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Only the federal government has the ability to borrow money. States have to balance their budgets every year, and whoops, half their tax money has now vanished,
by not2b 7y ago
Only the federal government has the ability to borrow money. States have to balance their budgets every year, and whoops, half their tax money has now vanished, because so many can't work. Delegating responsibility to state governments and simultaneously refusing to provide the needed resources is a recipe for failure. Allowing unlimited profiteering on essential supplies and forcing states to bid against each other, while national stockpiles are withheld to be used for political purposes, means it isn't going to get better.
So we need to stay at home until we're able to test on a much larger scale.
- sjg007 7y agoStates can borrow money if they want, they are called bonds. The Feds can print money or they can sell bonds. That's the difference.
- pasttense01 7y agoNo. Lots of states have very strict limits on the amount of money they can borrow in their constitutions.
- not2b 7y agoThere are also often limits on the purpose the money is borrowed for: in many states they can borrow to fund infrastructure or pay for some other project that spans many years, but they can't borrow to just meet a deficit. The result is that without federal aid we'll see a repeat of 2008 and just after: firing schoolteachers and other state workers, making those who remain take a pay cut, jacking up university expenses even more. And the impact on revenue is going to be much larger than 2008/2009.
- perl4ever 7y ago"half their tax money has now vanished" Well, maybe, but also (some) states have delayed the income tax deadline to June along with the Feds, which is also a problem for cashflow.