74 Comments - @MisterJayEm - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 8:55 am: The Chicago Tribune editorial board is nothing if not intellectually dishonest. – MrJM - wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 8:57 am: Self-parody. - @MisterJayEm - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 8:57 am: CORRECTION: The Chicago Tribune editorial board is nothing if not intellectually dishonest and smug. We regret the error. – MrJM - DuPage - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 8:57 am: The Tribune lost credibility a long time ago. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 8:58 am: @FakeStatehouseChick - the unbalanced Democrat budgets can be seen by the numbers. Gov. Rauner is the big picture guy we need to ignore actual numbers and win. Simple #NumbersLieWhenWeSaySo #OnlyKoolKidsIgnoreHypocrisy - Juvenal - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 8:59 am: === Unreal. === Who do you think brings the coffee to the staff meetings? Rickert, McQueary or Goldberg? - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 8:59 am: You may not be a poindexter, but unless you have criticized both parties evenly in the past for this practice you may be a hypocrite. - thunderspirit - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:01 am: If that’s the case, I’ll wear the moniker of “poindexter” with a modicum of pride, then. - PublicServant - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:02 am: What’s the Sun Times have to say? - Frenchie Mendoza - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:02 am: I’m interested in the new meme that’s evolving — both in this article and from Rauner’s speech: that the budget is beside the point. It’s not about the budget. The budget, apparently, is some document with a bunch of numbers. The real issue, I take it, is Madigan’s and Cullerton’s intransigence. Once “broken” all votes will fall into place and the money, finally, will start rolling in. But, no — nevermind the budget. It’s not about the budget. I also predict that this will be Rauner’s main talking point when he runs for re-election. That the budget doesn’t matter. It’s the consolidation of power within the gov’s office that matters — and Madigan and Cullerton did everything to prevent this. - burbanite - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:03 am: Guess they didn’t notice how the Gov’s budget was off 3.5. Not to be a poindexter or anything. Ugh. Don’t want to insert actual facts into the matter. - RNUG - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:03 am: Trib must be using common core math … - Sir Reel - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:03 am: See facts. Adjust facts to fit preconceived ideology. Publish as editorial. - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:04 am: You may not be a poindexter, but you may be a grizzled, veteran House speaker who is stuck in his ways and is now holding the state back. Old ways are not always the best ways. - PublicServant - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:05 am: There is no past example of a governor who has refused to even talk about budget specifics eight months into a fiscal year leaving the state without the authority to spend, unless of course it’s by court order. Stop with the false equivalence already. - Norseman - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:05 am: Hurricanes and poindexters! Such great insight from the Tribune editorial writers. NOT - PublicServant - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:06 am: Failing to negotiate with a hostage-taker is one of the ways I hope he remains stuck in. - AC - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:07 am: ==nothing but dirty orange barricades and languid yellow warning lights== Since the budget numbers aren’t based in reality, perhaps the Governor should’ve provided a Salvador Dali painting instead. /s - Phil King - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:08 am: Certainly not very fiscally conservative… I supported Rauner in 2014 largely for 3 reasons: 1) Promote economic growth 2) Improve administration/management of government 3) Balance the budget and address long term debt (pensions) If we’re not even worried about balancing budgets anymore than whats the point? - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:09 am: The poindexters whipped out their calculators. Reading financial advice from the Chicago Tribune is like reading about cooking in Popular Mechanics. I don’t take financial advice from a bankrupted news organization. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:10 am: No one wanted Bruce Dold to sit at the cool kids’ table at lunch. This is his revenge. - Arsenal - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:11 am: ==Old ways are not always the best ways.