On Wednesday, MSNBC host Ari Melber tackled the news that the city of Detroit will pursue Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy, making it the largest American city to do so. Melber said that Congress should immediately convene an emergency session to design a plan for federal restructuring of the city in the same way the government did for General Motors and Chrysler. He added that the city’s financial woes have created the conditions whereby the Detroit has become “the most libertarian city in the United States.”



Melber began his Wednesday monologue by noting that Detroit’s debt, more than $18 billion, would saddle every family of four in the city with a $100,000 burden if parceled out equally. “While it suffered for years under mismanagement and corruption under many Democratic officials, today Detroit is fast becoming the most libertarian city in the United States,” he declared.

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Melber backed up this assertion by noting that the city’s financial problems have forced the urban center to cut back on essential public services. “Even police and emergency services have literally become optional,” Melber added.

To address this problem, Melber insisted Congress convene an emergency session and send financial aid to stave off catastrophe. He added that the city can build a Detroit wing of the Smithsonian museum in order to avert a “cultural disaster” in which the local government is forced to sell off artwork in its museums. This could be done while the federal government designs a restructuring program for the city similar to the automotive bailout and restructuring of 2008-2009.

“There are a lot of things congress can do,” Melber concluded, “but if the largest local bankruptcy in our history isn’t the right time for spending on emergency aid and jobs, when is the right time?”

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

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