40 Comments - Anon - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 8:48 am: It seems pretty clear to me that the Democrats will work with the republicans and the administration on a budget, but will not compromise in exchange for turnaround agenda items. Why is this so difficult to understand? If the dems give in this year on one or two items, whats to say we dont find ourselves in the same place next year with demands to negotiate the next two items on the turnaround agenda in exchange for the next budget. Do the budget…period. Then, begin negotiations on your turnaround agenda. if you have the votes, run the bills. Why is this so difficult? - Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 8:49 am: Radogno says “While I hope it doesn’t happen, I think it’s possible.” Please, with her level of commitment to solving problem it’s not only possible it’s likely. - Spliff - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 8:52 am: Hundreds of millions? Really minority leader? Bundling through candidate committees? Like the $30K you got from Matt Murphy? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 8:54 am: Hmm. “Bruce Rauner and his Raunerite, deep-pocketed, cronies are being task masters with unprecedented amounts of cash from their private funds — tens of millions,” many are saying. “And when they’re bundled together to hold two caucuses hostage and individual legislators can’t vote their voting switches for their constituents becausd of Rauner’s campaign committee, and with Griffin, and Zell demanding obedience too, it could end up being hundreds of millions of dollars cash being held over the heads of Raunerite legislators to protect the bought and paid for Raunerite Caucuses for Bruce Rauner, which is failing the people of Illinois.” Better. - Spliff - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:00 am: Thanks OW, I think that is what she meant to say. - Not it - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:04 am: Anon @ 8:48: I assume that is snark, right? - JS Mill - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:05 am: I wonder what Radogno really thinks, deep down, where she sees things for what they are. Does she really think it is Madigan et al? Because her part of the pre-Rauner status quo was pretty useless. Lots of easy votes, no pressure. Now it is a bit different. As wrong as the Democrats are, and as much as they failed in the past we are not better off than we were a year ago. Maybe Rauner’s plan will work. The huge lack of anything like real data or a successful example somewhere else is a bit of a sticking point. But they are all screwing people in a big way for their gain and, yes, Rauner has his own money in the campaigns but his financial future and those of his cronies or Madigan and his cronies are not at risk. Just all of the rest of us. It really sucks. - train111 - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:08 am: Cognitive dissonance–the ability of politicians, members, and supporters of any political party who can point out the mistakes, flaws, errors, and political gamesmanship of the other political party all while being unable to see the EXACT same thing that their own political party is doing-most often at the exact same time they are pointing the finger. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:12 am: Being elected governor does not give you the power and legal ability to pass whatever brain fart blows through your head. Being governor allows the elected to lead, it does not allow anyone to dictate. So to get your agenda, a minority elected governor, such as Rauner, needs to build upon the election he won. Rauner isn’t doing what normal governors did. Instead of proving his mettle, Rauner is blowing up what he found and wrecking Illinois in order to make voters elect Republicans. He, and his voters, don’t care who gets hurt because they believe they get zero from the current government. Rauner and his supporters believe that only citizens who free-load off of the current government will get hurt - not them. We are seeing Rauner and his supporters willfully harming their neighbors, forcing them off of government support, onto “something else”. These Republicans don’t care what happens to their needy neighbors. Rauner supporters believe it is a “dog-eat-dog” situation, and they think it is better to let their neighbors starve, than themselves. Rauner’s supporters have deadened their conscience towards their less fortunate neighbors with fantasies about voluntary charities, magical employment opportunities and manna from heaven, I guess. We are seeing a malignant callousness among Rauner supporters. As long as Rauner can keep applying his “it’s Madigan’s fault” conscience salve onto their deadening souls, Rauner supporters can keep closing their eyes and demanding that something gets reformed. Rauner’s political game is a lethal one for Illinois. The Governor believes Illinois has been dying, so now he wants to cover us with a big down pillow and smother us out of our dilemma. If the majority party complains, Rauner will veto. If the voters don’t support him now, they will after he has killed off our current government. This isn’t governing. - RetiredStateEmployee - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:12 am: Clearly Sen. Christine Radogno is in the camp of our “tens of millions” of dollars are good and theirs is bad. To paraphrase Spock, “The needs of the few, outweighs the needs of the many.” And by the way, when the feds come in for an audit and find that GRF bills are being paid by Federal money, don’t you think that will happen before 2020? What then? - Crispycritter - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:14 am: Basically he wants to answer to no one, period. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:15 am: “Madigan and his Democrat cronies are being rewarded with unprecedented amounts of cash from special interests — tens of millions,” she said. –“And when they’re bundled together to individual legislators and campaign committees, it could end up being hundreds of millions of dollars cash to protect the status quo, which is failing the people of Illinois.– Apparently, there was an open bar at the City Club. And it got drank dry. That statement is not remotely grounded in reality. It’s just whack-a-doo. - Rod - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:23 am: Sen. Christine Radogno Is part of the status quo, she is a soccer-mom Republican part of the moderate Jim Edgar wing of the party and her campaign records show she took money from unions too. Radogno was not a Rauner supporter during the primary and her conversion to his confrontational style towards unions is based on opportunism rather than her opposition to the status quo. - cdog - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:24 am: So Lady Radagno is citing the GOMB forecast. If she allowed herself to look at the numbers, sans the victim filter, she would see that the GOP/Raunerbot style of governing is very expensive. It even has the Governor’s “friends,” who have to do business with people of both parties, backing away from supporting this style of governing, per reports. FY15 (Quinn’s last budget as the CEO of IL) $577m surplus ($1.031b with inter fund sweep) $4.403b backlog FY16 (Rauner’s first budget as the CEO of IL) $4.626b deficit $9.029b backlog These numbers are hard evidence of his leadership failure. His failure, and Radagno’s failure, to deal with the political realities has caused this. There will be no ROI from the violent whiplash of the proposed TA that can overcome the damage done by his first year in office. Just plain s+up1d1+y and lack of respect for what is right with Illinois. Rauner, and his supporters, are sacrificing all the taxpayers of Illinois to pursue an emotional and hate-filled agenda. - anonymouse - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:31 am: I’m now convinced that the governor and the legislature have decided to create a true emergency that can invoke the police powers or emergency powers of the government in order to attack the pension problem. At some point, the backlog of other non pension bills are so big, you can’t even tax your way out of it. So even though the Illinois Supreme Court has indicated they could step in under certain circumstances, the hole will be too big to step in. - Facts are Stubborn Things - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:40 am: dems are ready to compromise on a budget, but Rauner won’t do a budget until he gets his non budget items. he could have used veto power to make the budget the dems passed in balance, but he chose to veto the whole thing. - Facts are Stubborn Things - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:44 am: Rauner has an opportunity to pivot and say ok lets do a budget but it is going to be a tough one with lots of cuts and some revenue. He then can go into the 2016 elections and make it a referendum on his turn around agenda. He has to learn to count…lots of dems in the house and senate. He then needs to get a deal with AFSCME by putting a realistic plan on the table…little to no raises, and modest health care changes. - Norseman - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:45 am: Well put cdog, but this is about philosophy not data. - @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:51 am: “He, and his voters, don’t care who gets hurt because they believe they get zero from the current government. Rauner and his supporters believe that only citizens who free-load off of the current government will get hurt - not them.” Commit it to memory. – MrJM - Hit or Miss - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:59 am: ===Radogno says “While I hope it doesn’t happen, I think it’s possible.”=== If it happens and the deficit spending continues along with an increasing unpaid bill backlog, the states bond rating is sure to be cut yet again. Interest rates on the states debt will continue to increase. That makes for fat profits on Wall St. but ballooning costs for taxpayers. It is not a great financial forecast for most of the residents of Illinois. - Homer J. Quinn - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:03 am: this whole situation reminds me of Thomas Frank’s book The Wrecking Crew. “Bad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad.” - deadguy - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:25 am: I said yesterday that January of 2019 was the most optimistic view point in terms of seeing something done with the budget. There is no urgency whatsoever to get something done and we are stuck in Purgatory. We will spend years reading about the endless bickering and finger pointing from both sides of the aisle with nothing getting done. Rsuner had a chance to make some changes but instead will not buckle on any points of his Agenda. Rauner has turned a horrific situation in to an absolute catastrophe. Thinking that things can’t get worse is the wrong ideology as we are heading to depths not seen before in our State’s history. - NixonHead - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:28 am: So long as Republicans reject revenue options and Democrats reject labor and economic reforms, why would anyone think that the budget stalemate would end? - cdog - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:47 am: thanks Norseman, I work hard to stay on the logical side of my brain. “.. but this is about philosophy not data.” Data, and real effects, must be respected. There is a big red truck, speeding out of control in the wrong lane. Head on collision? Ditch? Philosophy loses it’s importance when the ** hits the fan. /s - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:52 am: “Madigan and his Democrat cronies are being rewarded with unprecedented amounts of cash from special interests — tens of millions” Mighty ironic coming from someone who’s party is all but owned by RGU (Rauner Griffin Uihlein). Plus, what kind of spirit of compromise is created by using childish insults like “Democrat” instead of Democratic? Who is going to step up here and rise above the petty political attacks? The prospect of no budget for years is mind-boggling and reminds me of the old saying that the grass is not always greener on the other side. We can harm ourselves far more if we let desperation and overreaction rule our choices of candidates. - walker - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:17 am: From bad to worse. I hope Sen Radogno was just pointing out a fire to get everybody’s attention, when she knows that the department is already hooking up their hoses — and to begin to justify why she will have to demand her that members vote for a tax rate increase. - Federalist - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:21 am: Neither side will budge. Not exactly a News Flash! And yes, this will continue for a very long time. Both Madigan and Rauner are used to having their own way throughout their different careers. And they ain’t goin’ to change now. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:59 am: So the top Republican in the Illinois Senate doesn’t see a solution. Yet they still want us to vote for them to fix things? - Langhorne - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:01 pm: So, Christy is afraid of “tens of millions”? Ha. Rauners opening bid was $20 million, raised from what, three people? - Century Club - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:05 pm: A flat-out admission that the Rauner strategy is not working. - Honeybear - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:12 pm: -We are seeing a malignant callousness among Rauner supporters- VanillaMan, the whole post was outstanding but “malignant callousness” blew my mind. My head blew up like a Martians on “Mars Attacks” hearing yodeling. So good. Inspirational writing. Thank you - nona - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:13 pm: Rauner promised no more business as usual, but totally blaming the other side for our problems sure sounds like the same old, same old. - RNUG - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:14 pm: -Anonymouse-, They might be trying that end run but, from the clear writing in the Kanerva and SB-1 decisions, the current IL SC ain’t going to buy it. And as long as the IL SC maintains a contract is a contract, I don’t see any way the Federal Court system would get involved; the Feds have very consistently deferred to the states in cases where the dispute has been between the State as employer and its’ employees. And here’s the key flaw in that plan: the pensions are constitutionally guaranteed; a lot of the other State debt / bills are not. - sal-says - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:18 pm: == The top Republican in the Illinois Senate says “it’s possible” the standoff over a state budget could last for several years if Democrats aren’t willing to compromise. == Are these people nuts? Go around your ‘figurehead’ gov & try some compromise. You’re a leader, show it. For the voters that elected You. - Norseman - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:30 pm: === Data, and real effects, must be respected. === cdog, you and I agree on this, but Rauner and his minions don’t. - CONFIDENT that nothing is getting done - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:31 pm: So, what happens to the middle class of Illinois now. The Millionaire Governor who has no interest in the “actual tax-payers of the state, other than if there is a sound bite to be recorded. Rauner is too proud to admit he bit off more than he can chew, and JUST DO THE BUDGET. That is logical, and nothing in State Government ever actually does anything that is logical. So we’re in for a very long haul folks, load up on provisions now. - RNUG - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 1:35 pm: Hopefully, the middle class rebels by removing whichever parties they perceive to be the problem. Yes, they can’t remove Rauner next election but they can vote out his surrogates. Same for the other side with MJM, etc. If it stays status quo in 2016, then we’ll have to wait for 2018 and hope everyone survives until then. - Anon221 - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 2:23 pm: Maybe the Treasurer and Comptroller should issue a report showing all the Federal funds that may be withheld/repaid/disappear if we “buy” into this fantasy of “we’ll be all right until 2020″. Ya think, regardless of who gets in the Oval Office, that those monies are just gonna keep flowing with no questions or consequences??? - D.P.Gumby - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 2:50 pm: Now she’s learning to speak the fantasy speak of Brucie where there is no reality–compromise means Dems have to cave on everything, special interest means everyone who is not Brucie and his cronies, etc., etc, - James Knell - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 9:21 pm: The daily message: capitulate or else. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.