== For an example, see Rauner’s 19th century economic theory. - Fusion - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:11 am: Dold’s off to a fast start. - RNUG - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:14 am: The Trib board reminds me of a former Buerau Chief who started with a preconceived answer then wanted you to do a study to justify said answer. - Mhsheikh - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:14 am: It is time to rescue our Public University system. Rauner is going to destroy what took Republicans and Democrats a 100 years to build. Time to create a progressive tax system to fund State programs. Rauner is now a worse governor than 3 convicted felons. - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:15 am: @FakeMikeMadigan - do as I say but not as I do. - RNUG - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:16 am: == that the budget is beside the point. == That was a given since yesterday was mostly just a campaign speech. - JS Mill - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:18 am: @FakeTribuneEditorialBoard- Budget smudget! Fire Madigan! - In a Minute - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:18 am: There sure is a lot of “shoot the messenger” kinds of attitiude around here. I would like to see a group interview or discussion among some well respected financial reporters, bond analysts, BK experts, and rating agency credit analysts from outside Illinois. The topic would be a clinical and dispassionate review of the finances of Illinois and its more troubled munis, how it got that way and how to get out. It seems that any proposal by the Tribune Editorial Board, or Rauner or any local think thanks or commentators immediatley gets derided. It might be that an objective look from outside the political blast zone might help to focus peoples thinking on what really needs to be done. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:19 am: To the Post, A budget is the mechanism the Executive in Government uses to weigh and measure and put monetary and numerical importance to the goals and wants of an Administration. A budget is not a literary abstract dissected and parsed in a dorm room with English Lit majors ignoring the Stats and Math majors trying to grasp the significance of the words tossed about like “it’s important”, “a top priority” or even “the number one goal”. English papers are not riddled with math to substantiate importance, but a budget, as a document, makes quite clear math is the substance that makes the case for substantive importance. The Tribune Editorial Board deciding not to look at a budgetary address and the numbers married to them, but choosing to be a bunch of second semester sophomores mocking the statistical and math majors sitting in their candle-lit circle because those poindexters were able to bring the beverages speaks to how little worth the Trinune Editorial Board has. What’s next, a Resident Assistant deciding to ask “What if Speaker Madigan was governor, and… ” In reality, even in dorm rooms around the country, there would be more than a few level-headed circle-sitters that would stand and ask “You guys want to talk about a budget, but putting numbers to the discussion doesn’t make sense?”. Of course, that student would then be ostracized until those Lit majors find out money measures more about priorites in life that a cute turn of a phrase or a snarky name to belittle those looking at the right tools for the right job. Math is math, and budgets are math. The framing of an Administration is defined, and seen, by the budgetary priorities and the numbers attributed to those priorities. To dismiss math now, because Rauner’s numbers are measurably weak to the rhetoric says a great deal about the Rauner Administration, but much more about those in the dorm room at Tribune Tower who can’t figure out how to split a $10 pizza they ordered 4 ways. - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:20 am: @FakeMikeMadigan - I have nothing new to offer or say, other than “No, I don’t like it”. #Tantrum - Grandson of Man - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:21 am: “The poindexters whipped out their calculators.” Who needs math when there is blind faith? The trickle down unicorn will come. Just ask Kansas and Louisiana. - wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:23 am: –Who do you think brings the coffee to the staff meetings? Rickert, McQueary or Goldberg?– Timothy Leary. - The Captain - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:29 am: It was the Trib’s own twitter feed that pointed out that the Governor’s budget was balanced with $3.5 billion in Magic Beans. - Facts are Stubborn Things - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:32 am: The only math Rauner needs to understand is the D&R ratio in the house and Senate. He needs to understand that D/R = reality index. If the result of dividing the amount of democrats by the amount of republicans is to the left of the decimal then he needs adjust his expectations down and nudge the needle to the right. If the result is to the right of the decimal, then he can push the needle a little further to the right. The larger the number to the left of the decimal the less he can do and the smaller the number to the right of the decimal the more he can do. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:36 am: Timothy Leary Wow. Someone has the Moody Blues today, don’t they? - tominchicago - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:39 am: As I predicted yesterday McQueary was able to both defend Rauner’s bs budget and somehow blame Madigan. She is now as predictable as Kass. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:39 am: @FakeStatehouseChick - the hurricane ate our math figures, so, we had to make do, and just ignored the numbers altogether for Rauner #OrMathIsTooHard #WrongSideOfTheEquation - wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:41 am: VMan, it was the only of proponent of writing while tripping that came to mind. - A Jack - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:47 am: “Question” may be the more appropriate Moody Blues song here. - King Louis XVI - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:47 am: Now we know how Dold earned his promotion. - There is power in a union... - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:54 am: So the tribby edit board says budgets don’t even have to have numbers anymore? Just broad philosophical statements and demands for unfettered power? Yesterday Hillary Clinton, who is hardly an enemy to big business, slammed the governor’s burn-it-down agenda. When Hillary accuses you of trying to bring us back to the time of robber-barons, then we have truly jumped the shark into la-la land… - Mason born - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 9:58 am: Rauner/trib math 4 billion defecit proposed by dems = widely out of control, irresponsible, status quo etc. Must veto 3.5 billion defecit proposed by Rauner responsible, commonsense, etc. Anyone who objets is just a poindexter who is quibbling over pennies. Rejecting it is intransience. I wonder if the gov would sign his budget even if the dems passed it. Hard to hold a threat of hostages when the hostages are gone. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:02 am: Considering the craft within this administration’s writings, tripping would be an improvement. Having seizures, head traumas, and strokes are other possibilities as well. These are people who still struggle at the constitutional concept of “separation of powers”, even after being lectured about it during their own brain storming sessions. They are marvelously daft and downright dangerous and belong behind a counter asking customers if they wanted fries with their Big Macs. - Austin Blvd - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:10 am: Last year, Rauner was applauded and praised for not taking extra time to present his FY 16 budget address. Many acknowledged that, while not perfect, he met the calendar deadline. This year, Rauner again met the calendar date for giving the budget address. Moral of the story: Don’t be late for meetings, even if your product is not yet in presentation form. - Dilemma - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:13 am: Isn’t 4 billion less than the massive backlog of unpaid bills that we have now? - Rich Miller - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:13 am: ===It was the Trib’s own twitter feed that pointed out that the Governor’s budget was balanced with $3.5 billion in Magic Beans. === Monique “Poindexter” Garcia. - burbanite - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:18 am: Vman I am sensing a theme with you today. Maybe you should have an early lunch! - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:19 am: @FakeStatehouseChick - our Editorial Board goal it to try and undercut the reporters who actually work AT the statehouse and/or haven’t sold out to Bruce Rauner #ItsOurJob #ItsALiving #FerroRules - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:26 am: To the Post, I said this a year ago, and continue to say this about the Administration and the budgetary talking points… Unless Rauner submits a balanced budget, without a revenue increase, Raunerite talking points taking to task “sham budgets” or talking about raising revenue in an “optional” voice is utterly disingenuous to the discussion of framing a budget and dishonest in producing a budget to counter the Raunerite argument(s). The Tribune Editorial Board is complicit in this dishonest and disingenuous narrative, and this “poindexter” drivel speaks directly to that. - Carhartt Representative - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:26 am: Nerrrrds! - Langhorne - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:30 am: Poindexter Def: boringly studious and socially inept Urban dictionary: one who looks and acts like a nerd but does not posses the super-natural intelligence of a nerd. So, rauner comes out w a slightly tweaked rehash of his poison: give him reforms and he will try to act like a governor; or, abdicate all legislative responsibilities and allow him to continue his destruction unchecked, in the name of a balanced budget. Give me some more of that. $3.5 billion deficit Cooperation–fairy dust Executive management–magic beans Pension savings–LSD cant wait for the reviews from the bond agencies - Big Joe - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:38 am: The Tribune editorials are the main reason that I thankfully cancelled my subscription to the paper. And I must say, I don’t miss them at all. - Arsenal - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 10:48 am: ==It seems that any proposal by the Tribune Editorial Board, or Rauner or any local think thanks or commentators immediatley gets derided== It’s impossible to say that, because they’ve all only presented one proposal, over and over and over- cut people’s pay. Maybe people would reject any other proposal Rauner makes, too, but right now we just don’t know, ’cause he’s only got the one club in his bag. - Independent retired lawyer, journalist - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 11:01 am: By Poindexter, I thought they meant the Texan who gave Scalia a free vacation last week, and discovered his body. Whew. Thanks for clearing that up! - siriusly - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 11:28 am: 1) The Tribune editorial page only impacts people who read it. 2) I don’t know anyone who reads it except for Capitol Fax subscribers. 