Illinois Governor Pat Quinn will be joining us via Google Hangout from the National Democratic Governors Conference. He will be discussing the state of the economy, his take on the 2012 election, and his latest jobs initiative for U.S. veterans.
We will also be asking tough questions on his criticism of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, his stance on corporate tax breaks, and his austerity plan for the state of Illinois.
Most importantly, we want to hear from you — no matter where you live, inside or outside of Illinois! Visit the HuffPost Live 3,2,1 page and click “Join The Conversation” to record your video questions for the Governor.
The live interview is planned for this afternoon.
* The Question: What would you ask Gov. Quinn today?
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:02 am:
I would ask the governor why Illinois massively overpays for rent of buildings for its agencies when the buildings could be bought at much lower prices, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
How can he justify giving away healhcare to more Medicaid people while breaking the constitutionally protected promise of health care as part of retirement benefits earned by people who worked for years doing the public’s business?
Will he support a ban on military recruitment in Illinois public high schools?
The military has enough opportunities — even an advertising budget — to recruit students for the occupations & mistakes of Bush or Obama or the next one without demanding a captive audience.
Why doesn’t he and the other elected officials stand up more the great employees of the State of Illinois instead of making them the villains and blaming them for all our economic woes.
This is Megan, and I’m the producer at HuffPost putting this conversation together at 3:30P ET today. I’d love to have you submit a video question based on what you wrote here. Feel free to post it through our “3…2..1″ site at this link:
Megan, video isn’t the best forum for people like me who post here, if you know what I mean. Radio maybe, but certainly not video. Thanks though. I hope some of us take you up on that. I’d like to see some of my fellow pseudonymous commenters on the little screen.
Quick tip: a lot of the folks you’ll see posting the great questions here would be recognizable by video to the Governor’s staff. Unless there’s a text based option, you’ll miss out on some really hard hitting questions.
I get that everything is moving to video these days, but I am just an old man with an onion tied to his belt and refuse to get my information from anything video based. I can read at 10x the speed a person can speak in a video and value my time higher than that. Now excuse me, I have some kids to chase off my lawn.
Why do you give away millions of dollars of tax payer money to corporations and then screw the same taxpayers by closing state facilities, reducing services and laying off hundreds of state workers?
No one’s “giving away healthcare to more Medicaid people” at the state level. The Cook County waiver program will be paid for entirely by the county and the feds. Absolutely no state money will be involved - it’s written into the law. If Illinois does expand Medicaid to childless adults 18-65 under the ACA starting in 2014, the expansion will be fully subsidized by the federal government for the first three years. The most the state will ever have to pay for these clients is 10%, which I’m sure is less than the savings that will be achieved to a variety of state and local programs once they are receiving better, more coordinated care. And we just CUT services for many Medicaid clients.
How about cutting some of the fat off the numerous worthless state programs instead of threatening cuts to necessary programs like the Police, Firemen, Health Institutions and Prisons to convince the taxpayers to back your funding of the pension deficit on the backs of good hard working state employees?
Are you going to veto SB 3442, that costly, wasteful, and ineffective bill that will accomplish nothing except shield plastic bags from appropriate and effective local waste reduction strategies?
It has been over 1 year since you first proposed facility closures.
Your administration testified before CGFA and publicly stated that a transition plan for every patient would be prepared and thoroughly reviewed before moving them. This was deemed necessary to protect basic patient health and safety, and reassure the public.
We are rapidly approaching your proposed closure date, yet fewer than 50% of families have had these transition plans.
- Will the patient planning and treatment review process be complete before your closures?
- If not, will you still proceed with moving patients who have not been reviewed for transition?
- Do you accept responsibility for the damage done if some of these patients wind up in settings unsuitable for their basic treatment and survival?
Governor, do you lie awake nights worrying about the future survival of this state knowing that a lot of things have gone further to pot on your watch– and that only part of it can be blamed on the bad economy? If so, with whom do you share these concerns, and who do you trust enough to seek honest opinions from?
“Quick tip: a lot of the folks you’ll see posting the great questions here would be recognizable by video to the Governor’s staff. Unless there’s a text based option, you’ll miss out on some really hard hitting questions.”
HAH!
