President Donald Trump on Monday questioned why the federal government should bail out states facing a funding shortfall as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
“Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help?” Trump asked on Twitter. “I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said at his daily press conference that although he spoke to the president on Monday, they did not discuss the state’s funding gap.
Cuomo continues pressing the federal government almost daily to pass additional funding to assist his state, warning of at least a $10 billion funding shortfall. Three different economic rescue bills passed in Congress, but without bailout funding for state and local governments.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) suggested that states facing funding deficits should declare bankruptcy, as some of them were suffering from unfunded state pension liability.
“There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations,” he said in an interview last week.
Prior to the crisis, Illinois had $6 billion of unpaid bills, as well as $137 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. New York was also facing an over $6 billion deficit.
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