Better late than never, I suppose
Friday, Mar 10, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Politifact rates this claim as “Pants on Fire”…
In his annual budget speech, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said he was presenting a balanced budget.
“Today we present you with a balanced budget that shows what is possible if we all come together on a comprehensive approach to state finances and job creation” the governor said.
The next morning, his campaign sent an email underscoring that he had offered a balanced budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
“Governor Bruce Rauner yesterday outlined a plan to balance the budget that reforms Illinois and builds a new economy,” the email read. It included a link to a new, Rauner-funded website, www.budgetandreform.com. The website features a campaign ad that repeats the claim that the governor, who is embroiled in an unprecedented budget stalemate with majority Democrats, has proposed a balanced budget.
The governor’s budget address was almost a month ago.
- wordslinger - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:20 am:
What a scoop.
The claim was an obvious lie the moment it was made.
- Rabid - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:20 am:
Happenchance
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:21 am:
I find this line disturbing:
The governor’s press office referred questions about the balanced budget claims to Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe.
- Delimma - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:22 am:
X comes in, X goes out. That is balanced. Should be easy to check.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:22 am:
Rauner doesn’t speak truth, Rauner speaks leverage and agenda.
By those measures, Rauner is…
…
… Rauner is Rauner. Rauner won the news cycle that day. So, Rauer cares less about any other measurable.
- WhoKnew - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:37 am:
Nothing to see here folks.
This is basic “Alternative Facts 101″./s
- Arock - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:41 am:
If you use the past practice of what Illinois has done it is just as balanced as the budgets the GA have passed for the last 15 years.
- Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:46 am:
===If you use the past practice of what Illinois has done it is just as balanced as the budgets the GA have passed for the last 15 years.===
For the past 15 years, the budget has been $4 billion or more out of whack? Oh well than I guess $7 billion isn’t that big of a deal and will easily be overcome, right? Nope. My concern is the present. I don’t really care about the awful budgets under Ryan, Rod or Quinn. They aren’t the governor right now. And you have a guy who says we can solve this, but seems determined to make it worse.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:48 am:
- Arock -
“Bruce Rauner, the Status Quo”
- The Dude Abides - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:49 am:
@ARock, Rauner’s budget is about 5 billion out of balance. While budgets in the past 15 years have been out of balance, not by that extraordinary amount. I’m quite tired of defenders of the Governor constantly mentioning that things were already bad when Rauner took office and that unbalanced budgets have been submitted before. This is the Governor who promised to shake things up and bring change. He has sure done that. Name me another Governor who has racked up 8 billion more in unpaid bills in his first 2 years in office.
- JS Mill - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 10:50 am:
Maybe the Trump admin has them back logged a bit.
- Arthur Andersen - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 11:13 am:
Those baggy khaki pants take a while to ignite, too.
- Anonymous - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 11:30 am:
Previous budgets were balanced on that serious prople agreed that projected expenditures did not exceed projected revenue. That has not been true for any of the budgets submitted by Rauner. He admits, in his own proposal, that it’s almost $5Billiom out of balance.
So, no, by Illinois standards, Rauner is worse than the status quo ante.
- Robert the Bruce - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 11:33 am:
Dems should snatch up budgetandreform.net (it’s available as of right now), and have some fun with this.
- NoGifts - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 11:45 am:
I think in the past there was more effort to shift things around to balance the budget not just blatantly put one out with “then some magic happens” and call it balanced.
- blue dog dem - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 11:48 am:
Good to find out what a ‘fiscal conservative’ sounds like.
- Flynn's mom - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 11:57 am:
Trumpian!
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 12:22 pm:
Michelle Flaherty,
Could not agree with you more. Rauner doesn’t know how to govern - he only knows how to campaign. Thus the referral not to GOMB which, ya know, has a large staff dedicated to the budget. Nope - it’s a political question.
- No Longer A Lurker - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 12:28 pm:
I think more than Rauner’s pants have been on fire this week.
- IllinoisBoi - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 12:49 pm:
…and so Rauner puts the pedal to the metal down the freeway to the post-truth society.
- Arock - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 12:54 pm:
“Previous budgets were balanced on that serious prople agreed that projected expenditures did not exceed projected revenue” - So for 15 straight years when they were in the red at the end of the year they couldn’t see the errors of their ways? BS. They knew they were out of balance when they passed them. Just like they knew the last Quinn budget was out of balance when they passed it and had no guarantee that they were going to extend the temporary tax.
- Anonymous - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 1:31 pm:
There was a process, Arock. The legislature and the governor would say we expect this much to come in and this much to go out. Balanced. Your guy has abandoned any pretense of that. I guess he’s shakin things up that way.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 1:33 pm:
- Arock -
Why aren’t you angry… Rauner is going the same thing?
I thought you’d be using banned words… Rauner pledged to stop it.
I’m confused. Three straight proposed phony, sham, out of whack budgets, and you seem fine with it.
Why?
- JS Mill - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 1:43 pm:
=Just like they knew the last Quinn budget was out of balance when they passed it and had no guarantee that they were going to extend the temporary tax.=
So, just trying to understand what you are positing here…Quinn had unbalanced budgets so it is OK that Rauner is doing the same thing?
Moral relativism?
So should anyone ever propose a balanced budget now that we know you think it is ok for Rauner not to?
He said he would do it better. He isn’t.
- Rabid - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 2:36 pm:
I want to know if term limits get job creators excited
- Rabid - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 2:42 pm:
So those fake budget signs we’re mostly true
- Rabid - Friday, Mar 10, 17 @ 2:48 pm:
No wonder his hands where behind his back, he was holding a fire extinguisher