As for the lunch thing-that’s a city issue, but not sure. Next week’s story out of CPS will be marker and crayon fraud. #neverends
Quinn’s drought task force sure worked in Chicago. We got about a quarter inch of rain this afternoon. I would ask him if he can create a jobs task force, an ethics task force, a school funding task force, an open space task force, a puppies and kittens task force, a winning lottery ticket for capital fax commenters task force, etc etc…
Governor, you talk about job creation all the time. Why won’t you sign the gaming bill that clearly would keep and create jobs in Illinois? The majority of Illinois residents are in favor of gaming expansion. How about getting on board with “the will of the people?”
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:02 am:
I would ask the governor why Illinois massively overpays for rent of buildings for its agencies when the buildings could be bought at much lower prices, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
- Javorica - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:13 am:
When will you be performing the “rain dance”?
- Wensicia - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:18 am:
Will you ask for pension reform before the elections?
- Uncle Leo - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:18 am:
When will the tollways sunset like the originally planned to?
- Publius - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:22 am:
How can he justify giving away healhcare to more Medicaid people while breaking the constitutionally protected promise of health care as part of retirement benefits earned by people who worked for years doing the public’s business?
- Shore - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:30 am:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/The-Governor-of-Cook-County-162358736.html
perhaps he could respond to that. Apparently some people have the nerve to think that there’s an actual state outside of cook county.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:31 am:
Do they still call you “Soy Boy”?
- Crime Fighter - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:37 am:
- When is Illinois going to pay back the money it borrowed from it employees’ pension system?
- Do you and your political appointees ever plan to stop attacking state employees who want to perform their jobs for the people of Illinois?
- Kasich Walker, Jr. - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:38 am:
Only one question?
Will he support a ban on military recruitment in Illinois public high schools?
The military has enough opportunities — even an advertising budget — to recruit students for the occupations & mistakes of Bush or Obama or the next one without demanding a captive audience.
- Makandadawg - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:40 am:
Why doesn’t he and the other elected officials stand up more the great employees of the State of Illinois instead of making them the villains and blaming them for all our economic woes.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:42 am:
Why won’t Fenwick schedule OPRF in football, basketball and baseball?
Sorry, I already know the answer.
- Megan Robertson - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:46 am:
Hi all,
This is Megan, and I’m the producer at HuffPost putting this conversation together at 3:30P ET today. I’d love to have you submit a video question based on what you wrote here. Feel free to post it through our “3…2..1″ site at this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/huffpost-live-interview-w_n_1669568.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago&ir=Chicago
- Kasich Walker, Jr. - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:52 am:
Thanks for the offer, Megan, but I offer the Governor suggestions and ask questions at his il.gov site.
- Jimmy - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:53 am:
Megan - we’re not on eastern time in Illinois.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:54 am:
Megan, video isn’t the best forum for people like me who post here, if you know what I mean. Radio maybe, but certainly not video. Thanks though. I hope some of us take you up on that. I’d like to see some of my fellow pseudonymous commenters on the little screen.
- Colossus - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 11:59 am:
Megan -
Quick tip: a lot of the folks you’ll see posting the great questions here would be recognizable by video to the Governor’s staff. Unless there’s a text based option, you’ll miss out on some really hard hitting questions.
I get that everything is moving to video these days, but I am just an old man with an onion tied to his belt and refuse to get my information from anything video based. I can read at 10x the speed a person can speak in a video and value my time higher than that. Now excuse me, I have some kids to chase off my lawn.
- Plutocrat03 - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:09 pm:
How did you get to treat the Illinois employees worse than Governor Walker did, but keep the complaints down?
- anon - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:12 pm:
Why do you give away millions of dollars of tax payer money to corporations and then screw the same taxpayers by closing state facilities, reducing services and laying off hundreds of state workers?
- Anon - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:13 pm:
Shore@11:30am
Better yet, ask him to respond to an article at the bottom of the page of the link you posted:
12 Principals and Assistants Removed for CPS Lunch Scam
- Angry Republican - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:17 pm:
Which state will be the first to get a federal bailout: California or Illinois?
- Chief Illiniwek - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:20 pm:
Why did you appoint Chris Kennedy to the U of I BOT when he has zero ties to the school?
- Chris - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:36 pm:
“just an old man with an onion tied to his belt”
Damn budget Pinkerton alternatives!!
