The governor’s version of recent history
Wednesday, Jul 19, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From yesterday’s speech to the road builders (4:58 mark) by Gov. Bruce Rauner…
Now while we had this ridiculous budget fight for the last two years, I said, well if you guys can’t make the cuts necessary to balance the budget and all you guys want to do is raise taxes, I’m not going to support a tax hike, get some reforms that help on workers’ comp and business regulations. But if you’re going to waste a lot of time fighting about that and at minimum, let’s get a capital bill done, let’s do that before all this other stuff. I advocated that two years ago, I advocated that last year. They said no. They didn’t want to do that. They were holding, frankly, holding you guys hostage. Just like they held our schools hostage and our universities and our human services hostage. And it makes me, I won’t use the language I normally use because there’s a camera here, but it makes me very frustrated. It’s ridiculous.
For two years, our universities and our community colleges were held hostage. Our social services were held hostage. And our government agencies and our government workers and our transportation investments were held hostage. This was wrong. And the tragedy is that not only did they jam through a massive tax hike, permanent tax hike, which I was adamantly opposed to, they did it through extorting the pressure. But they didn’t even produce a balanced budget as a result. They cut no wasteful spending. None. And we’re still, we’re still out of balance. And they didn’t allocate any money to pay down debt. None.
And they cut investment in our IT systems, ’cause I was using our IT investments to drive down the cost of government by holding these agencies accountable for productivity and measure results. But they don’t want to measure results. That can actually cut costs, they don’t want that. They don’t want their buddies inside the government to be under pressure to perform and provide you better value for your taxes.
- Michelle Flaherty - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 11:55 am:
Shouldn’t the governor start identifying the across the board cuts he has to make? Maybe he can find that elusive wasteful spending he keeps referring to.
Hint: look at the warehouse leases.
- Ghost - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 11:55 am:
Rauner is just Trump without twitter. no moral ability to be truthful. win at any cost
- Harvest76 - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 11:56 am:
As my grandmother would say, well bless his heart.
- Flynn's mom - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:02 pm:
@Harvest76…those are very kind words for a man who wants to destroy our state.
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:03 pm:
“And Rauner went on to say, ‘When AFSCME went on strike in September, 2016 …’”
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:03 pm:
The Master of the Twisted Word
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:06 pm:
Sounds like he needs to endorse someone else to be governor.
By his own interpretation, he is the most pathetic, powerless, passive little victim that found themselves as Illinois governor.
You know why your hands are so flat Bruce? It’s because you’ve sat on them since January 2015.
That also explains that numb tingling across your backside as well.
You sad, sad man.
- Jocko - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:06 pm:
==I said, well if you guys can’t make the cuts necessary to balance the budget==
It might’ve helped if you took the time to propose a balanced budget or have your department heads suggest cuts.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:06 pm:
Sounds like he needs to endorse someone else to be governor.
By his own interpretation, he is the most powerless, passive little victim that found themselves as Illinois governor.
You know why your hands are so flat Bruce? It’s because you’ve sat on them since January 2015.
That also explains that numb tingling across your backside as well.
You sad, sad man.
- Harvest76 - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:07 pm:
@ flynn’s mom….. she was a master of shade.
- Me Again - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:08 pm:
Dear Governor,
What have the many millions spent on your DoIT fantasy actually accomplished, outside of the weekly “DoIT Digest”?
Lots of talk and very little action while legacy IT is imploding.
- Trainin - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:15 pm:
Me again. You got it wrong. DOIT has also made some beautiful flowcharts on where we are going (if we had term limits). Also, an entire year before we got nailed with a major virus, they printed lots of posters on cyber security. If you would pay more attention to the weekly digest you would see all the projects they’ve completed that were started long before DOIT. I think they’re the reason the sun came up. I think DOIT is working as designed. Everyone loves to complain about salaries. Go out and look at the top salaries in DOIT. All contractors.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:16 pm:
==For two years, our universities and our community colleges were held hostage. Our social services were held hostage. And our government agencies and our government workers and our transportation investments were held hostage. This was wrong===
Governor… (Sigh)
It was you blowing up Grand Bargains and finally vetoing the whole budget that needed an override to SAVE…
“our universities… our community colleges. Our social services… our government agencies … our government… even our workers… our transportation investments.
This was wrong”
You did that Governor Rauner.
Ask Ken Dunkin.
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:16 pm:
Me again: Well, there are the additional layers of management that he created, so there’s that to point to…
- Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:17 pm:
Rauner is like the old woman on my paper route in high school. When you collect every week, she says, “didn’t I just pay you?!” And when you collect every two weeks, she says, “Gosh, it took you long enough. You’re lucky I have the cash for you.” Never will be someone with a specific solution to anything, just a constant myriad of complaints that could never be rectified.
