Detroit

If this was a GOP-run city (as unlikely a scenario as that is) you can be sure Obama would let it go bust.

(Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will visit bankrupt Detroit this week to highlight the Obama administration’s “continued commitment to the city’s revitalization and explore ways to promote job creation and economic growth,” according to an advisory his department released on Monday.

Lew will meet with leaders from philanthropic foundations on Thursday to discuss economic development in the city that filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history last July. Then on Friday, he will tour a metal stamping business to promote his department’s small business credit initiative.

In a draft of its plan for restructuring $18 billion in debt and other obligations released last week, Detroit outlined how it will tap philanthropies for $816 million to cover pension costs and avoid selling pieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

President Barack Obama has not pledged direct funds to the Motor City, but his administration and Congress are using existing federal programs to provide aid. Last week, local media reported the state of Michigan would send the city $100 million for blight removal from a federal fund designed to help states cope with the foreclosure crisis. That, in turn, would free up money to ease pension cuts for retirees.

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