PRESS RELEASE
Bloomberg Pushes His Corporatist Scheme in the Senate
June 12, 2008 (EIRNS)—Fascist New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared in front of the Senate Banking Committee, no doubt at the invitation of its chairman, Felix Rohatyn-friend Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), to testify on the subject of "Condition of our Nation's Infrastructure: Local Perspectives from Mayors." Bloomberg spent his opening statement bragging about his role in "Building America's Future," (on whose letterhead his printed statement was prepared), all the money he is spending in New York City on transit, water, and sewer infrastructure and the still unmet needs of the region.
The subject of public-private partnerships did not come up in the hearing until it was raised by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the committee, who wanted to know what "impediments" mayors faced in using PPPs. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Bloomberg both replied that the biggest impediment is the lack of a revenue stream—i.e., the kind of guaranteed looting rights that private investors will insist on, before putting in a penny to urban infrastructure. Bloomberg complained that the New York state legislature rejected his congestion pricing scheme for the city, which was a way to generate a revenue stream which could then be used to attract private investors.
"We are going to have to have a dedicated funding source not authorized by a legislature because without that nobody's going to lend you the money," Bloomberg said, and private investors will have to be allowed to run the infrastructure like a business, meaning, wages and jobs will not be protected as they often are in the public sector.
