The United States of Detroit

If you are looking for reasons to be concerned about the state of the union, consider this piece on the Detroit school system. From the Wall Street Journal:

Two years after his appointment as emergency financial manager for the Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb has outsourced many services, unearthed corruption and closed a number of schools…

Mr. Bobb claimed a mandate to overhaul both finances and academics. He launched campaigns to stabilize enrollment—which determines state funding—in hopes of slowing the exodus to suburbs and charter schools. He also conducted hundreds of audits, laid off teachers, privatized services such as busing and custodial work and closed 59 schools.

By his own standards, Bobb has been a success. Here are his standards.

In his interview with the Journal, he said that without his budget cuts, the district's annual deficit—now at $327 million, up from $218 million in 2009—would have grown to more than $500 million. The schools have a $1.025 billion annual budget.

An annual deficit of $327,000,000 (an increase of more than $100 million in two years) is what Mr. Bobb is proud of achieving. I do not wish to belittle that achievement. It probably does reflect heroic efforts and justify his pride. That, however, ought to send shivers down your spine. If true, it means that the Detroit system is not only insolvent but irremediably insolvent. Expenditures over which the city has no control are out of control. No effort however genuine or courageous can save the day.

It does put in perspective the President's statement that government must live within it's means. His idea of living within one's means is a reduction of the deficit by a trillion dollars over ten years. Of course, that's a reduction from last year's projections, which were unprecedentedly high. So we are saving money because we aren't going broke quite as fast as the President had in mind a year ago. Of course a trillion dollars over ten years is less than this year's deficit or last year's deficit, or the deficit for each year for the foreseeable future. That's assuming that the savings are genuine (they aren't) and that we have a future.

Here is how Budget Director Jacob Lew describes the President's proposal:

Today, President Barack Obama sent to Congress his budget for the 2012 fiscal year. This document is built around the simple idea that we have to live within our means so we can invest in the future. Only by making tough choices to both cut spending and deficits and invest in what we need to win the future can we out-educate, out-build and out-innovate the rest of the world.

You just gotta admire that peanut butter cluster of buzz words, rich in sugar and fat but 100% free of logic. We are going to cut spending and invest!

Here is how Jonathan Chait at the New Republic describes the President's budget proposal:

The Budget is a political document. Obama doesn't have the power to enact his priorities unilaterally, so his strategy is to seize the center and portray Republicans as unreasonable. His strategy for doing so revolves around moving the debate from the principle of whether to cut the budget to the specific of how to do so.

That is at least a bit of honesty. The President's budget has nothing to do with any actual decisions about how much we should spend and how we are going to pay for it, let alone how we are going to achieve fiscal solvency. It's all about tricking Republicans into playing the role of bad guys who want to put Grandma out on the curb and take the crutch away from poor Tim. The whole point of that is to make sure that no real spending cuts can succeed.

In Detroit, one Robert Bobb is trying to put the Detroit school system's fiscal house in order. He's failing, but at least he knows what he's trying to do. Meanwhile the President of the United States and his party in Congress and his allies in the press are bending all their will to keep the Federal spigot open. They are congenitally incapable of recognizing ballooning deficits and public debt as anything other than a "political" problem.

Right now, only the Republicans are capable of recognizing the problem. Whether they know what to do about it, or have the courage to act on what they know, or will be rewarded or punished for acting, I don't know.

Comments

[Jimi]

Ken,

"Meanwhile the President of the United States and his party in Congress and his allies in the press are bending all their will to keep the Federal spigot open. They are congenitally incapable of recognizing ballooning deficits and public debt as anything other than a "political" problem."

This is all part of the plan...Cloward-Piven Strategy. The Democrats don't care about solving any economic problems, because as far as they are concerned, if we end up as Crony Capitalists or Socialists, they will be happy as Pigs in Shite, so they are getting their agenda done by default....oh and because of gutless Republicans!

[larry kurtz]

Good eyes, Ken and Jimi; change is in the eye of the beholder. Detroit is a chemical toilet, too long ignored by the Right. South Dakota is the perfect place for these parents and students to migrate. You guys rock!

[BillW]

"Detroit is a chemical toilet, too long ignored by the right"

Larry - you are like one of those dolls that blurts one of about half a dozen canned phrases when the string is pulled. And the intellegence of your comments is aout the same.

"A new nationwide study released by the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research (BACVR) ranks the political leanings of every American city and finds that Detroit, Michigan is the most liberal and Provo, Utah the most conservative."

Detroit has been under the leadership of black, liberal mayors since 1973, and under Democratic leadership for as long as anyone can remember. The NAACP and the UAW jockey for control of Detroit - each more liberal than the other, and no amount of investment and support from the auto companies and the pizza barons has been able to make a dent in Detroit's corruption and mismanagement.

