(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying he favors allowing states struggling with high pension costs amid the burdens of the pandemic response to declare bankruptcy rather than giving them a federal bailout.
“I'm taken aback -- my breath is taken away -- I have almost nothing to say to what Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said -- that it wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea for states to go bankrupt. It's actually worked out pretty well for some cities over time. Really?” Murphy said Wednesday at a press briefing.
“Encouraging, engendering, explicitly almost hoping” for bankruptcy “is completely and utterly irresponsible,” he said, in a rare display of anger for the generally even-tempered governor.
“You have my word we won't go bankrupt,” Murphy said.
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