plainfield-Naperville Road to Boughton Road.
slafferty@tribpub.com
Frank S. Abderholden also contributed.
Americans Reject Elites on National Security
In a stunning new survey, Matt Towery Jr., head of Opinion Savvy, discovered that a majority of the American people oppose the national security policies of the elites.
The implications of this survey for the upcoming presidential election and Senate races could be extraordinary.
Mr. Towery had the courage to ask more politically incorrect questions than I have ever seen in one survey.
The results are heavily in favor of defending Americans from danger and against political correctness when dealing with Islamic supremacism and Sharia law. By margins of 5-1 or even 10-1, depending on the question, Americans repudiate the Clinton-Obama policies of weakness and political correctness.
“The results indicate that Americans’ views are somewhat at odds with the current model of national security, particularly with regard to screening visitors to the United States,” Mr. Towery said. “The survey contacted registered voters on the evenings of June 19th and 20th on their landline telephones and mobile devices. As with all of our surveys, the final data was weighted for several demographic variables to reflect the composition of the electorate.”
In all, the survey results reveal the extent of the alienation between the American people and the political elites on national security.
For example, 67 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the United States’ effort to fight terrorism, compared to just 27 percent who are satisfied. The intensity of this disapproval is reflected in the fact that 53 percent of respondents say they are very dissatisfied and less than 10 percent are very satisfied. This is a stunning 5-1 margin opposed to the status quo.
By 70 percent to 14 percent, Americans believe that visitors to the United States should be screened for supporters of Sharia law. This is another 5-1 ratio.
Among the 70 percent who believe in screening, 80 percent would block them from entering the United States and only 8.7 percent would admit them. This is more than a 9-1 margin. Thus 56 percent of all Americans oppose supporters of Sharia law entering the country.
Americans are very hard-line about U.S. citizens who swear allegiance to ISIS and other terrorist groups. By 83 percent to 8, Americans support stripping such people of their American citizenship.
While millions of Americans support the Second Amendment and their constitutional right to bear arms, they do not think that these rights apply to suspected terrorists. According to the survey, 88 percent of Americans believe suspected terrorists should not be allowed to buy weapons, compared to only 3.3 percent who disagree.
While Americans overwhelmingly believe that suspected terrorists should not have access to guns, they do not support banning guns for ordinary citizens. Even so-called “assault” weapons have very significant support, with 44 percent opposing a ban on them and 49 percent approving the proposal. Given the much greater intensity among Second Amendment supporters, it is no wonder that these measures keep failing in Congress (the Democrats’ current “sit-in” notwithstanding).
This poll begins to outline a new American consensus on defending America and decisively repudiating the elite’s weaknesses.
It is worth your reading and thinking about in detail for yourself.
Your Friend,
Newt
Clinton White House Former Secret Service agent Gary Byrne speaks out
Clinton White House was a den of cocaine and mistresses: ex-Secret Service officer
– Former Secret Service agent Gary Byrne
What bothered Byrne more than the infidelity was the way Bill Clinton programmed the entire White House to accommodate his cheating ways.
Modal Trigger
Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1999.Photo: Getty Images
“I know what the public image of the Clintons is and I know what the real image is. And the real one’s dangerous.”– Former Secret Service agent Gary Byrne
“Anybody who asserts that what I’m saying is not true,” Byrne says, his voice cracking with emotion, “they don’t know any better or they’re flat-out lying.”
AFSCME OUT OF SYNC WITH WHAT ILLINOIS TAXPAYERS CAN AFFORD
AFSCME HEALTH BENEFITS, WAGES OUT OF SYNC WITH WHAT ILLINOIS TAXPAYERS CAN AFFORD
By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner 6/25/2016
Illinois residents, struggling with stagnant incomes in one of the nation’s weakest economies, can no longer pay so much for state workers’ benefits. Illinois state employees, the highest-paid state government workers in the country, need to pay their fair share to bring the cost of their health insurance benefits in line with what taxpayers can afford.
Nowhere is this more necessary than with the benefits provided to state workers who are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. AFSCME is the state’s largest government-worker union, and the health care coverage these state workers receive dictates the benefits for most other state-worker plans.