You have to be the only person on the planet who can look at Detroit and see it as anything other than the poster child for the inevitable consequences of liberal thinking.

[larry kurtz]

We spent the night in Provo night before last after going to Inlet Hot Springs and drove home listening to this story on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/15/133776833/the-new-detroit-from-robot-attire-to-150-jeans

The only differences between the two communities are the colors and the religions of the human inhabitants. Both have failed because young people are sick of an america being the arms dealer to the world and are politically disenfranchised by the lies of the oligarchs that have diverted resources to play golf in Phoenix and on Captiva Island.

It's nothing the Yellowstone supervolcano won't fix.

Detroit

[Jimi]

Larry,

Can you explain to us somewhere in America that you like and you think works

[larry kurtz]

My pile is at ip; just click on my name.

Here's the bar: http://www.higheredinfo.org/dbrowser/?level=nation&mode=graph&state=0&submeasure=27

[Jimi]

Larry,

You need ot work on your communication skills. I haven't the slightest idea what the hell you are talking about?; but I am assuming you seem to think Massachusetts is the best place to live....or is a place that works best?

[larry kurtz]

Compare that first link with this one: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/08/10/us-obesity-rates-by-state

and this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red_state,_blue_state.svg

Now, this one: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/the-happiest-states-of-america/

South Dakota fails my tests; it's that simple.

[Jimi]

Larry,

Surely you relize that these statistics change from year to year...are you seriously expecting South Dakota to rank at the highest levels for eternity? And what about other indicators.....economics, financial freedom, personal freedom, education test scores, and population size, etc.etc.etc.

South Dakota is no heaven, but C'mon, each state has it's goods and bads.

[BillW]

Larry,

I think you are a minority of one in classifying Provo as a failure in the eyes of the young people, or much of anyone else. I cannot imagine where you come up with this convoluted view of the world - completely devoid of fact and reason. The typical Provo resident is employed, living in a two parent household, enjoying low crime levels, low drug abuse levels, and all things considered, doing quite well. The typical Detroit resident, however, is living in a one parent home, unemployed, in an environment in which crime and drug abuse are rampant, and holding their hand out for someone else to carry their freight.

Have you ever actually been to Detroit? Do you know anything of Provo other than one night in a hotel with your ear glued to Nina Totenberg telling you how to think and what to say? Or do you sit at home and spew nonsensical crap that fits your absurd view of the world?

[larry kurtz]

How many parent household, Bill? http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/news/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1763191/news/21511.Sons.of.Perdition

[BillW]

2 in Provo, Larry. 1 in Detroit. Contrary to the horse dung your buddies at public radio concoct to discredit religion, polygamy is virtually non-existent in Utah. On the other hand, young, inner city black males have a well documented aversion to sticking around and taking responsibility for their children

[larry kurtz]

So, screw the journalism and pass the Fascists Oligopolizing Xenism, eh, Billy?

[BillW]

Screw the self serving clap trap you read, anyway Larry. 'Journalism' and 'facts' are not synonyms. I am all in for facts, but have precious little regard for opinions passing as news, whether the source is NPR or Fox News. You, on the other hand, seem to have a hard time distinguishing biased opeds from facts. Do you ever consult any sources other than opinion pieces that can be counted on to tell you what you want to hear?

And there you go again labeling those who disagree with you as fascists. Absent facts and reason, name calling is the heart and soul of your gig, isn't it?

Finally, using high falutin' words like "Oligopolizing Xenism" doesn't really help your case much. Remember Larry, a monkey in a silk suit is still a monkey.

[larry kurtz]

Jes plowin' da road, Billy; jes plowin' da road.

[larry kurtz]

Your link to Mount Blogmore is broken, Doc.

[Dave]

"he said that without his budget cuts, the district's annual deficit—now at $327 million, up from $218 million in 2009—would have grown to more than $500 million."

WOULD HAVE GROWN TO MORE THAN $500 MILLION...

(I believe this number is in both nominal AND inflation corrected dollars)

[Jimi]

Dave,

"I believe this number is in both nominal AND inflation corrected dollars"

Obviously you must be tryinig to be funny....and we are laughing.....but do you know why?

[Dave]

Because you don't understand sarcasm and think I'm being serious?

[Dave]

Because my readership boost the ad revenue of this site by 20%?

[Dave]

Because this is the kind of petty drivel you enjoy and you look for any reason (even made up ones) to criticize people with whom you disagree?

[Dave]

Because you are an idjot and you sit in the corner and giggle a lot?

[Dave]

No, no... You go ahead... Why ARE you chortling?

[Dave]

Crickets?