Comments on: Did Wall Street nix GOP push to let states go bankrupt?

By: Johnny_Lawrence

Johnny_Lawrence — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:02:24 +0000

For those of you citing the Contracts clause and arguing that this would be unconstitutional:

“No state shall . . . pass any law . . . impairing the obligation of contracts.”

This would be a federal law–as bankruptcy courts are arms of the federal judiciary. When you hear about “Chapter 7 bankruptcies,” for example, we are talking about Chapter 7 of Title 11 of the United States Code. The Contracts Clause does not restrict the ability of the federal government to interfere with existing contracts.

By: n84daride

n84daride — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:57:50 +0000

Why should any state be allowed voting rights if it can’t be fiscally responsible! Might suggest those states that file bankruptcy, and they will, should loose state rights and become territory’s until they can demonstrate they are capable of containing their foolish spending and give aways. I, for one, care not to bail out any state that cannot meet a payroll or balance a budget.

By: GirthBrooks

GirthBrooks — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:25:04 +0000

There are three solution options:

1. Punish the government employee union members who voted for the union officers who greedily negotiated these ridiculusly unaffordable pensions (this is the “allow states to declare bankruptcy” option).

2. Punish the residents of those states whose cowardly elected representatives stupidly negotiated from positions of weakness in allowing those union officers to greedily negotiate these ridiculusly unaffordable pensions (this is the “make the irresponsible states bail themselves out on the backs of their own taxpayers” option).

3. Punish all American citizens equally, both the responsible and the irresponsible, including those in most states who elected intelligent representatives to negotiate from positions of strength in preventing those union officers from greedily negotiating ridiculusly unaffordable pensions (this is the “make the responsible states bail out the irresponsible states on the backs of all American taxpayers” option).

By: dardyl

dardyl — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:50:39 +0000

The Constitution says that no state shall make a law impairing the obligation of contracts. If states can declare bankruptcy, they could restructure their spending as well as their revenues at the state level. This would include restructuring government contracts and that would mean auto unions or any unions might find themselves in jeopardy, after the nation had bailed them out, so that a state could survive. This would be putting the state’s interest above the nation’s. Unconstitutional. However, as with so many things, I believe we should have let some bankruptcies take place and when asked to do what we can for the nation, after having a taste of what it could be like, we might be more receptive to the idea. In the Great Depression, people lost EVERYTHING and had to scrape and work to survive and rise again. That might be good for America, remind us what we were all about, and we might not belong to China. (and I am not talking about the people who have lost their jobs or pensions–they have not only had a taste of it, but a whole meal!!)

By: ARJTurgot2

ARJTurgot2 — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:33:48 +0000

Please take the time to read the U.S. Constitution; Specifically Article I Section 10. After you’re done, explain how this particular effort by the GOP is not going to be declared unconstitutional.