3) As a news organization, credibility sort of matters. 4) Balanced budgets either matter or they don’t. - ArchPundit - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 11:34 am: Don’t worry. Dold isn’t just editor of the Opinion page anymore, he has the whole paper to wax on about the joys of Kirk and Rauner. I’m giddy with anticipation. - 618 Expat - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 11:43 am: First time commenter, long time reader. Forgive me for being a bit ignorant, but is there some reason the Tribune Editorial Board seems like an extension of Rauner’s Communications office? I’ve never read the paper consistently but its disconcerting to see the paper parrot Rauner talking points and discourage examination of his proposals. Is the board historically conservative, is this born of normal frustration with Illinois, or is there a staff member driving this? - Soccermom - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 11:53 am: 47th — I am always uneasy when I contradict you, but I speak with some authority when I say the budget poindexters were NEVER invited to the cool kids’ lunch table… - Molly Maguire - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:01 pm: Who at the Tribune is writing this stuff with a straight face!? - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:03 pm: Thanks Mom. I think it’s ironic that Bruce Dold is calling anyone a poindexter for wanting to dig in deep into the budget. Wasn’t he President of the Tri-Lambs back in college? - Jocko - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:03 pm: I nominate Bruce Dold as treasurer of Alpha Beta. He’ll get Michael Madigan and the other Tri-Lambdas kicked off campus in no time. - Jocko - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:04 pm: 47th beat me to it! - X-prof - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:09 pm: === it was the only of proponent of writing while tripping that came to mind. === How ’bout Hunter S. Thompson? As founder (and sole member?) of the gonzo school of journalism, he was the leading proponent of writing under the influence. Somewhere, somehow, I’m sure he welcomes Dold to the fold. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:11 pm: Great minds, Jocko. If Dold is Lewis Skolnick, the John Kass is definitely Frederick W. “Ogre” Palowski. - X-prof - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:17 pm: “I would like to see a group interview or discussion among some well respected financial reporters, bond analysts, BK experts, and rating agency credit analysts from outside Illinois. The topic would be a clinical and dispassionate review of the finances of Illinois and its more troubled munis, how it got that way and how to get out.” In a Minute, skip the Moody Blues and go directly to Moody’s commentary in their last credit rating of Illinois. - anon - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 12:41 pm: So unbalanced budget proposals are only a problem when Democrats enact them, not when Rauner proposes them. That’s called wanting to have it both ways. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 2:27 pm: Wait - wait! Dold is calling someone else a poindexter? DOLD? What happened here? He gets a promotion and suddenly he thinks he’s now all studly? Did he trade in his old Corolla for a Mustang yesterday? Dold - YOU ARE KING POINDEXTER! Stop bashing your besties! - Ghost - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 2:50 pm: so the gov proposed a budget with basically the same shortfall as the dems…. so why dont we have a budget then? - Soccermom - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 3:32 pm: 47th — In other action, I was at a wedding this summer that Mrs. Hunter S. Thompson also attended. I didn’t introduce myself, because I figured it would be rude to ask any of the questions I really wanted to… - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 4:37 pm: @FakeMikeMadigan - I know I gave a previous governor that type of budget authority, but doing so now might end my “epic struggle”. The war must continue. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 4:41 pm: @FakeStatehouseChick - Because Rauner has offered up a sham budget, it’s up to us at the Tribune Editorial Board to swap out numbers for excuses #WeNeedToHelpBruce #BlameMadiganToo - Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 4:49 pm: @FakeMikeMadigan - No compromise, no reforms, no suggestions of my own, no surrender. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Feb 18, 16 @ 4:53 pm: @Fake”Anonymous” - I can’t pick out a name, how can I be expected to understand that Rauner’s sham budget is a joke #HangInThere #ShortTermPain #BuzzWordPlacedHere Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.