AFSCME workers receive platinum-level health benefits, but on average only pay bronze-level prices, meaning the average worker ends up paying for less than a quarter of his or her health care, which costs $19,332 a year. State taxpayers subsidize the rest.
On average, taxpayers pick up nearly $15,000 annually in health care costs for every AFSCME worker’s platinum-level plan.
But that’s not all the health care benefits that AFSCME workers receive.State employees who work 20 years or more for the state also receive free health insurance during their retirement. This additional benefit has a cash value of anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 for individual retirees, all paid for by taxpayers. In contrast, such a benefit is nearly unheard of in the private sector.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Illinois’ state workers are also the highest-paid state government workers in the nation when adjusted for the cost of living. Illinois pays its state workers over $59,000 a year, far more than its neighbors.
Illinois state-worker compensation is out of sync with almost every other state, as well as with the private sector. Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed a reform plan to bring state-worker health insurance benefits more in line with what state taxpayers can afford. Under the governor’s plan, Illinois taxpayers would still subsidize 60 percent of AFSCME workers’ annual health care costs. State workers would be asked to pay 40 percent of their costs, up from 23 percent.
The state and AFSCME have been locked in negotiations since their last contract expired in June 2015, with the union demanding an increase in workers’ benefits. AFSCME wants a new labor contract under which taxpayers would pay for more than $3 billion in new state-worker salary, health insurance and pension benefits. Specifically, AFSCME leaders are seeking four-year raises ranging from 11.5 to 29 percent, a 37.5-hour workweek, five weeks’ vacation and enhanced health care coverage.
It’s in the best interest of all Illinoisans to provide health care benefits that are affordable for both state workers and taxpayers. Instead of increasing benefits as AFSCME has demanded, the state should work to bring its employees’ health care benefits more in line with those in the private sector while maintaining effective coverage for state workers.
STATE EMPLOYEE HEALTH CARE IN ILLINOIS
Illinois provides state workers with health insurance coverage through its State Employees Group Insurance Program, or SEGIP, rather than through a private company such as Blue Cross Blue Shield. Because Illinois is self-insured, taxpayers cover a significant portion of any costs that SEGIP incurs.
In fiscal year 2016, SEGIP spent more than $2.7 billion to provide medical, dental, vision and life insurance, along with other coverage, to state workers, retirees and their dependents.
SEGIP and its related insurance programs had 356,609 estimated participants in fiscal year 2016, composed of 100,213 active state workers, 166,501 dependents and 89,895 retirees.
About 35,000 of those active state workers are subject to the state’s collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME. The remaining active workers include other state employees, state- university employees, college insurance program enrollees, teachers and other local employees.
This study focuses primarily on the health care costs of AFSCME’s 35,000 state workers because their health care benefits are currently being renegotiated. Any health care reforms the governor accomplishes with AFSCME will have far-reaching effects because AFSCME’s contract dictates the benefits for other government-worker agreements across the state.
AFSCME WORKER HEALTH CARE COSTS
The average health care cost for an AFSCME worker totals $19,332 a year ($1,611 a month).
AFSCME workers pay for just 23 percent of that cost, or $4,452 a year ($371 a month). That includes $2,904 in premium payments and $1,548 in out-of-pocket expenses such as deductibles and copays.
State taxpayers pay the remaining 77 percent, or an average of $14,880 per worker ($1,240 a month).
Breaking down the costs
State AFSCME workers receive insurance benefits equivalent to a platinum-level plan offered through the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, insurance marketplace. Platinum-level insurance is defined as any plan that pays for 90 percent or more of an individual’s incurred health care expenses (i.e., broken arms, doctors office visits, etc.). Individuals pay the remainder out of pocket through copays, coinsurance and deductibles.
On average, AFSCME workers pay 8 percent of their health care expenses out of pocket. This costs each worker an average of $1,548 a year in copays, coinsurance and deductibles.
The remaining $17,784, or 92 percent, of the health care expenses are funded by premiums paid to SEGIP, the cost of which is split between AFSCME workers and the state.
AFSCME workers pay 16 percent of the premiums, or $2,904 annually. That cost is equivalent to the average premium paid for a bronze-level plan under the terms of the ACA.
The state pays for the remaining 84 percent of workers’ premiums owed to SEGIP, at a cost of $14,880 annually per worker.
In sum, the average AFSCME worker pays a total of $4,452 a year in health care costs. Illinois taxpayers pay the remainder, or $14,880 per worker.
Illinois taxpayers cannot afford this deal. AFSCME workers receive platinum-level benefits but only pay the equivalent of bronze-level insurance premiums. This forces a vast share of workers’ health care costs onto state taxpayers.
Illinoisans, struggling with their own health care costs, stagnating wages and one of the nation’s weakest economies, can no longer afford to subsidize workers’ health care benefits to such a degree.
HEALTH INSURANCE BENEFITS FOR STATE RETIREES
In addition to providing health care benefits to its active AFSCME workers, the state also subsidizes 100 percent of the health insurance costs for most state retirees.
Currently, state workers receive a 5 percent reduction in the cost of their annual insurance premiums in retirement for each year they work for the state. Under this deal, an employee who works 20 years for the state has 100 percent of his or her retiree health insurance premiums paid for.
As a vast majority of Illinois state workers retire with 20 or more years of service, Illinois taxpayers pay for the entirety of those workers’ health insurance costs.
The taxpayer cost of this benefit is $200,000 to $500,000 per employee, depending on when the worker was hired, how long he or she worked, and when he or she retired.
Put another way, an ordinary worker in the private sector would need to have $200,000 to $500,000 in the bank by retirement in order to purchase the same retiree health insurance that most state workers get for free.
Illinois is one of only a few states in the country to offer such a deal. Taxpayers in other states, on average, pay for less than half of their state retirees’ health insurance costs.
Such a benefit is nearly unheard of in the private sector. Only 25 percent of large firms across the country offer health insurance to both their active workers and retirees. And in cases where private- sector workers do receive retiree health insurance from their place of work, those workers typically pay all or most of their insurance premiums themselves.
THE GOVERNOR’S PROPOSED REFORMS
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed health care reforms for AFSCME workers would bring their costs more in line with those in the private sector, while still maintaining effective, affordable coverage for state employees.
Instead of continuing to pay bronze-level prices for platinum benefits, the governor is seeking to realign AFSCME workers’ health care costs so they more closely match their corresponding benefits.
Under the governor’s plan, Illinois taxpayers would still subsidize 60 percent of AFSCME workers’ annual healthcare costs or over $11,600 per worker annually. Workers would be asked to pay 40 percent of their costs, or $7,728 a year, up from 23 percent.
The governor’s reform proposal offers state employees a choice regarding how they want to pay for their increased share of their health insurance costs.
State employees could choose to keep their current monthly premiums and pay additional out-of- pocket expenses, pay the same out-of-pocket expenses but have their monthly premiums grow, or a combination of the two.
While the governor’s reform plan would change how much AFSCME workers would pay for their health care costs, it’s important to note what wouldn’t change under the plan:
The health care options SEGIP provides would not change. The insurance program would still offer the same medical, dental, life and other insurance coverage as before.
The amount of catastrophic protection provided to workers would not change. No matter what health care expenses a worker accumulates, his or her maximum out-of-pocket costs would still equal $6,850 a year.
Retiree health insurance benefits would remain untouched, so state workers would still receive a benefit with a cash value of up to $500,000.
The governor’s attempt to more closely align state-worker health insurance costs with those in the private sector should also be understood in the context of the wages AFSCME members and other state workers currently receive.
In addition to top-tier health care and pension benefits, Illinois state workers receive the highest wages of any set of state workers in the country, when adjusted for cost of living. Illinois pays its state workers more than $59,000 a year when adjusted for cost of living, far more than its neighbors and nearly $10,000 more than the national average.
Moreover, state AFSCME workers have seen salary increases not matched by Illinois’ private sector.
Median AFSCME worker salaries increased more than 40 percent from 2005 to 2014, to more than $62,800 in 2014. During that same period, median private-sector earnings in Illinois remained virtually flat.
Asking AFSCME workers to contribute their fair share for their own health care benefits is not out of line considering that most state workers receive free retiree health insurance, that Illinois state workers in general receive the nation’s highest state-worker wages, and that AFSCME workers in particular have seen their salaries grow significantly over the past decade.
