Prairie State Wire

Business owner Margot Day Henshaw understands profit and loss. She may not be a politician, but she supports Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that states consider declaring bankruptcy if they cannot pay their bills, especially with massive shortfalls in pension programs.

McConnell is a Kentucky Republican in his sixth term. He raised the idea in an interview with radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on April 22, causing considerable media attention and responses from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments needs to be thoroughly evaluated,” McConnell said. “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”

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Henshaw, owner of The Prince’s Table and Liberty Luxury, provided her take on state spending in an interview with North Cook News. She admitted not closely followed McConnell’s plan.

“But I always think that the root of the problem must be addressed and the taproot of this seems to be the public pension system here in Illinois,” Henshaw said. “So if bankruptcy allows the pension contracts to be renegotiated then that might actually provide a solution. There are other contributing issues though — we are a sanctuary state and our social workers are not allowed to ask for any qualifications for aid now — and if there is a minor child involved there is no waiting period to receive benefits they begin immediately."

“Between the Section 8 Housing, Medicaid, disability payments, EBT cards, unemployment compensation, Workman Comp. etc, we have a flourishing ‘Welfarian Sector,’ which needs to be discouraged rather than encouraged,” she told Prairie State Wire.

Henshaw noted than in bankruptcy, vendor debtors are often forced to accept a fraction of what they are owed.

“We do not need a bankruptcy like the GM situation where the vendors were last in line and the unions were first,” she said. ”The unions have caused this problem and need to bear the brunt of the pain. It would be great if we could then disband them. Even FDR the old socialist said that there could never be public sector unions.  The difference between public sector and private sector unions is that in the private sector, until GM, the unions would be the loser and their contracts not honored. We certainly do not need that kind of bankruptcy.”

Henshaw offered this plan to change the Illinois public pension plans:

“Here's what you paid in, we will call it X. Here is the interest on that money, call it Y. X + Y = Z. Z is your number — would you like that in a lump sum or payments over 20 years?”

Now that she has settled that, Henshaw turned to other matters.

“Then we need to address other issues like Sanctuary State Status, which we cannot afford, and things like no-bid contracts and other examples of graft and corruption,” she said. 

Henshaw turned a page of Illinois history to make her next point.

“It is highly instructive that when former Gov. Rauner tried to amend the public pension system to make it sustainable, all we heard was that the pension deals were enshrined in the Illinois State Constitution — the holiest of sacred cows,” she said. “Now that Pritzker wants to change the state income tax scheme to a graduated system, we are told to vote to change the Constitution to further tax ourselves into serfdom with a graduated state income tax. Moo — the udders are running dry and the calves keep appearing as we run out of teats altogether.”

Henshaw once again turned to math to drive her point home.

“Also, public 'servants' need to be reminded that the rest of us fork over 15.3 percent of our income for Social Security; 7.65 percent out of our paycheck and then the employer has to (silently) match that — 2 x 7.65 = 15.3 percent — the biggest lie."

“Wealth is conscripted before it ever touches the hand of the person who created it through work and expense of life, time,” she said. “Small wonder Mrs. Pelosi has such a conniption when President Trump says he wants a payroll tax cut to take some of the pain out of the Covid 19 debacle. He is getting to the source of her tremendous power."

“Giving a payroll tax holiday or reduction would pull the curtain away on this scam, and it is a scam,” Henshaw said. “Employees should have to write that whole check themselves, to bring home the fact that they will be surrendering about a third of their wealth to the payroll taxes, AKA socialism.”