Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said yesterday that he favors allowing states struggling with high public employee pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout, Bloomberg News reported. “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he said yesterday. “It’s saved some cities, and there’s no good reason for it not to be available.” The host cited California, Illinois and Connecticut as states that had given too much to public employee unions, and McConnell said that he was reluctant to take on more debt for any rescue. “You raised yourself the important issue of what states have done, many of them have done to themselves with their pension programs,” he said. “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.” McConnell’s remarks drew a biting response from state and local officials. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) said that he was stunned by McConnell’s comments, which he called “completely and utterly irresponsible.” Without cash to states, Murphy said, governors will be forced to “gut the living daylights out of every state of America,” slashing budgets and eliminating the services people need. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) tweeted that McConnell “wants police officers to lose their jobs. He wants firefighters to go broke. He wants hospitals to close and sick people thrown out on the street.” McConnell’s statements also set up a conflict with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said yesterday that a “major package” of aid for state and local government will be in the next stimulus legislation considered by Congress. McConnell may also find himself in conflict with President Donald Trump. The president said on Tuesday after meeting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that states will need assistance. “And I think most Republicans agree too, and Democrats,” Trump said. “And that’s part of phase four.”
