On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told CNN’s State of the Union that the city of Detroit would not be bailed out by the federal government. “Detroit has serious challenges,” he said. “We support Detroit in its efforts. But Detroit’s going to have to work with its creditors.”
Host Candy Crowley promptly asked Lew why the American people would be fine with bailing out private businesses like the auto companies but not the city. Lew said that the auto bailout happened because “we were saving the American economy. We were in free fall. If we hadn’t taken decisive action, we would have had a massively worse problem than what we even had. So I think the situation in 2009-2010 was unique. And it’s something that hopefully we never see again.”
Lew admitted that Detroit’s fiscal problems have “been a long time in the making.” He also admitted that the Treasury Department has been working with the city to see “if there’s anything we can do to help.”
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