- DuPage Bard - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:20 pm:
Who cares what he says? The Dems have no response anyway, so he can get away with whatever he wants to say
- Nick Name - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:26 pm:
“For two years, our universities and our community colleges were held hostage by me. Our social services were held hostage by me. And our government agencies and our government workers and our transportation investments were held hostage by me — and workers are still being held hostage by my sham claim of an impasse. This was wrong, but I don’t care, hence the staff purge and the takeover of the GO by IPI.”
Fixed it for you, Gov. Gaslight.
- Aldyth - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:27 pm:
Harvest 76,
My dear departed grandmother would have said “Well bless his flat head.” On occasion, my grandmother had superlative snark.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:28 pm:
Wasn’t history one of those programs he wanted to eliminate from our public universities? /s
- @MisterJayEm - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:30 pm:
Pitiful.
– MrJM
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:32 pm:
===Wasn’t history one of those programs he wanted to eliminate from our public universities? /s===
He didn’t want to do away with it altogether, just modify it to ‘Revisionist History’.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:32 pm:
If it’s truly wasteful spending he is referring to then he should be able to identify it and cut it on his own. He controls what money he spends out of the budget. And they did allocate money to pay down the backlog. Not enough but they allocated some.
This is par for the course for a Governor who consistently plays the victim. Nothing is his fault. He takes no responsibility for anything. Is it all his fault? Nope. But he most certainly shares in the blame for what has happened over the past 2 1/2 years.
The Governor doesn’t want to get anything done for the remainder of his term so anything he says from this point on is simply hot air. He made his intentions clear with his house cleaning and turning over the Gov’s office to the IPI.
He’s blowing hot air once again.
- Enviro - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:38 pm:
= Just like they held our schools hostage and our universities and our human services hostage.=
This is a classic example of blame shifting or projection:
Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others.
- Juvenal - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:44 pm:
This is what you get when you send in the clowns to run the Governor’s Office.
What a pitiful and condescending tale to pitch to the road builders.
Road builders are about as educated an audience you will find when it comes to government and politics. Rivaling the Union League Club and arguably surpassing at least one editorial board.
You cannot walk into the Roadbuilders and try to rewrite history. These guys consume Capitolfax on at least a weekly if not daily basis. They know Democrats LOVE capital bills.
Rickert’s shop is disgracing itself by sending the governor in with these talking points.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:45 pm:
Once again, the governor accepts responsibility for nothing. His version of events would be a little bit more believable if he had actually proposed a balanced budget with the budget cuts he discusses but never identifies.
- Emily Miller - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:46 pm:
I’m worried that this Governor’s, um, “messaging” is getting too Trump-like for the Illinois press to dissect effectively. When there is so much fallacy that comes out of Bruce Rauner’s mouth, it’s hard to focus on the individual lies/alternative facts that make up all the rambling.
A few places to start:
- He did not oppose an income tax.
- The budget he vetoed did make cuts.
- He intentionally weaponized human service providers, children and families to use as a wedge to divide Democrats. Like, he said that was the plan out-loud to a room full of people.
- He intentionally created a crisis that would hurt people. Again, he said that was the plan out-loud to a room full of people.
- Having a capitol bill in the absence of new revenue would have meant, depending on the spending levels, the elimination of most discretionary spending. So, that means no k-12 education, no human services, no public universities, etc.
- hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:46 pm:
Does Rauner ever consider that non-stop whining and victimhood makes him look like a total wimp?
Even if one believed the things he were saying were true, why should Illinois voters re-elect someone so wimpy and pointless as governor.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:47 pm:
Got to admire the Governor’s ability to spin things. Too bad we don’t live in his alternate universe.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:48 pm:
== As my grandmother would say, well bless his heart. ==
Yes. Ain’t that special?
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:53 pm:
Oh delicious perfidy!
What a gift this statement is.
Easily refuted with quotes.
This is a canvassers dream
His ability for reaction formation is astounding
But so useful in persuading our neighbors
Union ground game this election will be unparalleled
There just aren’t enough paid college republicans to compete
Mostly because the are already employed by the administration as “superstars”.
- GA Watcher - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:55 pm:
“It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham”
- ste_with_a_v_en - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:55 pm:
To be fair, The Center for Digital Government’s 2016 Digital States Survey showed Illinois moved up quite bit but since Rauner created DoIT.
http://www.govtech.com/computing/Digital-States-2016.html#Illinois
- The Way I See It - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 12:55 pm:
At least he is recognizing that someone was being held hostage by this nonsense.
- Dee Lay - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:03 pm:
I’m glad to see the folks from DoIT have decided to join us!
- walker - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:08 pm:
The simple truth is that Dems proposed and passed more cuts to spending than Rauner has ever proposed.
- Fixer - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:13 pm:
Yeah, thanks the protection there guv, but no thanks. You’ve done quite enough already. I’ll take my chances without your intervention.
