Illinois Romper Room

IF you can make it all the way to the bottom of this column, there is some good info in there.

If you’re reading this, you probably owe us more money

All those phone taxes are real. Same with the electricity taxes. Phone and electricity taxes hit the poor the hardest, but do any politicians in Illinois care? Nope, not when they more power to grab.

“I’m now paying MORE to have electricity delivered through SHARED lines than the electricity itself,” says Julie.

Yes, these are taxing times, literally now as well.

That old expression about America?

It used to be, “Tax the rich, feed the poor.”

Now it’s “tax the rich, fee the poor.”

Sad but true. We tax poor people in Illinois harshly. While the Democratic leaders do nothing but bicker and plan for more tax increases.

Statehouse Insider: Who’s to blame for the budget fight? - State Journal Register, Doug Finke

So who is to blame? Try all three.

Yes indeed. Funny we haven’t heard one bad word out of Barack Obama’s mouth about any one of these three. Change indeed.

“For sport from time to time, I’ll arbitrarily pick up the phone and give him (Michael Madigan) a call, leave a message,” Blagojevich said. “I’ve been doing this for months knowing I’ll never get a call back. I mean, it’s like a fun thing we do here.”

Now that right there is some juicy info. There is your Governor and the Speaker of the Illinois House who is also the Illinois Democratic Party Chair and was a Co-Chair of Rod Blagojevich’s re-election campaign. They are running this state along with Emil Jones Jr. who’s just happy getting his raises and jobs for his people.

No one in their own party even has the guts to call out these three jackasses. Who will be the first incumbent Democratic candidate for the Illinois General Assembly that will pledge to NOT support Madigan or Jones in their current leadership positions?

Does any one in their own party even care about anything other than keeping their power and treasures from the public trough? State Reps and Senators can usually get op-eds published whenever they want and there hasn’t been one in Illinois from a Democrat talking against ALL of their leadership causing the mess in Illinois. The entire Illinois Democratic Party is a tumor that needs to be removed if no one amongst them feels the least bit accountable or responsible.

Speak out Illinois Democrats. “You are the change you wish to see in the world.”

How many times have we heard that excuse to help make something illegal? Its always politicians using the argument to make a law us commoners must obey for our own good.

As if politicians have any room to talk in Illinois, as illustrated with letter to an editor by a teacher.

Forum: Illinois: A lesson in bad government - PJ Star

As a high school social studies teacher, my job is to try to teach students how government should and does work in the real world. Too bad we live in Illinois.

Maybe this teacher will finally wake up and realize he should be teaching how government does not and will never work to do much more than benefit the people directly attached to it and maybe a few of us if we’re lucky. To teach anything else would be to ignore humankind’s vast history.

Looks like the folks in Chicago running things up there and down in Springfield should spend some time studying Marshall County.

Marshall County finances favorable - PJ Star

The fund’s “unrestricted” balance, which is available for general county operations, surged by $540,000, or nearly 50 percent, to a total of about $1.64 million as of last Nov. 30, according to reports provided by auditor Helen Barrick. That resulted from a combination of unexpectedly high revenues in several categories and below-budget spending, she said.

Below budget spending, imagine that. And revenues exceeding conservative expectations instead of inflating expectations beyond what is realistic then spending the money based on inflated expectations and whining about needing even more money the very next year . That is how Chicago, Cook County, and the state have been doing it for years. Not Marshall County.

However, even government’s that live within their means have their own problems with power.

The county has been sued in the past for allegedly violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act by not publishing required meeting notices, though that suit was dropped after officials agreed to comply with certain terms.

Rich Miller has a post that says so.

Rod Blagojevich is now the least popular governor in the country, according to Rasmussen Reports…

Now will the people do anything about it? Can they if they wanted to? The Republicans in Illinois are completely absent, which is probably a good thing considering their last leader is sitting in jail.

This is just ridiculous. The Governor and Emil Jones Jr. want gambling expansion including Chicago and control over a bunch of “new money”. Mayor Daley wants Chicago gambling but he doesn’t like Rod and Emil’s plan for his casino, so Daley is on Madigan’s side, and their side wins.

Emil was muttering something about taxing Mayor Daley.

Rod is calling out Michael Madigan’s plan to hike the income tax after the election, which Madigan can’t deny.

Throwing around threats of taxing this and taxing that and taxing them provides all the proof needed these children have way too much power. There is something to be said for the long held belief by many that all tax increases should have to be approved by super majority of the voters in order to pass. There’s a Con-Con chance coming up. Now will the people do anything about it.

Who is keeping track of the popularity of Michael Madigan and Emil Jones Jr.? I doubt Illinois voters think they are much better than the Governor.

