DeMint: No Pension Bailout for States

A growing national effort to make sure the federal government doesn’t bail out states that run their pension systems into bankruptcy is targeting the governor of Illinois, Fox News reported.

Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois last year said part of the state’s plan to reduce its $167 billion shortfall would be to see help from the federal government. The Democrat’s plan would be for the federal government to rescue the pension program through buying the state’s bonds.

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina is determined to stop any effort for a bailout and has joined the Illinois Policy Institute’s national “No Pension Bailout” campaign, which is trying to stop Congress from rescuing state and municipal pension plans.

“Our greatest concern is states will assume they can run their pension systems into bankruptcy and then turn to the federal government for bailout,” DeMint told Fox News.

“Bailouts have become a popular solution,” the group writes on its website, nopensionbailout.com, “They’re ‘saving’ banks, auto companies--even countries. But bailouts destroy accountability, destroy incentives and trample on sovereignty. They run counter to the principles on which America was founded.”