It would also help relieve some of the financial burden on Illinois’ private-sector workers, who are suffering from stagnating wages and massive health care cost increases due to the impact of the ACA. Younger Illinoisans on the ACA health insurance exchanges have been hit particularly hard. Between 2013 and 2015, premiums jumped 132 percent, or by over $1,800, for younger individuals. And in 2016 alone, the average premium for all individuals in Illinois will grow by another 22 percent.
CONCLUSION
Illinoisans struggling to pay ever-increasing health insurance costs are also forced to cover health care costs for state workers represented by AFSCME, to the tune of nearly $15,000 in tax dollars per worker.
AFSCME workers receive platinum-level health benefits but pay much lower bronze-level costs for those benefits. Illinoisans can no longer afford to subsidize that deal. State workers need to pay their fair share to bring the cost of their benefits in line with what taxpayers can afford.
It’s in the best interests of all Illinoisans to provide health care benefits that are affordable for both state workers and taxpayers. Instead of increasing benefits as AFSCME has demanded, the state should work to bring health insurance benefits more in line with those in the private sector while still maintaining effective coverage for state workers.
Madigan wants everyone to pay for failed, corrupt, Chicago Public Schools/ High Salaries, Pensions, Best Benefits
But Madigan’s insistence that Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, receive more than its fair share of state education funding is putting any stopgap deal at risk. Such a demand for special treatment – to the point of scuttling any potential deal – shows Madigan is willing to sacrifice social service organizations if he can’t get his deal. And Madigan’s choice of this sticking point would only serve to bail out CPS and Chicago Teachers’ Union officials who continue to oppose any necessary reforms, even after these groups’ fiscal mismanagement has brought the city’s school system to the brink of collapse.
Once again, Madigan is putting politics over people.
Rauner’s school funding proposal ensures that K-12 education would be fully funded – for the first time since 2009 – and that every school district, including CPS, would receive at least the same funding it received for the 2015-2016 school year. Rauner’s plan increases funding for education by $240 million to meet that goal.
Unfortunately, Madigan and other lawmakers insist that CPS receive $400 million in additional state dollars – with no strings attached.
The resulting delay in a deal is the latest in a series of budget failures. Madigan and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, repeatedly failed to send a budget to the governor for his signature or veto. That includes Madigan’s latest budget attempt, which proposed record spending and a $7 billion deficit. Madigan’s own party struck down that deal in the Senate.
And since the regular legislative session ended, Madigan has also broken his promise to hold special legislative sessions, canceling them for three weeks in a row.
Madigan’s unbalanced budget, his session cancellations and his insistence on a CPS bailout show he’s not interested in compromise.
More importantly, Madigan’s and other lawmakers’ actions signal a profound lack of respect for Illinois taxpayers and the needy who rely on Illinois’ core services.
Just look at how the state spent taxpayers’ dollars over the past 15 years. The budget numbers clearly show, despite Madigan’s claims, the General Assembly’s priorities have not included core services.
As a result of Madigan’s and other lawmakers’ continued games, thousands of social service agencies will remain unpaid, schools may be forced to shut their doors, and taxpayers will have the specter of a massive tax increase hanging over them.
The House speaker can’t continue to ignore what everyone in the state is suffering under: the nation’s third-worst business climate, a shrinking population, the nation’s highest unemployment rate, collapsing manufacturing and the nation’s highest property taxes.
A stopgap budget would get core services funded. But beyond that, lawmakers need to get back to putting people over politics.
Chicago with a 21 percent hotel tax bill.
The ordinance moved quickly through council chambers. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel first introduced the measure on Jan. 13, and later pushed through an amended version of his Airbnb ordinance on May 18, just minutes before the full City Council meeting.
