The actress/comedian, Occupy Wall Street enthusiast and former Presidential candidate blames Republicans for the utter failure of the City of Detroit. 

Considering that Detroit has had a member of the Democrat party at the helm in every year since 1962, her rantings don’t make much sense, but such is living in the parallel universe of Roseanne.

Barr doesn’t mention the ‘leadership’ with its  profligate spending that took Detroit to fiscal insolvency in the first place, so, for your reading pleasure, I will. See the illustration near by. I’ve spiced up a Wikipedia page to call your attention to the last half century of ‘leadership’ in Detroit.

Detroit’s finances were officially taken over by over by Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, last March. The decision to take Detroit to Chapter 9 bankruptcty was made last week by Snyder and the man who’s been charged with reorganizing the city finances, Kevyn Orr.  As Snyder put it, the City will probably run much more smoothly now,

Snyder, the man who authorized the filing, said city services should not immediately be affected. In fact, he suggested that the bankruptcy could actually improve city services in the future, because less of the city’s budget will have to be spent on “legacy costs” such as pensions, retiree health care and debt service. “I know many will see this as a low point for in the city’s history,” he said. “If anything, this gets us on the path towards improved services.”

Chapter 9 Bankruptcy includes these changes according to the Federal Bankruptcy Bankruptcy webpage:

The purpose of chapter 9 is to provide a financially-distressed municipality protection from its creditors while it develops and negotiates a plan for adjusting its debts. Reorganization of the debts of a municipality is typically accomplished either by extending debt maturities, reducing the amount of principal or interest, or refinancing the debt by obtaining a new loan.

Although similar to other chapters in some respects, chapter 9 is significantly different in that there is no provision in the law for liquidation of the assets of the municipality and distribution of the proceeds to creditors. 

Forty percent of the street lights don’t work, a former Mayor is headed to prison for corruption, the City has lost 2/3 of its population in the last 60 years with 25% of that occurring just since 2000. Entire neighborhoods have been razed so as not to become an attractive nuisance to squatters and gangsters. Detroit can’t pay its bills or promises to pensioners. As a National Review columnist Kevin D. Williamson put it the other day, 

Detroit’s ruling class is a parasite that has outgrown its host.

Barr would appear to prefer profligacy, insolvency and Detroit’s  destitution  to giving the City a new start. She claims “Repiglicans” don’t want to save Detroit because they don’t want to pay taxes. 

A word to Roseanne: The people of Detroit paid their taxes and got ripped off. Why would we bail out a City riven by corruption without rooting it out? It’s the least they can do for what tax payers there are left.