Laughable: Madigan's spokesman says bankruptcy "would damage the reputation of the state"

Blogger at the border

"Oh, you guys are nothing if not entertaining over there," then-Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in a 2011 interview about Illinois with a Chicago radio station. "It's like living next door to The Simpsons, you know, the dysfunctional family down the block?"

This week Steve Brown, the mouthpiece for media-shy Michael Madigan, had this to say to Fox News:

Nobody here in Illinois is considering bankruptcy--first of all, it's not allowed. Second of all, it would damage the reputation of the state and it's just not necessary.

Damage the reputation? Illinois' reputation is already an abysmal one. As for The Simpsons, hey at least Homer is entertaining.

Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who has been House speaker for 32 of the last 34 years, is the midwife of Illinois' financial debacle. The disaster has been decades in the making and Madigan of course has been in power for decades.

While Brown is right on one thing, states cannot declare bankruptcy, Illinois has been functionally bankrupt for years. And the Puerto Rico experience teaches us that bankruptcy is possible if Congress gets involved and you call it something else.