Needless drama masks bad decisions by state leaders - State Journal-Register

While that drama may sell papers, it masks poor decisions made by both the governor and the legislature when spending our dollars. By reviewing the House and Senate appropriations bills, one swiftly can determine that contrary to the histrionics, the people’s business simply isn’t a priority with this showdown. Politics is. Rather than facing a situation where they must reduce program growth that directly aid citizens, Springfield is simply ignoring obvious opportunities to cut wasteful spending.

Very few people pay attention enough in Illinois to know where the money is really going. Greg Blankship is one of them. That article is a great read.

There can be no other conclusion at this point. And depending what Madigan does now, there is little doubt that Madigan needs to go as well. And Emil Jones Jr.

Blagojevich vetoes $1.4 billion in budget - Pantagraph

Gov. Rod Blagojevich made good on a threat Wednesday and slashed $1.4 billion from the state budget to balance it…

Also eliminated was $18 million for college-tuition assistance for low-income students; $52 million for services catering to people just coming out of prison and some substance-abuse treatment programs; and $21 million to help people with developmental disabilities live independently.

Right, hit them first because most of them can’t vote and can’t hold these Democratic bozos accountable. That’s just sick.

One thing that appears to have survived are cost-of-living increases of nearly 4 percent for all state officers, draw-ing the ire of House Republican leader Tom Cross.

Emil Jones Jr. gets his pay raise. He earned it this year. He screwed us all especially good this year. The most vulnerable and in need of help among us perhaps the worst. Congratulations Illinois Democrats. Pay raises for legislators and $10 million pensions for government employees are more important than helping people with developmental disabilities.

The governor has blamed lawmakers, specifically the Illinois House, for not passing enough revenue to fund a budget he called “unconstitutional, fiscally irresponsible and dishonest.” The House is controlled by Blagojevich’s political nemesis, Speaker Michael Madigan, a fellow Democrat.

“I did their job for them. I balanced the budget. Now the ball’s in their court,” Blagojevich told reporters Wednes-day, again imploring House members to pass additional revenue measures. He refused to take questions.

Indeed it is in the Speaker’s court. Perhaps the biggest serve the Speaker has faced yet. More of Illinois is watching this year than ever before, and many outside of Illinois wanting to know more about where Barack Obama comes from.

Two informative articles about the special session the Governor called.

Illinois’ special session looks like $2 billion poker game - STLtoday

The only reason for Blagojevich to drag everyone back to the state Capitol over summer break, critics say, is to make sure the public blames the Legislature instead of him when he makes what could be painful budget cuts.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the voters woke up and realized they are all to blame? Right now it is the Illinois Democratic Party, but both parties in power are corrupt, ineffective, and harmful.

Statehouse gridlock a lose-lose situation - Daily Herald

The deal calls for more and bigger casinos and leasing the state lottery. It cleared the Illinois Senate in May but met opposition in the House and in Chicago, where Mayor Richard Daley is not pleased with the Chicago casino provisions.

Let me guess, Daley wants more money and more control.

“You don’t really need a $34 billion plan to do what needs to be done,” Brown said. “The kind of take-it or leave-it legislation that Poshard and Hastert sent over to the House is going to be hard to deal with.”

The state is allegedly going to “lose” $9 billion in federal money (taxpayers) if they don’t spend some money now. But they don’t need to spend $34 billion to get that $9 billion according to Madigan’s mouth. Give an inch they take a mile.

As if they are actually worried the federal money will dry up once they get Obama in the White House and still have Pelosi in the House.

Air conditioning in Executive Mansion breaks down - WQAD

No immediate word on whether the governor will stay overnight in the capital during the 2-day session.

As if they can’t guess whether Blagojevich will actually spend the night in the Governor’s mansion while the AC is down.

Has it occurred to anyone else there might also be another reason why the Governor wouldn’t want to live in the mansion? As illustrated above, the Governor doesn’t exactly have complete control over the state’s Executive Mansion like he does his own home. It seems like it would be a lot easier to bug the Executive Mansion than it would be his private home in Chicago.

Maybe they shouldn’t fix the AC until the state has a real Governor that lives there. Or fix it and turn it into a dorm for the General Assembly and save a ton of expense money. Its often said they should get rid of AC in the state capitol because the legislators can’t spend more money if they aren’t in session and they won’t want to be there when its too hot.

Some Politicians Want Voters to Have More Power - Chicago Public Radio

Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn and Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool want to give voters more say over how government taxes and spends. Specifically, they want people to be able to vote on new and existing taxes through ballot referenda.

You mean with the wonderful leadership we’ve had in this state all these years and the people still don’t have the power to vote down massive tax increases at the ballot box? Impeach Blagojevich? Nah, Madigan and Jones have done more harm Illinois with their power grabbing, anti-democratic laws.

Michael J. Madigan will NEVER let this happen. NEVER. I’d love to see one law supported by Michael J. Madigan in his entire career that gave more power to the people at the ballot box and less power to the politicians. I doubt it has ever happened.