SALLY KOHN: I think the cautionary tale out of this is that a number of folks will try and use Detroit falsely as an example to push more austerity, to really cram more austerity down the throats of the United States. Look, every study that supposedly said austerity and cutting spending in order to create growth was a good idea has been disproven. It has hurt England's economy and elsewhere. England, literally, they can't even save the bath water with the baby. And now they're going to try and use Detroit as an excuse to do more of this.



You know, look, Republicans unfortunately when the economy is good, they want to cut spending and taxes, and when the economy is bad they want to cut spending and taxes, that's just their answer everything. Here is where we need spending to help. That's just the reality.



CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Sally, Detroit is not really an example of the failure of GOP economic policy. It's been run by the Democrats for 60 years, and you can cite all the studies about how bad austerity is, all you have to do is look at Detroit and you get an idea of how bad the absence of austerity is, it's a city in ruin.



I think that the reason that the administration is hesitant to even talk about a bailout is that it understands that Detroit is a precedent. The minute you step into a bailout in Detroit, you're going to get every city in the country lining up with a tin cup. And that's why even this administration, even this administration is going to hold back from doing this.



KOHN: I'm not saying that we need to bail out Detroit; I'm not saying that's the right answer. But look, we have to know that the problems in Detroit are deeper than any party. And I put the blame on Obama too for embracing these austerity politics. But, you know, in the '60s, 56% of jobs in the Detroit area were in the city and by the '90s, it was 18%. We have had six decades of divestment in that city that we all are responsible for. It's all our of economic policies. (Special Report, July 22, 2013)