{"id":19556,"date":"2013-11-25T17:52:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T22:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=19556"},"modified":"2013-11-25T17:52:32","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T22:52:32","slug":"after-obamacare-cities-want-pension-bailout-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/19556\/after-obamacare-cities-want-pension-bailout-too\/","title":{"rendered":"After Obamacare, Cities Want Pension Bailout Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After decades of kicking the financial can down the road, some of America\u2019s biggest cities now want to try throwing it up the ladder.<\/p>\n<p>Starting January 1, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/personal-finance\/2013\/10\/16\/detroit-retirees-taken-off-health-care-benefit-plan\/ \" target=\"_blank\">Detroit will move its retirees to Michigan\u2019s federally-run Obamacare exchange<\/a>. Instead of the previous full coverage paid for by taxpayers, each retiree will get a $125 monthly stipend. The move is projected to save the city roughly $120 million.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/articles.chicagotribune.com\/2013-05-15\/news\/chi-emanuel-to-shift-retired-city-workers-to-obamacare-20130515_1_retired-city-workers-health-care-health-insurance \" target=\"_blank\">Chicago<\/a> and other cash-strapped cities are considering similar options.<\/p>\n<p>But the move to offload state and local obligations onto federal taxpayers is just getting started. Writing for City Journal, Steven Malanga explains that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/2013\/23_4_snd-bailouts.html \" target=\"_blank\">municipal debt related to unfunded pensions<\/a> far outweighs the amount owed to retiree health benefits.<\/p>\n<p>To big city mayors the solutions, of course, are identical \u2013 Ask Uncle Sam for a bailout.<\/p>\n<p>At some point, America\u2019s entitlement culture \u2013 up and down the socio-economic ladder \u2013 has to take a back seat to fiscal reality. We\u2019ll see if enough people are ready to have such a debate when the 2016 presidential election rolls around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After decades of kicking the financial can down the road, some of America\u2019s biggest cities now want to try throwing it up the ladder. Starting January 1, Detroit will move its retirees to Michigan\u2019s federally-run Obamacare exchange. Instead of the previous full coverage paid for by taxpayers, each retiree will get a $125 monthly stipend. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1132,229,1031,81,2475,3769,35,1588],"class_list":["post-19556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-bailout","tag-chicago","tag-city","tag-debt","tag-detroit","tag-municipal","tag-obamacare","tag-pension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19556"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19562,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556\/revisions\/19562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}