[quote=briansd1]CA renter, your solutions won’t work. They are all conditional on each other and that’s not how the real world works.

In the real world, you get what you can.

If nothing is done, municipalities will go into bankruptcy one after another. That could be the best solution of all.

The response to the financial crisis is the same. If Congress won’t act, the Federal Reserve must step in.[/quote]

Brian: I’m curious. What would Congress do (if it acted)? And, what would the Fed do (if it acted)?

There is a much larger story here and it will have a catastrophic effect on unions, Big Labor and those city (Chicago, NYC, LA) and state (Illinois, California) “machines” that control votes, dispense patronage and provide significant GOTV muscle for the Democratic Party. You can certainly argue that demographic shifts are going to affect the Republican Party, especially the base, but what’s happening now across the country will have a similar destabilizing effect on the Dems, too.

Hence, the all-out, total war nature of the Scott Walker recall in Wisconsin. Following that loss, public sector unions in Wisconsin began shedding membership in droves: http://www.chieftain.com/business/election-losses-shake-afscme/article_af844dbe-b1df-11e1-8e63-0019bb2963f4.html. Loss of membership means loss of dues and loss of dues means less clout in pushing Dem politicians at the local, state and federal level.

When you consider CTA and CCPOA clout in California, such losses would literally change the calculus in the state, especially when you consider how much money the CTA spends: http://www.arnoldwatch.org/articles/articles_000802.php3, how it encourages teachers to use their classrooms as bully pulpits: http://capoliticalnews.com/2012/05/27/cta-encourages-teachers-to-use-classrooms-to-promote-political-agenda/ and the outsize influence it wields as a result. You wonder why Governor Brown is shit-scared of these people and is unwilling to make any serious changes?

If this influence peddling begins to erode as a result of municipal bankruptcies, changes in CBA and the increasing pisstivity of voters, well, maybe there is hope for this state after all.