With Chicago facing a billion-dollar deficit this year and Mayor Brandon Johnson sporting a 6.6% approval rating, the Windy City has decided to quadruple down on its profligacy. By a 26-23 vote margin, the City Council approved $830 million in new borrowing through a truly bonkers bond scheme that would defer paying down interest for two years and principal for 20, after which the city would have to pay out $821 million, bringing the total cost of the plan to some $2 billion.
This isn’t a “buy now, pay later” loan — it’s buy now, pray later, as there’s no way in hell that the city will ever be capable of paying back such a debt. Chicago doesn’t need another Ponzi scheme that simply punts its debt problem to another decade; the city needs its own Department of Government Efficiency to start slashing spending.