The short-term rental ordinance, dubbed the “Airbnb ordinance,” would impose an additional 4 percent surcharge on short-term rentals on top of Chicago’s 17.4 percent hotel tax. Additionally, this ordinance will track rental hosts by requiring the housing platform to submit a list of the addresses of hosts in a particular ward. The new rule also includes a $60 fee to help the city enforce laws to curtail wild partying and illegal rentals. This fee is on top of the 4 percent surcharge on short-term rentals and on top of Chicago’s 17.4 percent hotel tax. Additionally, it gives Emanuel is including a feature whereby Chicagoans would have the ability to vote against having short-term rentals in their individual precincts – akin to voting for “dry” precincts where establishments cannot sell alcohol.
Similar to the established players in the case of ridesharing, the hotel industry shelled out thousands of dollars to aldermen to secure their support for the anti-Airbnb measure. According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, in the past year, aldermen and their ward organizations took in nearly $30,000 from the Illinois Hotel & Motel PAC.
If the guiding principle were to protect the community from danger, there would have been no need to include a 4 percent tax on top of one of the highest hotel taxes in the country. Just as with hotel stays, this entire tax burden is shouldered by visitors to Chicago. However, Emanuel and the aldermen saw a potential cash cow and didn’t hesitate to throw visitors under the bus to protect the hotel industry. Chicago has one of the highest tax burdens in the country, and with ordinances such as this, it continues to get higher.
Second annual Young Latino Leadership Summit
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Puerto Rico is bankrupt: Is your city or state next?
Puerto Rico is bankrupt: Is your city or state next?
By Andrew Collins
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016
Cracks in the dam
“A new crack has appeared in the dam that restrains a great lake of federal, state, and local debt from inundating the country.”
So reads the ominous lede of Watchdog reporter Jon Cassidy’s story about the implications of Puerto Rico’s recent bankruptcy. As May began, the harsh reality of the U.S. commonwealth’s massive $70 billion debt hit the fan as the government defaulted on a $422 million bond payment.
Puerto Rico has no viable means of ever digging itself out of the hole, a fact that has led to calls for some type of federal bankruptcy declaration and Congressional action. The current bill on the table in Congress, the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), would confer a large degree of power over Puerto Rico’s finances to a seven-person Oversight Board. This board would have authority over debt restructuring and the ability to override the territory’s laws, executive orders, and existing contracts.
Critics in Congress say the creation of such a board is problematic because it undercuts the authority of Puerto Rico’s constitution, which backs its bonds with the “full faith credit and taxing power of the Commonwealth.” This means, these critics argue, that bondholders should get first priority for repayment. Despite their protests, the House has refused to take this constitutional “guarantee” language seriously, undercutting the “full faith” guarantee.
Think about it this way, Cassidy wrote, “as long as your monthly income exceeds your credit card minimum, you’ve got a balanced budget, Puerto Rico style.”
The cities and states to follow
The great danger of any Congressional proposal to help bail out or otherwise fix Puerto Rico’s debt crisis is the precedent it could set for other state and local governments.
“PROMESA sets a political precedent, although not a legal one,” wrote Heritage Actionin a critique of the bill. “States may reasonably conclude that Congress will be willing, when the time comes, to change bankruptcy law in their favor, offer a stay of litigation, and/or offer them novel mechanisms for restructuring debt.”
In his coverage of a study from the Mercatus Center, Cassidy lists the ten states and cities that are most likely to follow Puerto Rico’s example and come crawling to Congress for help with their debt. The bottom ten states – Kentucky, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Maine, California, and Hawaii – are much closer to the basket case of our Caribbean commonwealth than they are to states in relatively good fiscal health like Texas, the Dakotas, Florida, and Nebraska. However as states they are forbidden by federal law from declaring bankruptcy. This makes them less likely than a place like Puerto Rico to fall into insolvency (at least in the short term).
Cities, though, are another matter entirely, and much more likely to try shirking their obligations to creditors. Recent years have given us a number of examples http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/ of this (Detroit, MI; Alabama’s Jefferson County; and Stockton, CA, for starters), and many more cities appear to be on the fritz. These include New York City, with a whopping $46,400 debt per capita; Jersey City, where state and local debt weighs in at $41,800 per person; and Chicago, with a crushing $46,900 in state and local pension debt per person.
