There are those I know who say all I do is complain and criticize.  I’d like to believe I’m being real, pointing out the obvious, and in the process forcing folks to use their brain and objectively think things through.  I will concede this though, I’m am not, nor will I ever be, politically correct.  Political Correctness has proven to be similar to trying to find the clean end of a turd so you can pick it up… in my case for certain, that’s not possible.  That being said, here we go…

The US Virgin Islands, like many other municipalities, territories, states, and even the Federal government, has a very big problem.  It has very large sums of debt per capita.  Our tiny territory with roughly 105,000 inhabitants, in many cases has higher per capita debt than other debt ridden, troubled places like Illinois, California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico which all have populations numbering in the millions.

There are $billions, all told, in unpaid bills, deficits, and pension liabilities, and we, the voting public, don’t have visibility on all of the liabilities. For Virgin Islanders, running structural deficits is unfortunately the norm, and its very public now that our election system, local democratic party, and overall government is dysfunctional, to be nice; corrupt to be perfectly honest.  Under the inept ministrations of selfish politicians of all ilks, the concept of service, above self, has long since died a quiet, deliberate death… but we’re not alone.

Our Virgin Islands government, not unlike many others, especially under both liberal and establishment career politicians, has been a textbook example of how the elite few corruptly twist our representative republican form of government to both exploit and keep uniformed, the many.  These corrupt politicians are bold though, in the Virgin Islands, the democrats and their political allies have, in various forms, bribed, bullied, and bamboozled the low information, low IQ many, in order to maintain their grip on power.  They have gamed our system of government and are openly mocking the rest of us.  

But back to our problem.  Typically, governments borrow and make promises which pushes costs into the future.  The bill is coming due, and GERS, our public pension system is a poster child illustrating the problem with untenable political promises. Depending on which source you choose to believe, GERS needs a monetary infusion of between $600 million to $1.2 Billion to dig itself out of its financial hole and become viable… or for the present set of retirees anyway.  Nationwide, it’s estimated that the total of unfunded pension liabilities of all states is somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 trillion, give or take several billion… much more if you include liabilities of municipalities of US cities and counties. So the problem is not just here in the US Virgin Islands.  We must act quickly.

Unlike the Federal government, which can ‘print’ money, well conjure currency really, out of thin air… an entity such as our tiny unincorporated US Territory must actually make its budget balance.  Something private sector businesses and families come to grips with on a monthly basis.  We only have so much credit available and our government has driven our credit rating to JUNK in the bond market.  So what’s left for us?  What other realistic options do we have to bail ourselves out without forcing the private sector, as the state of Illinois is doing, to pay the bill for bankrupt government and its retirees?  Don’t forget, we private sector folks will get to pay the bill, but we don’t get any of the benefits.  Again, what option do we have?

We have to beg. 

There are limits to the ability of our government to tax, borrow, and spend... our government has already embarked on foolish policies and taxation that will lower our tax base, further limiting its ability to generate revenue.  The bond market is reluctant to lend, unless at high interest rates, because we are rated at Junk. Our spending remains out of control.  Further, we have a delegate in the US Congress, a democrat, who chooses to disparage our lawfully elected President of the United States.  This all severely limits our options, especially since given all of these realities, we have to beg… beg the Republican Party that is in control of both the Legislative and Executive branches of the Federal government for forbearance and assistance.

We must do this begging soon.  Why?  According to estimates, the Federal government has over $200 trillion in unfunded, mandatory by law and discretionary, pension and medical benefit liabilities of its own.  Did I mention that those $Trillions are unfunded and we have to act fast? Alrighty then…

We need to go to the Feds with a comprehensive proposal to transition our government retirement system from its current pension system into a 401K type system.  We must ‘beg’ for $1.2 Billion to bailout the GERS system and present our plan for transition to the 401K system which would guarantee that we never return in the future to be bailed out… EVER.  In addition, we must rescind all taxation that doesn’t benefit the private sector, curb spending, show a plan to aggressively stamp out and prosecute government fraud, waste and abuse, and definitively show that we are committed to increasing the tax base of our Territory. Simple. Simple to me, but likely not simple to a career political class that has proven itself to be more about ‘self’ than ‘service’ to those they purport to represent.

The $1.2 Billion is a drop in the budgetary budget for the Feds, but we must make a gambit to stop the current local government Ponzi scheme now.  For many and varied reasons, the Feds have a ticking financial time bomb of their own.  Our population is not growing, rather people, young and older, our tax base, that’s necessary to support the Ponzi scheme, are leaving the Territory in droves. There's no way to pay for all the liberal politician promised freebies given this reality, and illegal aliens, the liberal move to increase the population, aren’t the answer; especially as they’re not paying taxes.

No matter what you think of me or my opinions, I know that either way, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.  Mine will have zero effect on what happens.  Especially if we stay the current failed course and don't ACT... or in this case, BEG.

Government’s job, its purpose, is to provide for a workable infrastructure, protect life, liberty, and property rights… not to redistribute wealth as is currently happening.  Government must set the table, then get out of the way, not weigh us down in an effort to save itself.

We’re at the tipping point.  And given our very precarious financial position, we must beg to solve our public pension problem.  Nothing personal folks... but given the sheer lack of ethical and political will to do the right thing to benefit all Virgin Islanders, not just government… it had to be said.