Melissa Harris-Perry, appearing as a panel guest Friday on MSNBC’s “Now,” charged that Detroit’s filing for bankruptcy last week was due to small-government policies “many Republicans would impose on us.”
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean first suggested that Detroit can make a viable comeback.
“When you have a median home price of $45,000, people are going to go buy those houses sooner or later,” he said, “but you’ve got to have a government to run the place.”
Ms. Harris-Perry agreed, saying Detroit is indicative of many of the problems facing America’s cities.
“In the case of Detroit, the reason that the tax base has become so small is because a loss of population, right?” she asked. “So folks move out, they are not there to pay the taxes on the homes, and the kind of deterioration is what you see in the numbers you’ve suggested.”
“But this lack of tax base is also exactly the thing that many Republicans would impose on us, even when our cities have sufficient populations, even when our communities have sufficient populations,” she continued. “This is what it looks like when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub, and it is not a pretty picture.”
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• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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