In Amazing Progress Illinois Style: Welcome to the Obama Expressway! I called attention the special session called by Governor Rauner at a cost of $50,000 per day to Illinois taxpayers.
Rauner called the special session because Illinois is heading into its third fiscal year without a budget.
In State Taken Hostage, Mary Pat at the Stump commented on my “progress” article while adding graphs that show what Illinois taxpayers are getting for their money.
Progress Illinois Style
- Illinois has been without a budget for two years and its bonds, already the lowest in the nation, face a downgrade to junk.
- On June 15, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner called a special 10-Day legislative session to finalize a budget.
- We are now in the eighth day of the special session.
- The Special Sessions Cost Illinois Taxpayers $50,000 a Day.
- The special sessions have lasted from 10 to 23 minutes at the longest.
- Progress was announced yesterday: My sources tell me that by an 84-0 vote, part of I-55 will be renamed the Obama Expressway.
Graphs From the Stump
Illinois About to Enter Third Fiscal Year Without a Budget
Illinois is about to enter its third fiscal year without a budget. The fiscal year ends June 30.
Pop the corks. That will be a new national record.
Hope Against Hope
Our only hope at this point is that Madigan asks for so much that Rauner regains his sanity.
On the off chance that sanity prevails, I once again outline what Illinois needs.
Five Desperately Needed Reforms
- Municipal bankruptcy legislation
- Pension reform
- Right-to-Work legislation
- End of prevailing wage laws
- Workers’ compensation reform
Bankruptcy, the ONLY Solution
Number one on my list of Illinois reforms is bankruptcy legislation. It is the only hope for numerous Illinois cities strapped with impossible-to-pay pension liabilities.
As part of any budget package, Rauner must demand municipal bankruptcy legislation. Bankruptcy is the only solution for Illinois that works.
The system is simply too broke to fix.
End the Special Session
Rauner has vowed to keep the special session alive until there is a budget.
He should send them home until they agree to pass bankruptcy reform and end collective bargaining for public unions.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
2banana’s Law
Long term democrat rule + public unions + free sh*t army = misery, ruin and bankruptcy
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and yet, long term republican rule has resulted in the same… coincidence??
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True, can’t blame a single party for government gone wild.
_aleph_
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I am long into being a grandfather, but I still remember what my grandfather told me when I was a kid….He said “the problem with this country is we have a political party that thinks the solution to everything is bigger government and higher taxes while the other party believes the solution is a lot bigger government and a lot higher taxes.
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Huh???
“and yet, long term republican rule has resulted in the same… coincidence??”
+++
I will gladly live in the long-term reddest of red states (Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, etc.). They are fairly fiscally sound with very affordable taxes.
You can live in the long-term bluest of blue states (Illinois, Connecticut, California, New York, etc.). They are ALL bankrupt with insane taxes.
Yes, there is a difference.
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…Just like there’s a difference between cancer and heart attacks.
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Sounds about right Tim. From where I live, my impression of America’s two political parties is as follows:
Democrats are the party of tax and spend.
Republicans are the party of borrow and spend.
And even though some of the spending ends up in the hands of the bottom 90%, most of it makes the top 10% rich.
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Illinois has had governors from both parties but the Democrats have controlled the legislature for all but two of the last thirty to forty years. Until this year they had veto proof majorities. Republicans have had no say for a long time. No balls either apparently.
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How about a simple constitutional amendment that states “failure to pass a budget by the Illinois Congress and Governor by June 30 of each year shall result in new elections for each office. Current office holders shall no longer be allowed to run for elected office in the State of Illinois and shall be terminated upon the new officials taking office”.
Some time folks need motivation to do the responsible thing.
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Rauner was a fool to even run for governor. I can understand his wanted to pull the democrat children back from toughing the red hot stove, but sometimes you simply have to let children fail or they never learn the lesson about hot stoves. Hell, let Magadan run up even more deficits and debts. Let it become so extreme that even bankruptcy won’t help. Sounds cruel to all those who won’t or can’t pick up and move, but maybe then such people, when faced with extreme taxation will rid themselves of politicians that suck the public teat dry. Time to kill the public employee pension system, the public employee union system, and claw back from every politician all monies that the court system can reach. Also time to get some honest judges. Illinois is that face of the future.
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Does the Obama Expressway intersect with Mission Accomplished Boulevard in Texas?
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It will if they can abscond with enough tax dollars to build it that far.
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If the legislature acts real quick, they can pass a new tax on the help that Trump is threatening to send in to stop the violence in Chicago. Rahm would probably piggyback that with a tax of his own.
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beginning to believe a chaotic collapse of government services is better than a restructuring under a BK law.
A BK restructuring will only enrich the special interests while a chaotic collapse will ream those same
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Empirically, you are definitely right.
Argentina keeps BKing, yet somehow nothing much ever changes. Ditto for much of the rest of Latin America. And, more recently, Cypress. Iceland, who knows. It looks like they may have had better luck, but it’s probably too early to tell.
While the Somalis, say what you want about their possibly somewhat reckless and freewheeling ways, most certainly brought about change. And, with Arab spring, others seem to have achieved at least some middling success in that direction as well.
In general, social stability is a nice perk nice for those currently stably on the top of the plantation foodchain. For them, slave revolts must have seemed like real, scary hobgoblin. For the guys doing the actual picking of the cotton, stability uber alles….., probably not so much.
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Call a special session specifically to address the lack of a budget, and then spend time on renaming a stretch of highway? Some balls! Gotta give ’em that.
_aleph_
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The Obama Expressway…….. IOW, The Road To Ruin
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The “Obama Expressway” is part of Interstate Highway 55, which replaced Route 66 in Illinois.
So it is the same road that has been used to escape from Illinois for a very long time.
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Did they turn it into a toll road to suck the last few dollars from the fleeing masses?
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I hope the IL politicians don’t see your question bill, then they would no doubt do it.
The former Route 66 is now Interstates 55, 44 & 40 (Chicago to LA). The only part I am aware of that is a toll road is I-44 in Oklahoma. I have travelled it many times and it is not hard to avoid that section, but takes a bit longer.
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No, but if a Canadian pension fund offered them the right price for it, they would gladly convert it today.
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Guess the Fed will need to step up and add Illinois debt to it’s balance sheet. What’s another couple hundred $billion?
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They will. They just have to wait a bit, until the paper trades at enough of a discount, that their buddies down the Street can buy it all for pennies on the dollar. Then, the Fed will swoop in and make everyone whole.
And then the leftists can, true to form and champions of the poor that they are, pad themselves on the back for another job well done, “saving the economy” from those mean hobgoglins, the “Austrians.”
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Let it sink.
Hopefully Trump stays out of it. No Federal bailout. Just stand on the sidelines and watch the Illinois liberals flop around like fish out of water.
Let the rest of the country learn a lesson from Illinois. Liberal Democrat rule is disastrous.
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In a historic agreement the Illinois house and senate agreed to immediately order more corks for the leaking ship.
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“He should send them home until they agree to pass bankruptcy reform and end collective bargaining for public unions.”
Exactly. Will they do that? No. But there’s no point to all this talk unless they do.
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