Props and shams
Friday, Jun 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Pritzker campaign…
Yesterday, on day 708 without a budget, Bruce Rauner toured the state to promote his teardown agenda while lawmakers held a hearing with victims of his budget crisis. Instead of showing up, Rauner had the audacity to call those victims ‘props’ and the hearing a ‘sham’ as he spent another day not working on a balanced budget.
News reports told the real story of people who’ve been hurt by Rauner’s crisis:
NPR Illinois: Families Send Distress Call Over State Budget
The message came from people with drug addiction, domestic violence counselors, and parents of disabled children — like Kathy Hansen of Elmhurst.
“We are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and family members who can’t sleep at night because the state has virtually abandoned our loved ones,” Hansen said.
ABC 7 Chicago: Democrats hold budget hearing while Rauner tours Amazon fulfillment center
Yvette Ruffin, a domestic violence survivor, works at the agency that helped her when she needed it most.
“The funding, we really need it because these women are in dire need of these services,” said Ruffin.
Chicago Tribune: State budget impasse victims rip Rauner, who says Democrats using them as ‘props’
Joyce Coffee, who directs Family Rescue, a South Side organization that helps victims of domestic violence, said her not-for-profit had spent its reserves and was drawing on a line of credit to keep its doors open in the midst of the two-year budget stalemate.
“We have chosen deliberately to remain in operation because the alternative is that there would be few if any services for those thousands of victims,” Coffee said. “We are saying to you that we are subsidizing the lack of decision-making at the state level. We can no longer afford to do that.” […]
“Gov. Rauner, the consequences of indecision and failure to negotiate are not mere talking points,” said Ines Kultleska, CEO at Guardian Angel in Joliet, another domestic violence services provider. “They are leaving scars on the already most vulnerable and harmed amongst us.”
It’s clear that these are real people suffering from a manufactured crisis — not props.
“Bruce Rauner calls the victims of his budget crisis ‘props’ and says listening to them is a ‘sham.’ That says all you need to know about our failed governor and his priorities,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “These are real people in real pain, but Rauner can’t be bothered to listen. Bruce Rauner has no regard for the damage he is causing and is entirely unwilling to do his job for the state.”
I get what they’re saying here, but the House Democrats weren’t working on a budget yesterday. Instead, they were very clearly working on their messaging. Rauner was, too, of course. But this wasn’t some high road by the Democrats. It was pure politics. They were only trying to act superior, because if they truly and deeply cared they would’ve actually done something by now, with or without Rauner.
- Amen! - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 9:42 am:
” It was pure politics. They were only trying to act superior, because if they truly and deeply cared they would’ve actually done something by now, with or without Rauner.”
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!
- A guy - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 9:47 am:
Being at the Amazon Fulfillment Center which is providing jobs of 1000+ in an area that could use them isn’t something I’d mention in an attempt to be critical. Jeesh.
- Telly - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 9:50 am:
Instead of allowing both sides to play the spin game, it would be nice if the media and the civic groups started pressuring the House to take an up or down vote on the Senate budget. That would have a clarifying effect.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 9:50 am:
No, it’s not the victims of this impasse who are the props and shams. It’s the GA and the Governor.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 9:55 am:
Good call Rich. Let me add my Amen to that.
- cdog - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:01 am:
Day 10 of Madigan hiding.
What’s he do all day? Hopefully working on his resignation letter.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:02 am:
– with or without Rauner-
Huh? Has the gubernatorial veto been abolished?
These citizens have stories to tell and they should be heard. Those who choose to reduce them to “props” rather than listen, see you in church.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:03 am:
===Day 10 of Madigan hiding.
What’s he do all day? Hopefully working on his resignation letter===
Call the 13th Ward office. Let us know how that goes.
- Ghost - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:17 am:
teardown campaign… catchy slogan
- Ghost - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:20 am:
So Pritzker is gearing up to run against Rauner and Kennedy is jumping up and down saying look at me, look at me not Pritzker.
Kennedy needs to swing a bit more at the State issues if he wants more then a footnota as also ran
- The Real Just Me - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:21 am:
Isn’t the House voting on the Senate budget just as much a political sham as anything else? It will not pass the House, and even if it did, the Governor would veto it. Everyone knows this. So what purpose, other than political would it serve? I don’t think we need a clarification for what is pretty clear already: until the Governor authorizes or pressures the legislators under his control to vote for a tax increase,under whatever circumstances the Governor may finally do so, there will be no budget and a vote on a DOA budget in the House seems useless, if not actually counter-productive.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:24 am:
===So what purpose, other than political would it serve?===
It’s their constitutionally mandated duty to pass a balanced state budget every year. If it’s vetoed, it’s vetoed. But that’s the constitutional process.
- Anon0091 - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:24 am:
Not sure I get the problem you have with this Rich. Team Pritzker is highlighting the catastrophic affects of the Rauner reign. Isn’t that what they should be doing?
