Reality check
Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This buried nugget is something that has been overlooked this week during the House veto override session…
With 27 members of the House absent, lawmakers had a hard time overriding the governor’s vetoes, many of which needed a three-fifths majority, or 71 votes, to pass.
* The result?
Only six of those 33 [override] motions to restore the funding passed, worth about $480 million.
Lots of legislators voted with their feet this week. They knew this game was essentially a farce. As long as the Senate refuses to return, their votes were meaningless, except as political cover and a vehicle to put the onus on the other chamber.
* This point was also buried or (mostly) not even mentioned in most stories…
House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) refused to call legislation this week that would raise more money to avoid the cuts, including a measure that would allow the administration to dip into other state funds to cover expenses.
Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer also cited Madigan’s decision for why the Senate also wasn’t in town. “They didn’t pass the revenue, so there is no reason to come back,” Davidsmeyer said. […]
Blagojevich called the House overrides “totally irresponsible” and said he won’t call the Senate back to Springfield unless the House passes a meaningful revenue bill.
Restoring vetoed money without adding at least some revenue streams is not the most responsible thing the House has ever done.
* But this gives the wrong impression…
Republicans, who opposed many of the motions to restore the cuts, complained the House votes were about political posturing that toys with groups in need of help. […]
House Republicans and allies of Blagojevich joined together to blast House Democrats for trying to promise money out of a budget that had none to offer.
They’ve joined the Senate in arguing the House wants more spending but doesn’t want to make the tough votes for money-generating measures needed to pay for it.
Because the House Democrats had far fewer than 60 members in town yesterday, every one of those successful veto override motions passed with GOP votes.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 12:31 pm:
Apparently, all those legislators who didn’t show up yesterday aren’t the only people who don’t care about this issue. lol
- GoBearsss - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 12:41 pm:
I think the summer vacation just began Rich.
See you in November!
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 12:43 pm:
I hope you’re right. Truly, I do.
- 618er - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 12:58 pm:
So the Repubs vote for putting the increases back then complain about the fact that voted to increase spending with increased revenue streams….
I don’t want to party bash, but this is a prime example of what shape the party is in….
They don’t have the backbone to stand up. The mean old house dems won’t give us any more money but we will vote to spend what we don’t have.
I am waiting for Alfred Drake to show up and say “Margin Call Gentlemen Put the seats of Drake (Madigan) and Drake(Jones) on the exchange for sale…”
- Bass Man - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 2:19 pm:
What a completely sorry state of affairs the Illinois GOP is. Reverse the scenario, and you’d be looking at a landslide vote coming this fall against this Godawful mess of a legislature in power. The problem is the on-deck circle for the GOP is empty, every other batter has struck out, and the Dem’s have won by forfeit. Sad…very sad.
- 618er - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 2:51 pm:
Oops
It’s supposed to be the Duke and Duke seats and I guess that could be anyone in this circus….
- Team Sleep - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 3:07 pm:
If Tom Cross and his senior staff are allowed to run the show come January 2009, the HGOPs will wilt away. Where is the backbone? I thought my party was supposed to stand for less government and creative ways to provide good service. I guess I thought wrong.
- Smiley - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 9:23 pm:
The sad reality is that the thousands of kids that depend on mental health or substance abuse services are going to be SOL so that the Senate can keep their raises or because the govenor and Madigan can’t get it together. I am a counselor that is at risk of losing a job. Am I worried? YES! Not for me but for the kids that I work with that benefit from social services. If I could refer them somewhere else and knew that they could get the services they need I would be fine but if we do not get that budget approved there will be no Substance Abuse or Mental Health agencies open that I could even refer them too? When did it become ok to “look the other way” for adolescents that need the support that the social services field provides? Look at CEASE FIRE, now Chicago homicides are up 13%. What are we doing wrong? When did we stop caring about the future of our society?
- Obvious - Thursday, Jul 17, 08 @ 11:04 pm:
The sad reality is that one needs to look at each roll call on each vote and who was absent to see what is what politically.
Without knowing the above, I can tell you that there were no hard votes for anyone, one way or the other.
I can tell you that political games have been played forever and Mike Madigan did not like Gov. Edgar and I can assure you Gov. Edgar did not like Mike Madigan, but they at least respected their positions and responsibilities in the process.
This Governor respects no one, that is the problem.