48 Comments - Stones - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:46 am: If the Governor thinks he is winning this battle he’s delusional. Granted, there is plenty of blame to go around but the drumbeat is focusing on the Executive Mansion. Time to cut your losses and strike a budget deal. Agree to a few doable reforms so that you can save face. - 47th Ward - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:50 am: As Harry Truman famously said, “the buck stops over there someplace, call your legislators, not me. It’s not my fault.” He even had that on a sign he placed on his desk in the Oval Office. True story. - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:50 am: ===The “hostage” meme spreads=== About time. It only took 4 or 5 months for the media to catch on. If there were some sort of cover-up, it would have taken a week. But a governor being honest, saying, I’m going to hold the state hostage takes four months. Geez…. - Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:53 am: 47th Ward: That sign was so long it ran off his desk in the Oval Office and 20 feet down the hallway. /s - Anonymous - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:54 am: The message to send to the Governor is that he is the CEO of a $35 Billion business called the State of Illinois. He is running it into the ground in the name of making it better. Priority #1 is the State as a functioning entity and then to be a leader on whatever causes he may wish on legislation. But on that heed the advice of his predecessors that it takes time to accomplish a legislative agenda. But right now, he is not right for the business of the State. - CCP Hostage - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:54 am: It’s going to take the non Rauner GOP to do something about the budget because as Mr. JM says,”Rauner doesn’t care.” Rauner won’t lead and he has no end game. At some point, it is bound to occur to someone that all of us hostages vote and we are taking note. Also, while we are powerless at this point to have an impact on the budget, we are very, very good at organizing. Rauner doesn’t care if he is elected again. But surely others want to be re-elected. - Norseman - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:58 am: Don’t these people realize how important their sacrifice is to the cause of union busting? (/s) - ottawa otter - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 11:59 am: 47TH WARD, you are kidding, right? I am sure you know that Truman’s sign was “the buck stops here”, meaning with him. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:02 pm: ===“The governor is holding social services hostage to negotiate the deal he wants for business,” she said.=== Governors own. They always do. - 47th Ward - that’s is restaurant-quality. - AC - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:11 pm: But the newspapers said the budget impasse was about the budget, that both sides were an equal distance away from a resolution, said something about Rauner wanting to improve the states finances, and never mentioned that only one person was refusing to even negotiate the budget. /s - Juvenal - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:14 pm: In the words of Eric Zorn: Time to pick a side. Andrea Durbin Wendy DuBoe Judith Gethner Rick Estrada Jennifer DeLeon Time. To. Choose. - X-prof - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:16 pm: @CCPH “It’s going to take the non Rauner GOP to do something about the budget …” +1 This ends when the GOP leadership in the GA decides it’s politically more expensive to stick with Rauner than to negotiate a budget without him and override if he vetoes. Something like this just happened with the Freedom Caucus, but it took years for Boehner to get there. - zatoichi - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:25 pm: OO, 47 is right. You can still buy copies of the sign at the Truman Presidential Library gift store. They sell out quick. - History Prof - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:27 pm: Anonymous: “The message to send to the Governor is that he is the CEO of a $35 Billion business called the State of Illinois.” Please do NOT send him that message; he already thinks it! Edgar was right: Illinois is NOT a company that he can carve up and sell off! - DuPage - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:36 pm: Rauner can not be trusted. He says AFTER the Dems approve his turnaround agenda, he will DISCUSS revenue. Once the Dems pass his turnaround agenda, Rauner will quickly sign it. Then Rauner will say he has given the schools and all other local governments the tools they need to take care of their own budgets, and a tax increase will be off the table. The Dems could not undo the turnaround because Rauner would just veto it, and the Dems don’t quite have enough votes to override. The Dems need to hold the line against Rauner, don’t give the hostage-taker anything! - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:41 pm: Comments in another post discuss ==hostages==, ==winners==, ==losers== and ==war==. This started with détente. It collapsed into a hostage situation, with both ==parties== seeking hostages - some unsuccessfully - and attempting rescues like the AFSCME override under cover of smoke from their unbalanced budgets. That hostage situation became a skirmish, which is now accelerating into war. The ==hostage== phase of this is now past tense, whether it is apparent yet or not. Wars have victims and ==collateral damage==. Not hostages. smh. - Serious question - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:54 pm: The fact is, most of Rauner’s houses aren’t in Illinois. He doesn’t give a damn what happens to the rest of us losers who are stuck here. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:57 pm: To the Update, ===Governor, ignore the Caucus. You’d betray voters who elected you if you didn’t secure economic and other reforms to help rescue Illinois. Here’s why: This state cannot tax or cut its way to prosperity. Illinois instead must grow more jobs, more taxpayers and thus more revenues.=== LOL, “Surrender Caucus” “Governor, ignore the Caucus. You’d betray voters who elected you if you didn’t secure economic and other reforms to help rescue Illinois.” You “hang in there” Governor. How terribly pathetic. - Louis G. Atsaves - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:58 pm: “Surrender Illinois Caucus” and “In some cultures, leaders accept responsibility for their failures and humbly go away. In Illinois, the leaders cling to power and blame newcomers for the havoc they wrought.” This editorial is a little more spot on than the Tribune haters will admit. The general public will gravitate to those bullet points more than “governors own,” - Northsider - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 12:59 pm: ottawa otter @ 11:59, this might help: Sarcasm. - Wordslinger - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:03 pm: Oh, the Tribbies and Rauner are “insurrectionists” now. What about next week? Cowboys? Double-ought spies? Astronauts? Big Brain Bruce and Katrina sure do make a thoughtful, intelligent, compelling case for “economic and other reforms,” don’t they? They don’t even bother to mention what they are, much less offer any quantifiable and measurable benefits for the real costs in runaway deficits, abandoned social services, stiffing state businesses of money owed and starving munis of dedicated tax revenues that are being paid for no services. They’re “insurrectionists,” and it’s play time. - Demoralized - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:04 pm: I’ve really had it with this surrender crap. It’s pathetic. How the hell is it surrender to work on negotiating on things that you can actually accomplish. The pathetic people arguing that it’s “surrender” and “status quo” if we don’t do what the Governor asks are every bit a part of the problem as the Governor because these are the same goofy people the Governor points to when he says he’s “winning.” And the Tribune is the leading chorus for those pathetic people. - sideline watccher - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:05 pm: This is disgusting. I don’t even know what to say. The Tribune editorial board is just disgusting and bought off. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:05 pm: - Louis G Atsaves - If Rauner won’t “surrender” to the “Surrender Caucus”, then by definition, Rauner is choosing a different path, owning those choices Rauner makes. So, Rauner owns the closing of the Illinois State Museum closing… Rauner owns the decimation of social service choices. Rauner owns that water is turned off at state facilities, that gas can’t be purchased for state vehicles. Rauner owns IDOC trucks being repossed, that the JRTC will have no cleaning company servicing the building… Rauner won’t yield! Rauner owns the fallout. Thems the rules. I didn’t make ‘em. - Keyrock - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:06 pm: Rich -it’s amazing how fast the Trib can take down Lance’s dictation and get it on their website and into print, isn’t it? We do try to stay one step ahead. Best, ck - Wordslinger - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:24 pm: Louis, you and the Tribbies like to pretend that this “havoc” isn’t part of the plan, tne “leverage.” This what is supposed to happen when the plan is to willfully sabotage government to “leverage” a political agenda. Why don’t you just justify the price, rather than pretend it’s not the strategy? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:24 pm: HBO - “Dad’s Home State - Season 1, Episode 86 Bruce eats out so no one knows all utilities are turned off at the Mansion. Diana makes a list of all the people calling for her to step down from her job. Diana’s state employee blocks Capitol Fax on all of Diana’s electronics. Lance dictates an Editorial to the Tribune Editorial Board, Goldberg writes to Mayor Emanuel. Comedy, 58 minutes. - Math(Usually)Doesn'tLie - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:27 pm: Tribune: “We’ll keep the gun pointed at the hostages for you here in Chicago. You continue on downstate with your crocodile tears tour.” - Loop Lady - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:31 pm: When does the recall effort for Bruce begin? July 1, 2016 when he still is holding out for his principles before passing a budget? Dereliction of one his his major responsilibilties as Governor while his state falls further into the abyss…imo - Norseman - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:48 pm: Remember, men. There is nothing wrong with surrendering to overwhelming powers, as long as it is done in a military manner. Tulley - Mouthy - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 1:49 pm: Glad to see people starting to call it what it is.. - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:08 pm: ==The pathetic people arguing that it’s “surrender” and “status quo”== Now that Rauner and Madigan are facing off, when does any sort of ==reform== occur if not now? They could have agreed on a budget, trusted each other and continued working together on reforms after the budget. They ruined that. Once a budget is done, what motivation will Madigan have for supporting any reforms that may be necessary for the state but unpopular with his base? If not now, when? How is it even possible? - Juvenal - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:09 pm: Kristin McQueary curiously breezed right over the Chicago Tribune’s stentorian support for the Edgar Ramp, along with the Illinois Chamber, didn’t she? - Steve Judd - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:12 pm: In fairness to the World’s Greatest Newspaper, the Trib’s editorial board has been focused consistently for years—decades—on financial restraint. It found its erstwhile salvation in Bruce and now just can’t bear the thought of anything other than fiscal purity on his part. So that’s the problem with this blistering ed; it offers no suggestion as to what would be the outlines of acceptable areas of compromise because it views compromise as “surrender”. Maybe the only hope is that a Republican wins the White House in ‘16 and the Gov. can forget his likely fantasy of riding into the 2020 Republican Convention as The Man Who Shot Liberty Madigan. Might just be worth it. - Wordslinger - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:16 pm: FKA, perhaps you could reveal the cost-benefit analysis on these “necessary reforms.” They must pay off like gangbusters because they are costing a very severe price. - Juice - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:28 pm: Steve, have to disagree with the first part of your comments. In their endorsement of Rauner last year, they criticized Pat Quinn for cutting too much. More recently, they criticized the Rahm for refinancing the interest rate swaps and variable rate deals that were both costing the city too much money. A long time ago they moved far far away from having any sort of intellectual consistency on fiscal restraint. - Steve Judd - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:37 pm: Juice, you make good points about which I plan to read more. Thanks. - Steve Judd - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:37 pm: Juice, you make good points about which I plan to read more. Thanks. - JS Mill - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:41 pm: FKA- well, you’re right I guess. except for the fact the there has to be an FY17 budget and Rauner can hold that one hostage if that mean old Grinch MJM doesn’t keep his word. Or, vice versa for that matter. - Chicago Cynic - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 2:47 pm: That Trib editorial is exactly what we’ve sadly come to expect from Bruce Rauner and the editorial board he controls. Delusional just doesn’t begin to cut it. And maybe if the Tribsters got out more and saw the damage to real people like Ashley Goodwin, they might take a less heartless approach…ok, not I’m being delusional. They really are heartless “ends justify the means as long as you’re a Republican” people. - Wordslinger - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 3:19 pm: Steve Judd, the budget deficit for FY16 is somewhere north of $6 billion and growing, all while abandoning social services and driving universities to tne verge of closing. I’m not seeing tne “fiscal restraint.” - CrazyHorse - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 3:23 pm: Why I bothered to click on the Tribune link I don’t know but once I read about “Rauner’s revolutionary vision for Illinois” I knew I had read enough. Are those guys for real? - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 4:29 pm: ==FKA, perhaps you could reveal the cost-benefit analysis on these “necessary reforms.”== And perhaps the Speaker could reveal a cost-benefit analysis of staying on our prior course, with none of these ==necessary reforms== occurring. - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 4:34 pm: @JS Mill - you are right, imho. That could be the key to both stepping back and compromising on this year’s budget. Great comment. - 47th Ward - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 4:36 pm: ===necessary reforms=== Tell me why it’s necessary to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights? Necessary to achieve what, exactly? This is the tell that it’s Rauner who is being most unreasonable in his demands. In the absence of public support for his “necessary reforms,” whatever those are, he has to build pressure by taking the budget hostage. If he had public support, he wouldn’t need to resort to extortion. The emperor is naked. It’s time somebody told him. - lake county democrat - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 4:40 pm: Wordslinger: Here you go: https://www.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/legacy/reports/201103WFI_StateBook.pdf Biased source and of course complicated issues, but now the burden is on you to refute. Or we can agree that it’s pretty obvious that at least SOME of Rauner’s turnaround agenda items would make the state’s business climate more friendly. - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 5:00 pm: ==Tell me why it’s necessary to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights?== Who says those are the necessary reforms he really wants right now? I do not want that or see it as necessary. Rauner could or could not agree. Only he knows. Until a deal is reached, all of this is sadistic negotiation between two powerful men behaving like children. Rauner has reached labor agreements with multiple unions. He has extended the AFSCME offer and not locked them out, despite many of the comments here claiming that is what he wanted to do. He took no reprisals after the failed AFSCME override attempt. His comments and actions are not inseparable. - 47th Ward - Friday, Oct 30, 15 @ 5:07 pm: ===Who says those are the necessary reforms he really wants right now?=== Rauner does. We’re a third of the way through the fiscal year with no budget agreement in sight. What do you think he’s holding out for? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.