After first conflating the auto bailout and President Obama saying he didn't let “Detroit go bankrupt,” Fox's Eric Bolling opened this Saturday's Cashin' In by blaming the unions for all of Detroit's woes and for the auto industry moving jobs to markets with cheaper labor, Bolling asked his panel what their solutions were for the city.
If anyone wasn't already aware of the disdain that the talking heads over at Fox have for the working class and for anyone who has ever forbid been a member of a union, it was on full display here. This is their vision for America. Have a fire sale of the commons to all of their buddies in private industry, a race to the bottom on wages and if you can't afford to pay for your own private police force and fire fighters, well, you're on your own sucker.
BOLLING: Jonathan, let's start with you. How can broke, broke Detroit fix their financial mess and frankly, many other cities on the verge in America?
HOENIG: Well, they need to start by liquidating these public sector pensions there. I mean, it's the progressive policies as you pointed out, $18 billion in liabilities on a city that has 700,000 people in it. So there needs to be, in my opinion, two phases here. There needs to be a liquidation phase. I mean, these parasites, these public sector unions, they've sucked the host dry. It's dead. We need to liquidate those liabilities and ideally privatize some of this city. I mean, whether it's the art collection or the land itself, Detroit could thrive, but we've got to get the government and the public sector unions out of the way.
Yeah, that's right. If, heaven forbid you're a union member who would like to see the pension you worked for all of your life honored, you're a parasite, not to be confused with cockroaches like Hoenig who make their living attacking the poor and working class. I'm guessing Hoenig's never, ever, met a single CEO of a company that he'd be willing to use a similar term for. Heaven forbid we'll never see him daring to punch up, when punching down pays so much better.
Not to be outdone, his fellow panel member Michelle Fields suggested lowering taxes on businesses and lowering the minimum wage, and of course, getting rid of all of these pesky regulations. Let the “free market” prevail baby!
After the lone “Fox liberal” on the panel, Jehmu Greene suggested that maybe we allow a fast track to citizenship for any undocumented immigrants who would be willing to move to Detroit, it was of course written off by the last on the panel to weigh in, Wayne Rogers, who, when he's not appearing on one of these “business block” shows is pitching predatory loans to seniors.
ROGERS: Eric, that's not going to do it. Look, Detroit is a microcosm of what could happen to the entire United States. The fundamental part of this is that they have destroyed the inner city. You have a forty seven percent illiteracy, functional illiteracy rate among adults in Detroit. You've allowed everybody in the world to vote for people who don't care. They've overtaxed. They've looted the city.
Now the way to cure this as Jonathan was right about, his second one, which I like best – privatize everything. Privatize not just... take that art collection which is $3 billion, $3 billion... big number, then take all, privatize the fire department. Privatize the police department. Privatize everything. Make them responsible. Cut the budget down to what it can do and then go forward.
BOLLING: Go Jonathan.
HOENIG: Yeah, I would even actually take it one step further away. Privatize the land. Privatize Detroit. I mean, Eric, you pointed out, this is a city that only has 700,000 people in there. You've got hundreds and hundreds of uninhabited acreage. Sell that to The Villages. Sell that to the people that put up Celebration Florida and let a private enterprise handle the infrastructure, the police, the fire, all those elements, make it a low tax, low regulation zone. I'm telling you, it will thrive.
Yeah, that's the ticket. What could possibly go wrong? He's right that it may mean the city is "thriving" for someone, but mainly just those who want to loot it. Too bad no one asked them how well those privatized parking meters are working out for Rhambo in Chicago.
