-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Let’s not forget that our city, county and state governments here were also some of the biggest abusers. They worked with DC to bail out many Chicago, school, Cook County and Illinois programs that are very inefficient and wasteful. This enabled these governments to avoid attempting any reforms to rid these programs of abuse and drive efficiency. I think the number is like $200 billion in Covid funds dumped through the city and state? Now that the funds are drying up, and with no reform in place, here comes the city and state with tax increases and talk of further… Read more »
This is the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ that these dolts did nothing to avoid: the cutoff of Uncle Fed’s spigot.
Will the Chumbolones finally vote this trash out of office? It’s Illinois…do I have to answer??
Some of the earliest “abusers” were the large law firms which were advising their corporate clients how to “cash in.” Many large law firms with millionaire partners got forgivable loans for their own firms and all they had to do was “titrate” their layoffs and cutbacks within the boundaries that clever regulation drafters [also lawyers] had meticulously written. If the government custodians of the handout information would publish the names of recipients and indicate both amounts and repayments (if any), the qui tam process could perhaps recover some funds, plus interest, and expose (while shaming) the abusers. Of course the… Read more »
Does anyone think the fraud in other federal programs is any less? The feds will make an example of a few people and go back to business as usual. No one wants to look at this massive scale of fraud because it show what idiots the federal government can be. The last thing the feds want is anyone questioning social programs in this country which are subject to massive abuse.
One of the things I would like to see Trump do is put together a team of auditors and find out were all the Trillions in these bills is going. Its the taxpayer money, we should know who gets.
A quick look at the list of recipients will show that some, such as Catholic Charities ( +2M ) had their loans “ forgiven “. In fact it was publicized that fraud of less than 1M wouldn’t be prosecuted. Perhaps, hopefully, that attitude has changed.
this Reason piece on 6/20 IRS report was mind blowing as well. Simply unbelievable…..
(https://reason.com/2024/06/24/vast-majority-of-pandemic-employee-retention-credit-claims-are-likely-scams-says-irs/)
Surprise!
The Chumbolones get stuck with the tab. Again.