Well done Mr. Madigan and Mr. Cullerton. In your 81 years of combined service to the state of Illinois , mostly as speaker of the House and President of the State Senate, respectively, your efforts are finally being recognized. For the first time since the Jimmy Carter era, the state has lost population, an estimated 10,000 person net loss. This is for the years from 2010 through 2013. Your puppet, Governor Pat Quinn, worked closely with you to make this happen. The winners were Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri. They picked-up 300,000 during those four years. Thank you Illinois. When the numbers for 2014 come in it will be worse.
Only 17 of 102 counties experience population growth. Studies show it wasn’t climate that drove residents from the state, it was economic opportunity and jobs or lack of same in the state.
Finally, enough residents recognized what was happening and voted in a Republican governor, billionaire, Bruce Rauner. With no reason to steal, a rarity in Illinois and Chicago politics, Rauner is trying to fix the problem. But, it’s not going smoothly. Enemy number one is the news media. Every move he makes is roundly criticized by an ignorant liberal media that wants the status quo. Budget cutters are always hated by the media and they can round-up a few protesters, make them look like a crowd and have one or two cry on camera. But, Rauner, with more money than the financially starved media, runs his own commercial, paid for by his friends and his pocketbook, assailing Madigan and Cullerton and attempting to educate a mostly disinterested public about the fragile state of economics in Illinois.
See, it’s the same old story we’ve seen in other places from Detroit to states that have begun to fix the problem like Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. And, in spades in Chicago. Democratic politicians have given public unions more than they can afford to give in return for campaign contributions and votes. Now someone has to fix the problem or the need to further increase high taxes drives out more taxpayers. I have a friend who’s on the fire department board in a small town in Illinois. They went union a few years ago. The union demands are putting so much pressure on the town that it’s becoming a microcosm of Chicago and the state of Illinois. Any efforts the board takes to try to keep it reasonable goes to arbitration and it’s automatically ruled in favor of the union.
The new governor knows he has to get pension reform and stop the avalanche. But, it’s a tough lonesome fight to save a state in serious trouble. The unions destroying the state are a small population minority. They, and they alone, could not stave off the change that’s needed. But, with the billions in free media campaign support they receive, the public gets spun and the Madigan’s and Cullerton’s of Illinois get rich and the state goes broke. Maybe a billionaire who decided to try to fix this will prevail. We can only hope so. This is the poster child for term limits. These two gentlemen along with the Daley family in Chicago have created this mess.
Want to expand it further? Cast your vote in 2016 for Hillary. She makes them look like pikers. Remember, Illinois gave you Obama.
