A letter writer in The Wall Street Journal‘s Wednesday Letters section had a thought about Illinois’ fiscal situation and how to resolve it.

Why a bailout? How about a low-interest loan from the Treasury with fixed payments due on specific dates?

Illinois has chosen to renege on its promises to its public pension facilities. Why would anyone with two neurons to bump together into a ganglion believe Illinois would keep any promise to repay a loan to the Feds?

Aside from that, what would be the enforcement mechanism for a welched-on fixed payment or sequence of such welches? Would Treasury send Revenooers to seize State government bank accounts? To seize physical assets and sell them at auction? Fat chance.

No, there should be bailout in any form, no Federal money at all for Illinois. The State’s government must correct its profligate spending misbehavior and honor the commitments it already has on its books. That those requirements exist in some opposition to each other is a problem of Illinois’ creation, and it’s on Illinois to fix it without other taxpayers’ money.