- Disgusted Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:25 pm:
Huh. And here I thought he was the one responsible for the veto of the entire state budget, apart from K-12 funding, last year. Doesn’t that make him the hostage taker?
I’d say it’s projection, but I think he’s aware of what he’s doing. The lies are part of the plan.
- Me Again - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:30 pm:
In my area of Illinois IT, DoIT/Deloitte is basically seen as an organization that is trying to consume as much cash as possible while doing as little work as possible.
- PeeWee Herman - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:40 pm:
I know you are but what am I?
- Huh? - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 2:02 pm:
The corollary to “bless his heart” is “he’s such a dear”.
- sharkette - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 2:58 pm:
RE Me Again - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 1:30 pm:
“In my area of Illinois IT, DoIT/Deloitte is basically seen as an organization that is trying to consume as much cash as possible while doing as little work as possible. ”
The comptorller, TOOK 93 M of IT funds,
vouched and approved to PAY SMALL LOCAL MINORITY BUSINESS the day she walked into the office, and they are not being paid.
SHE cost us to date since she cam in on that stunt an additional 9M in interest charges for her failure to pay those SMALL Business’s.
and YES Deloittes funds are in there too.
And the fact is EVERY person in the state including employees USE technology and it does and has reduced costs, across the board.
get your facts straight
- sharkette - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 3:06 pm:
Every school and PD is connected to the the ICN, It’s the back bone of the ENTIRE state, every agency and every person getting a driver’s license, or making a call into an agency, and the police and the DOC, everyone uses IT each person in this state in some fashion needs it and uses the States IT infrastructure and with out it we would be in the 60’s VS the 70’s which is where we were before Rauner came in. And as a matter offact QUINN started the upgrade, NOT Rauner.
IT is the most basic layer to any service the state has. Every child in school uses it. Each student in any college uses it.
Every person on any social program uses it.
Every one in this state uses it, the DMS SOS each and every business in the State uses the States IT infrastructure in some form or fashion.
It is a necessity and a service to all.
And upgrading it is better than buying a warranty on your gramas 1950 refrigerator in your cellar.
It’s cheaper, more efficient, more proactive and saves EVERYONE MONEY & TIME
- Disgusted Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 3:18 pm:
No, sharkette, they don’t. We dropped our ICN connection many years ago because we got much more bandwidth for a lot less money by using a local cable provider. When our school was part of ICN, we had to pay three different phone companies a total of around $1200 a month just to get a crappy T1 connection that had to be split between buildings. Many rural schools in the area use private providers now.
- vole - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 3:36 pm:
Mirror mirror on the wall. Who is the biggest hostage taker of them all?
Not a question to be asked of any mirror in the Rauner domain.
Nor one to be honestly reflected in the millions of dollars of Rauner lies to soon blemish the public airways, adding insult to injury in the chief hostage taker’s game.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 4:38 pm:
This is just another of those times when Rauner wanders so far off the reality map that you ask:
Does he really think I’m that stupid or is he afflicted with some Blago-like condition?
Either one, it’s way creepy to witness someone attribute their own actions to someone else and call them bad.
Like, “stop me, before I do it again” creepy.
- Mama - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 5:10 pm:
Rauner becomes more Trump- like everyday. My mom use to say, “that man isn’t operating with a full deck”.
- (Un) Happy - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 6:24 pm:
I told the GA what to write in their bills…
But the people all called em’ soundin real shrill.
They said they was hurtin cuz the bills ain’t paid,
But it ain’t my fault, don’t blame the egg I laid…
Oh glooooom despaaaair n’ agony on me,
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If I couldn’t veto I’d do no work ar all,
Caaaaaain’t they eeeeever fall in line with meeeeee.
I’m thinkin the Governor needs a new ‘downstate outfit’ s/
- Eddie Spaghetti - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 6:34 pm:
Rauner remains a complete and utter disappointment. Think of how much worse things would be if he did have a social agenda.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 8:07 pm:
“To be fair, The Center for Digital Government’s “2016 Digital States Survey showed Illinois moved up quite bit but since Rauner created DoIT.”
I’m sure Bhatt’s high priced professional club memberships didn’t influence those rankings./ s
- DuPage - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 8:21 pm:
“Things come apart so easily when they have been
held together with lies”.
- peon - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 8:33 pm:
This is beyond the help of “messaging”.
The words “Executive Branch” mean what they say. Quit your whining.
- Me Again - Wednesday, Jul 19, 17 @ 10:28 pm:
Sharkette - I’ve got to get me some of whatever you’ve been smoking.
- Lynn S. - Thursday, Jul 20, 17 @ 8:13 am:
Sharkette obviously is a DoIT/Delotte employee. Why else would she refer to them as a “small business”?
I’m just curious what her job title is. If it’s “communications staff”, Deloitte might want to reconsider her placement and contract.