Add former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore to a list of conservatives who oppose the idea of allowing states to go bankrupt. Gilmore, now head of the Free Congress Foundation, an advocacy group founded by the late Paul Weyrich, argued today that state politicians have the tools to deal with their fiscal woes and need to be answerable for their policies, not toss their problems to a bankruptcy judge: "You have to keep accountability where it belongs, which is on the public officials of a state and the taxpayers that elected them."Acknowledging the heavy cost burden that public employee unions have imposed on some states, Gilmore argued that states have it within their power already to institute reforms to address the problem, including passing right-to-work laws that allow workers to opt out of a union.
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