Click here to read the full list of the bottom ten states and cities facing bankruptcy.http://watchdog.org/267047/puerto-pension-debt/
Public unions play their game
As debt talks continue to stall, Puerto Rico’s public employee unions have been hard at work pushing to protect themselves in the bankruptcy. As Kevin Glass, Director of Policy and Outreach at Franklin Center, recapped in a op-ed for the Daily Caller http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/16/unions-push-to-protect-themselves-in-government-bankruptcy/, a commission established by the Puerto Rican government recently released a report suggesting that a portion of the debt involved was issued illegally. The report recommended a full audit was needed before attempting any further resolution to the debt crisis.
The problem with that recommendation, Glass argued, is that the head of this supposedly “independent” commission is also the president of the Puerto Rico chapter of the Service Employees International Union. This group has a huge vested interest in the outcome of the debt crisis. If only some debts are going to be paid, public sector unions want the government to prioritize its obligations to their pension funds.
“In any resolution to the debt crisis, unions will want to see every single dime of their own debt obligations to be saved, while finding ways to discount or invalidate other components of the island’s debt,” Glass noted, so having a union leader head up a government-established commission on the issue seems like a conflict of interest.
Just as unions fought to dispute the math surrounding Detroit’s pension obligations when that city went bankrupt, Glass said, “Union shops are trying to obstruct and gum up the works for any potential solution to Puerto Rico’s crisis; what’s needed is an honest accounting by those who do not have such obvious conflicts of interest.”
If more cities go bankrupt, their local public employee unions may look to Puerto Rico’s “independent” commission to see how they can protect their own interests at the cost of other creditors.
Hacker distributing more than 250 files appearing to have been prepared by DNC staff
DNC Researched Clinton Speeches, Travel Records
Hacked documents are latest “Guccifer 2.0” leak
The hacker this morning began distributing more than 250 files–totaling thousands of pages of records–that appear to have been prepared by DNC research staff.
In e-mails to TSG, “Guccifer 2.0” claimed to be from Romania (like “Guccifer”) and portrayed himself as a “hacktivist” with “a lot of fans” and an “unknown hacker with a laptop.” He also chafed at TSG’s prior description of him as a felon. “Ok, but stop calling me the vandal. I’m not a criminal I’m a freedom fighter,” the hacker wrote.
As for the DNC’s claim that the breach was the work of Russian intelligence agents, “Guccifer 2.0” dismissed the assertion as a “Total fail!!!” In recent correspondence, the hacker has used an AOL France e-mail account.
The bulk of the material released today centers on Clinton’s position on scores of domestic and international issues and criticisms leveled against her by assorted opponents. The documents include Clinton’s counterarguments to those attacks from Republican officials and other foes.
Along with Clinton’s tax returns, personal financial disclosure reports, and U.S. Senate travel records, the DNC dossier included
copies of contract documents related to the presidential candidate’spaid speeches.In addition to a “standard” $225,000 fee, Clinton required a“chartered roundtrip private jet” that needed to be a Gulfstream 450 or a larger aircraft. Depending on its outfitting, the Gulfstream jet, which costs upwards of $40 million, can seat 19 passengers and “sleeps up to six.” Clinton’s contract also stipulated that speech hosts had to pay for separate first class or business airfare for three of her aides.
As for lodging, Clinton required “a presidential suite” and up to “three (3) adjoining or contiguous rooms for her travel aides” and up to two extra rooms for advance staff. The host was also responsible for the Clinton travel party’s ground transportation, meals, and “phone charges/cell phones.”
Additionally, the host also had to pay “a flat fee of $1000” for a stenographer to create “an immediate transcript of Secretary Clinton’s remarks.” The contract adds, however, “We will be unable to share a copy of the transcript following the event.”
Other records indicate that the party did not believe that Clinton would face any significant challenge on her way to the Democratic presidential nomination. Two months before Clinton formally announced she was running, a DNC researcher was already examining “Clinton foundation investments” and “Clinton foundation transparency and timelines.”
One of the DNC researcher’s projects was “Countering Republican attacks on Clinton’s record” and “determining the best pushback.”
Along with failing to anticipate the strength of the Bernie Sanders candidacy, the DNC records show that early research focused on Jeb Bush and how the Republican candidate’s ideas overlapped with those of “Bush 41 and 43 non-Iraq foreign policy legacies.” (4 pages)
