MAJOR CITIES NEAR BANKRUPTCY

SPECIAL POST

We all remember the bankruptcies of Detroit and Orange County.  But, more major U.S. cities are precariously close to going down, mostly due to the fact that their pension obligations now coming due far exceed their revenues.  Take Dallas, for instance: they paid out $283 million in pension payments in 2015 and only had $115 million in pension contributions.  Houston has the fourth worst pension debt of any city in the country; there, not even a booming economy and a rising population of workers has made up for poor planning and bad financial decisions.  

It was common practice for cities that were strapped for cash and facing union negotiations to cave in with larger pension programs in order to avoid giving large cash raises.   That was purely the epitome of "kicking the can  down the road."  

Now, the ducks are coming home to collect.  

The plain truth is that our entire country, across all segments of our economy, is on the verge of disaster.  Our only hope seems to be jump-staring the economy and getting tax and pension revenues up.    

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.