Isn't Detroit a monument to democratic leadership seeing it hasn't had a republican Mayor since 1957?
Detroit said Friday it would stop making payments on about $2.5 billion in unsecured debt and ask creditors to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owes them in a move to avoid what bankruptcy experts have said would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Detroit's fiscal nightmare didn't occur overnight. It's been decades in the making as city leaders took out bonds at high interest rates to pay bills Detroit's general fund couldn't cover.
"The average Detroiter has to understand this is a culmination of years and years of kicking the can down the road," Orr said. "We can't borrow any more money. We started borrowing from our own pension funds."
The city's budget deficit could top $380 million by July 1. Orr believes Detroit's long-term debt is more than $17 billion.
Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr