Welcome to the club!
Wednesday, May 11, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Heh…
A question-and-answer session with students in the [Lakes Community High School] auditorium was “one of the best” he’d experienced in the state, Rauner said.
But senior asked Rauner about unpaid bills to state social-service providers, pointing to a lawsuit that was filed last week against Rauner and members of his administration by a group of agencies that provide services to youths, homeless people, people with HIV/AIDS and low-income people with mental health issues.
“All our priorities have not been getting paid for years and years and years, and we’ve got to change that system,” Rauner said in response to her question. “That’s what we’re fighting for is to restructure the government, make it more efficient and effective. We waste billions of dollars in bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste.”
Rudolph said she felt the answer wasn’t much of an answer.
“He definitely dodged my question,” she said. “He tried to tie it back into schools and the funding that we need, but there was absolutely no answer how he’s going to confront the lawsuit, what he feels about the necessity of these services. I just felt there was not a real answer. I just kind of got talked in a circle.”
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:23 am:
===“He definitely dodged my question,” she said. “He tried to tie it back into schools and the funding that we need, but there was absolutely no answer how he’s going to confront the lawsuit, what he feels about the necessity of these services. I just felt there was not a real answer. I just kind of got talked in a circle.”===
Kids… they say the silliest things.
- Fusion - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:26 am:
==We waste billions of dollars in bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste.==
No, we don’t. And many of us are tired of this cheap, nonsensical cop out of an answer.
- Facts are Stubborn Things - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:28 am:
What Rauner should have said, was that I am using the least among us to try and drive a wedge in the democratic party between two constituencies, the unions and those who are most reliant on state services. I am holding hostage those who have the least to try and hurt those who have more then they should have. This from a man who is worth a billion dollars. Of course all of this is so that we can eventually have a better state. snark. He is trying to destroy unions so he is destroying those most vulnerable to do it.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:28 am:
–”I just felt there was not a real answer. I just kind of got talked in a circle.”–
Limp word-salad is not very satisfying.
All these high school visits — I wonder why the governor doesn’t do Q&A’s at public universities?
- Magic Dragon - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:31 am:
==We waste billions of dollars in bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste.==
Would love to see the facts and accounting to back this statement up. Easy thing to say and it sounds good but the fact is that many state operations have been cut to the bone for several years now.
- The Dude Abides - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:32 am:
I would love to see the Rauner administration provide figures that would survive actuarial scrutiny showing where these billions of dollars of waste are. They won’t do it because they don’t exist. Sure there are some things the state can do more efficiently and save money but they won’t amount to any where near a billion dollars.
If the Democrats give Rauner everything he wants tomorrow it will not make up for the damage he’s already put on this state and that’s the big tragedy in all this. He can’t answer a student’s question honestly because he is being dishonest as to his real intentions.
- Thoughts Matter - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:33 am:
Word…
Because the college students vote and they tell it like it is….loudly. Most of the high school students don’t yet vote and they will get detentions for being impolite during the governors’ visit.
It’s bad news when a high school senior can see the doublespeak. Dear Governor- please come down to reality. We need a budget now.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:35 am:
“We waste billions of dollars in bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste.”
That’s code for slashing state workers.
- Daniel Plainview - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:36 am:
- I wonder why the governor doesn’t do Q&A’s at public universities? -
Any more tough questions like that and I predict the coward will switch to kindergartens.
- 37B - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:36 am:
He’s been in office for more than a year. Surely the Superstars have already uncovered the “billions” in “inefficiency and waste.” Bruce: Would you care to share that with the class?
- Annonin' - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:38 am:
BigBrain really likes to make it appear his disaster is just a continuation of the past (and therefore O.k.) most have rejected that nonsense quite some time ago.
BTW did we line up the prayer list for the mansion funder? BigBrain multitaskin’
- Gruntled University Employee - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:38 am:
Your BS doesn’t even fool the school children anymore Governor, please stop this madness and start GOVERNING!!
- wordslinger - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:38 am:
==We waste billions of dollars in bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste.==
Where’s the list? Maybe the dog ate it, along with the analysis showing the ROI on the Turnaround Agenda.
Those kinds of preposterous statements are just scary easy for him.
Remember when he said he’d been criss-crossing the country, lining up “dozens” of companies ready to relocate to Illinois?
Do you think he realizes he’s telling whoppers when he does it?
- RNUG - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:42 am:
And they say the schools are failing our kids … that student definitely learned a thing or two.
- Cassandra - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:45 am:
Did he tell the kids to ask their parents how much of an income tax increase they’d be willing to pay to get the state out of its fiscal difficulties.
The frequently unasked question-who pays, and how much.
- JoanP - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:47 am:
@ Thoughts Matter: “It’s bad news when a high school senior can see the doublespeak.”
Personally, I think it’s GOOD news that high school seniors are capable of seeing through his garbage. It means they have been taught critical thinking. Unlike the Trib editorial board . . .
- Jocko - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 10:54 am:
Kids say the darndest things…especially when they have inherited disorders or are in the foster care system.
Not to worry, finding waste, fraud, and abuse will solve all our problems.
- Langhorne - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 11:02 am:
Words: billions in waste and inefficiency
Actions:
Actions:
(We are “saving” big amounts by starving the beast, and RAUNER is ok w that.)
- Norseman - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 11:30 am:
Rauner will now start going to elementary schools. The high school kids are on to the Rauner rhetoric.
- Thoughts Matter - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 11:40 am:
JoanP- let me clarify- it’s bad news for Rauner. I agree it’s good that students aren’t fooled.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 11:58 am:
=It’s bad news when a high school senior can see the doublespeak.=
From extensive experience I can tell you that high school kids have excellent BS detectors. This story is case in point.
- siriusly - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 12:08 pm:
==We waste billions of dollars in bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste.==
Governor - if that statement is accurate (which it is not) why did you not propose cutting billions of dollars in wasted inefficiency in your balanced budget proposal?
- illini - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 12:14 pm:
Norseman - “Rauner will now start going to elementary schools. The high school kids are on to the Rauner rhetoric.” I was wondering how long that would take.
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 12:43 pm:
It’s just a matter of time before he slips up again and uses “billions” in place of “dozens” or vice-versa.
- Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 12:51 pm:
Perhaps this is some actual video footage from one of the Governor’s school visit Q&A sessions? /s
https://youtu.be/uRf-sRZBiHo
- JoanP - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 12:53 pm:
@Thoughts Matter -
I should have realized! Sorry I misinterpreted your post.
- Democrat Grrrl - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 12:55 pm:
Out of the mouths of babes, and high school seniors, often comes the unvarnished truth.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 11, 16 @ 2:41 pm:
And who says schools are failing our kids? HAH! If high schoolers, who aren’t known for being up on the latest political shenanigans, are aware of the hypocrisy of our “leader”, then I think his message of willful destruction is coming thru loud and clear. So he says the beaurocracy is eating up too much money and the way to solve that is to deny services to those in need and turn them loose on the street or let them die———–huh? We’ve never had a governor like this one before.