- Yossarian Lives - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:55 pm:
Publius -
No one’s “giving away healthcare to more Medicaid people” at the state level. The Cook County waiver program will be paid for entirely by the county and the feds. Absolutely no state money will be involved - it’s written into the law. If Illinois does expand Medicaid to childless adults 18-65 under the ACA starting in 2014, the expansion will be fully subsidized by the federal government for the first three years. The most the state will ever have to pay for these clients is 10%, which I’m sure is less than the savings that will be achieved to a variety of state and local programs once they are receiving better, more coordinated care. And we just CUT services for many Medicaid clients.
- Yossarian Lives - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:57 pm:
If the interview’s at 3:30pm Eastern, wouldn’t that make it 2:30pm over here - not 4:30?
- Honest Abe - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 12:57 pm:
Do you still think the cutback amendment was a good idea?
- J. HuffPost - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:12 pm:
The Google hangout begins at 3:30 p.m. CT, 4:30 p.m. ET. Our apologies for any confusion!
- Re-elect No One - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:25 pm:
How about cutting some of the fat off the numerous worthless state programs instead of threatening cuts to necessary programs like the Police, Firemen, Health Institutions and Prisons to convince the taxpayers to back your funding of the pension deficit on the backs of good hard working state employees?
- Robert - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:29 pm:
Why did a state with Democrats in control of both the governor’s office and the legislature cut Medicaid rather than corporate tax breaks?
- Robert - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:30 pm:
Why are you doing a video chat with some California content thieves rather than a simple chat with the schleps at Cap Fax?
- 3rd Generation Chicago Native - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:31 pm:
I know his big things is jobs for vets, but which comapnies are hiring and what jobs does he think will be open for them?
- Surf 1 - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:32 pm:
Are you going to veto SB 3442, that costly, wasteful, and ineffective bill that will accomplish nothing except shield plastic bags from appropriate and effective local waste reduction strategies?
- Freeman - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:42 pm:
It has been over 1 year since you first proposed facility closures.
Your administration testified before CGFA and publicly stated that a transition plan for every patient would be prepared and thoroughly reviewed before moving them. This was deemed necessary to protect basic patient health and safety, and reassure the public.
We are rapidly approaching your proposed closure date, yet fewer than 50% of families have had these transition plans.
- Will the patient planning and treatment review process be complete before your closures?
- If not, will you still proceed with moving patients who have not been reviewed for transition?
- Do you accept responsibility for the damage done if some of these patients wind up in settings unsuitable for their basic treatment and survival?
- Strobby - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 1:44 pm:
Does he think he will end up in prison like past 2 Governors ?
- Responsa - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 2:01 pm:
Governor, do you lie awake nights worrying about the future survival of this state knowing that a lot of things have gone further to pot on your watch– and that only part of it can be blamed on the bad economy? If so, with whom do you share these concerns, and who do you trust enough to seek honest opinions from?
- Shore - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 2:24 pm:
“Quick tip: a lot of the folks you’ll see posting the great questions here would be recognizable by video to the Governor’s staff. Unless there’s a text based option, you’ll miss out on some really hard hitting questions.”
HAH!
As for the lunch thing-that’s a city issue, but not sure. Next week’s story out of CPS will be marker and crayon fraud. #neverends
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 2:26 pm:
Legalize, decriminalize, or prescription only?
- geronimo - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 2:54 pm:
How much is the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago paying you to villainize teachers?
- It's Just Me - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 3:00 pm:
Quinn’s drought task force sure worked in Chicago. We got about a quarter inch of rain this afternoon. I would ask him if he can create a jobs task force, an ethics task force, a school funding task force, an open space task force, a puppies and kittens task force, a winning lottery ticket for capital fax commenters task force, etc etc…
- South Sider - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 4:17 pm:
Governor, you talk about job creation all the time. Why won’t you sign the gaming bill that clearly would keep and create jobs in Illinois? The majority of Illinois residents are in favor of gaming expansion. How about getting on board with “the will of the people?”
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Jul 13, 12 @ 4:34 pm:
@Southsider-
For the record, introducing elk into the Shawnee National Forest would produce more jobs and more economic growth.
Unless your counting pawn shops and payday lenders in your jobs numbers.