- Common Sense - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:24 am:
They are props. The Democrats would rather let these people rot than find any way to give the Governor some of his ask so they could get some of their ask. The only thing they want to give the people of Illinois is a bellyache.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:26 am:
===Isn’t that what they should be doing? ===
Read better, please. This was about the HDems, not Pritzker.
- Anon0091 - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:27 am:
“It’s their constitutionally mandated duty to pass a balanced state budget every year. If it’s vetoed, it’s vetoed. But that’s the constitutional process.”
And it’s the governor’s constitutionally mandated duty to introduce a balanced budget every year and he’s yet to do it. I don’t understand the argument that Dems in the House should go over the political cliff by voting for a budget Rauner is just going to demagogue.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:27 am:
Here is how in seeing this, as raw and sadly cynical as it is…
Rauner will continue to use people and props throughout the summer, traveling and talkin’, but not doin’
Democrats, whom Rauner chastised and warned, will hold hearings, possibly/probably not unlike the premise that Rauner is trying to do in using his own cache, with Dems using “hearings and forums” instead of lawns and living rooms.
The reason Rauner was so pointed in warning Dems about just “hearings and forum” is that dueling messaging framed as “working” keeps Rauner’s phoniness in a light he and his Crew may not like.
Reality? They both are using what phony messaging leverage they both have… and sadly, people, real people, and groups too, are being “used” as props and shams because no real work to an end game is being pushed within these stagings.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:30 am:
===and he’s yet to do it===
I don’t know how you were raised, but I was brought up to believe that two wrongs don’t make a right.
- Give Me A Break - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:32 am:
After listening to the entire hearing yesterday all I could think was what a complete and disgusting failure the governor and General Assembly is. No parent should have to go to a public forum and beg their child get services. No primary consumer of human services should have to plead to lawmakers to do their jobs.
The Gov and every member of the General Assembly needs do some serious soul searching.
- sideline watcher - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:46 am:
“After listening to the entire hearing yesterday all I could think was what a complete and disgusting failure the governor and General Assembly is. No parent should have to go to a public forum and beg their child get services. No primary consumer of human services should have to plead to lawmakers to do their jobs.
The Gov and every member of the General Assembly needs do some serious soul searching.”
Amen and Amen and Amen.
Same goes for the constant political analysis of who wins in this disgusting mess. Pass something.
Dems: If the Gov vetoes it, he wears the jacket for the implosion of the state. If the Gov signs it, he still wears the jacket for the near destruction of the state. If Dems can’t credibly explain what has happened over the last two years during the next year…they don’t deserve to come back.
Repubs: Vote your districts. If the Gov signs it, you still have to figure out a way to defend letting it get this far. But crying out loud, protect your people from any further damage. If the Gov vetoes it, remember the McCann rule: You CAN buck your party. You CAN’T buck your district. Constituents love when their Reps show conviction. If they believe that you actually care about them, they will support you. That’s how they can hate the whole General Assembly but still like you.
END THIS.
- DeseDemDose - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:46 am:
When are the Republican house members going to be criticized for not voting per Rauners instructions?
- cdog - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:47 am:
“I don’t understand the argument that Dems in the House should go over the political cliff by voting for a budget Rauner is just going to demagogue.”
Rauner is a mess; unethical, immoral, and can’t call a budget bill in the House.
Madigan can call a balanced budget, but he’s hiding. He could even include things that poll well like property tax freeze/reform if he wasn’t so worried about his power and control.
Reminds of the old saying, “If you can’t run with the Big Dogs, get your pup-arse back on the porch.”
Madigan appear to be incapable and incompetent to build enough consensus to pass a budget, and obviously doesn’t not have the political courage to be the Speaker in the Illinois House. He needs to resign and let someone else take a crack at consensus. Maybe then, something respectable can get sent to the goofy Governor.
- cdog - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:51 am:
OW, good morning.
I should call his office. We all should. Leaving to run business errands so shall contemplate your suggestion….
Would we be in this place, experiencing this violence, if Madigan was not Speaker? My gut says we would not.
- AC - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 10:52 am:
==Bruce Rauner has no regard for the damage he is causing and is entirely unwilling to do his job for the state==
The governor doesn’t need to do his job like he’s some kind of slacker, I question his myopic focus on destroying labor at all costs, not his work ethic. Blago barely worked a few hours a week, wasted much of that time illegally scheming, yet we had a budget. There seems to be a puritanical focus on work, as if it’s an end to itself when it comes to elected officials. Yes, we would be much better off as a state with a lazy governor and legislature doing the bare minimum needed to meet their constitutional obligations. Having a budget doesn’t require unprecedented effort, it requires folks to operate cooperatively in good faith with trust and respect.
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 11:01 am:
I was there and it is pitiful to listen to Dems use people trying to deal with suffering as an excuse to blame it all on Rauner. I work in social services and our rates have been flat for a decade. That’s not Rauner. But they are all to blame now. In MN when they didn’t have a budget at the end of their session in May they came back the very next day and stayed for 2 more days and got a budget done. All parties have failed the citizens here. It’s not that they can’t get a budget done it’s that they won’t do it.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 11:02 am:
- cdog -
If you find that Madigan is there, or wherever, it’s really the people of the 22nd District that really have the direct say.
Unlike Rauner, (or even Mendoza) there is no statewide direct voting constituency that Madigan faces when he stands for election. It’s within the House body where Madigan faces a “statewide” constituency of other elected Representatives.
I can appreciate your thought, but 1/6th of State Government, according to math, is smaller than 1/3 of State Government, including state agencies, that Rauner has no accountability to, like fellow chamber members, but to statewide voters.
Tell the Ward Office hello for me too.
- Anon0091 - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 11:09 am:
“I don’t know how you were raised, but I was brought up to believe that two wrongs don’t make a right.”
I was raised not to be suicidal. It is political suicide to pass the tax increase with no Republican votes. The Ds did it in the Senate. We’ll see how that plays out.
To be clear, I have no trouble holding Madigan accountable for all manner of his sins. I just think it’s absurd to demand Democrats do this knowing with 100% certainty that Rauner will veto the bill and then lie about our fiscal situation.
- cdog - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 11:16 am:
OW. Silly, I understand all that.
Madigan is the elected Speaker. He needs to
be relieved of that duty, or have the humility to resign the Speakership.
Passing a balanced budget out of the House, navigating the politics, is his job. He has failed for three years.
Is he on vacation? /s
Plotting how to blame Russians? /s
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 11:25 am:
===Madigan is the elected Speaker. He needs to
be relieved of that duty, or have the humility to resign the Speakership.===
I dunno what you’re basing that on, given that members are voicing concerns, some very loudly, except for Drury, I’m not seeing any pressure for resignation or heat of 60 members looking to change leaders
===…navigating the politics…===
Argumentative, in so far as the politics is attempting, in Madigan’s own eyes, the defending of Democratic core principles. That’s the argument, the silliness, props, shams, highlight that thought, better or worse.
I know I don’t know the Speaker’s whereabouts.
You should team up with Chuck Goudie.
- Cook Coounty Commoner - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 12:09 pm:
The more I watch this debacle, the more I believe that sociopaths predominate in the IL Exec and GA. The only diagnostic criteria missing is that the afflicted be charming and charismatic.
- weary - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 2:37 pm:
OW, I disagree with your math (1/6 being less than 1/3). The most powerful branch of government is the judicial branch because they can overturn anything the other branches do. Second most powerful is the Legislative branch because they can theoretically override anything the governor vetoes. And least powerful is the governor. Of course I realize that the ability to override requires cooperation between parties. I’m just saying that it would not be impossible for the General Assembly to pass a budget and then override enough of the vetoes to make it worthwhile to the state, IF they wanted to. But instead they are too busy trying to hang the governor. The bottom line is that none of our elected officials (the governor and both parties of the GA) really care about the people. It’s all about power and re-election. If our current situation is not the best argument there is for term limits, I don’t know what is.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 2:42 pm:
===… I disagree with your math (1/6 being less than 1/3)===
You may want to head back to junior high…
Also, they are co-equal branches. Your tinfoil hat rationale does t change that.
Further, the Illinois executive is arguably one of the most powerful of the 50 other governors.
===If our current situation is not the best argument there is for term limits, I don’t know what is===
Rauner wants to gut the core Democratic ideals, like Rauner said he wanted or thought would work in 2012.
You miss that point. It’s THE whole point why there is no compromise with those Rauner asks.
- tobor - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 3:04 pm:
The Democrats should pass a budget with cuts and taxes without Republican votes????? Why???
- CCP Hostage - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 3:05 pm:
I also listened to most of the hearing and I count myself fortunate in that I myself am not a victim as many of the others present were. At various times I have been a prop as well as a hostage, but at least I know my role in all of this drama, so maybe that’s something, I don’t know any more. The other hostages/props at yesterday’s hearing didn’t really even know that they’re hostages/props. They felt like their appearance yesterday would maybe move the needle and that was really sad. What happens to these very fragile victims in life who are now being used as hostages/props when they discover they are being used by both sides? I don’t know, but I hope they are more resilient than they seemed yesterday.
- WWGD - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 3:38 pm:
So, not paying your invoices, not taking care of the weak. They are props & shams. What a horrible Gov & person. What you do to others will be done to you — Bad Gov. can’t wait to get you out of Springfield.
- weary - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 3:43 pm:
tobor - you’re statement is exactly the thinking that keeps us in this mess. Everyone is worried more about who is going to catch the fall-out from the cuts and tax increases, and have completely forgotten about the people of Illinois. Do the Democrats really want to do nothing and watch the state continue to decline just so they can say “Hey, it wasn’t OUR fault… we didn’t do it!”? Apparently so. They have to keep the APPEARANCE of caring for the people, so they do things like pass a brand new program to help college students that has no funding behind it when we don’t even have the money to pay for our existing programs. Where has logic gone? But it sure looks good in a re-election flyer!
- tobor - Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 4:07 pm:
weary, I would agree if all the voters in Illinois were as well informed as readers of this blog. But that is not the case. Rauner does not want a budget. He wants to blame. Robo calls in the night.