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Monday, Jul 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

* US Sen. Tammy Duckworth on CNN’s “State of the Union” yesterday…

DANA BASH: “Senator, I know that you support change in the name of military bases named after Confederate leaders, but there are leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who were slave owners. And some people are demanding their monuments come down, too. In your view, where does it end? Should statues, for example, of George Washington come down?”

DUCKWORTH: “Well, let me just say we should start off by having a national dialogue on it at some point. But right now we’re in the middle of a global pandemic. And one of our countries that are opposed to us, Russia, has put a bounty on American troops’ heads. What really struck me about this speech that the president gave at Mount Rushmore was that he spent more time worried about honoring dead Confederates than he did talking about the lives of our 130,000 Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19, or by warning Russia off of the bounties they’re putting on Americans’ heads. His priorities are all wrong here. He should be talking about what we’re going to do to overcome this pandemic. What are we going to do to push Russia back? Instead, he had no time for that. He spent all his time talking about dead traitors.”

BASH: “That may be true, but George Washington, I don’t think anybody would call him a traitor and there are moves by some to remove statues of him. Is that a good idea?”

DUCKWORTH: “I think we should listen to everybody. I think we should listen to the argument there, but remember that the president at Mount Rushmore was standing on ground that was stolen from Native Americans who had actually been given that land during a treaty.”

1) Duckworth has often pridefully boasted that some of her ancestors fought under George Washington during the Revolutionary War. She also has an MA from George Washington University.

2) Never tweet…

All dressd up as historic figures.I just coverd myself in Stars&Stripes.Next year I’m going as Mt.Rushmore! #Murica http://t.co/81LENocKij

— Tammy Duckworth (@TammyforIL) July 4, 2015

3) The Senator’s response…

Donald Trump wants to continue honoring traitors who took up arms against us in the Civil War to protect their ability to enslave, sell & kill Black Americans. This has never been a debate about honoring the complex legacy of those who actually helped *build* our great nation. https://t.co/8ptabclgVI

— Tammy Duckworth (@TammyforIL) July 5, 2020

4) The far right went way overboard with its response…

The fact that Tammy Duckworth called George Washington and Thomas Jefferson "traitors" today and Joe Biden hasn't removed her from his VP shortlist yet tells you everything you need to know about today's Democrat Party

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 6, 2020

5) Duckworth made the classic mistake of wanting to get her talking points out without first adequately dealing with the question she was asked. As a result of essentially dismissing the question with vague rhetoric, her talking points were overshadowed. Oops. She wants to run on the same ticket as a guy with gaffe issues. So, he’ll likely need someone who doesn’t regularly make gaffes. This was minor in the grand scheme of things, but still important to those who are watching super-closely. Don’t fall for the gotchas and don’t be afraid of Twitter leftists…

Biden’s superpower throughout the cycle has been not taking Twitter bait, instead confidently assuming it’s passing noise. A lot of politicians get caught struggling not to dismiss or endorse it either way. Seems relevant to VP search. https://t.co/sGQeZxKDy0

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) July 5, 2020

* Related…

* Susan Rice sees stock rise in Biden VP race

[Headline changed because, well, she can’t physically step on her message. Sorry about that. Wasn’t thinking.]

60 Comments

The ramp’s consequences

Monday, Jul 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This is just the sort of thing that happens when you make the bare minimum payments on your credit card. You pay money in, but your debt still goes up. The object of the pension ramp is to eventually get the state to the point where it’s actually paying down the debt. We’re obviously not there yet. Here’s Hannah Meisel at the Daily Line…

Despite paying historic amounts into Illinois’ five pension systems, the state has made virtually no progress on its path to adequately funding the retirement plans. In fact, three of the five funds experienced net losses in 2019, according to a new report from the state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA).

The total unfunded liabilities for Illinois’ five pension systems ballooned to $137.2 billion during the 2019 fiscal year, according to COGFA — up from $133.5 billion the previous year. But the aggregate level of funding has barely budged at about 40.3 percent.

That’s a far cry from the benchmark set up under former Gov. Jim Edgar in 1994 that required the state pension system to be 90 percent funded by 2045.

When that 50-year plan was passed, the pension system’s funded ratio was significantly better, sitting at 52 percent. The highest the ratio has ever been for all five systems was at nearly 75 percent in the year 2000. But in the subsequent recession the pension systems took a turn for the worse.

The COGFA report is here.

* Greg Hinz points out the obvious problem we’ve had…

The report attributes most of the lack of progress to the state’s failure to annually contribute the amount actuaries say is needed to bring the systems to a 90 percent funded ratio by 2045. The state and its taxpayers are contributing more than ever to the funds, more than $9 billion, but because that’s less than what’s required, any gains on investments are immediately applied to filling the hole rather than raising the funded ratio.

Specifically, according to the report, the pension systems that cover grade and high school teachers outside of Chicago, university professors and judges “experienced a net actuarial loss, mostly due to actuarially insufficient employer contributions and less-than-expected investment returns as well as unfavorable demographics/other factors.“

…Adding… Email from a pal…

The Edgar ramp was a 10-year artificial teaser mortgage to get us into a payment system. AND for all of its problems, it was far better than what existed before.

Yep.

28 Comments

*** UPDATED x1 *** Chicago couldn’t come close to meeting its own metric on traveler restrictions

Monday, Jul 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Last week…

People coming to Chicago from 15 states experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases must self-quarantine for 14 days upon entering the city beginning next week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced late Thursday afternoon.

The city ordered the quarantine for anyone who has spent more than 24 hours in the following states before arriving in Chicago: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

The order, which will go into effect on Monday, does not apply to people who are at the airport for a connecting flight or driving through the city on their way elsewhere, city officials said. […]

Anyone violating the order could face fines of $100 to $500 per day, up to a maximum $7,000, the city said.

The order takes effect today.

* The city explained how the states were designated on its website…

A state will be designated if it has a case rate greater than 15 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 resident population, per day, over a 7-day rolling average.

That metric is an odd choice for a couple of reasons. First, the Illinois Department of Public Health flags counties with a warning sign when they surpass 50 cases per 100,000 residents over seven days, more than three times the threshold Chicago is using.

Second, at last check, Chicago itself was at 52 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days.

Not to mention that a large number of Illinois counties also wouldn’t qualify. Go see for yourself.

*** UPDATE *** Looks like there’s a difference in methodology here. From the Chicago Department of Public Health…

Chicago’s Emergency Travel Order applies to states that have a case rate greater than 15 new COVID-19 cases PER DAY per 100,000 population. We use the average per day over a 7-day period, consistent with practices around the country. In Chicago, we’re currently adding <200 cases per day. With 2.7m people, we would hit this cutoff at more than 400 cases per day, which is more than twice the rate of new cases we are at now. (15 cases per day x 2.7m population/100,000=405 cases per day.) Using cutoffs like this is very consistent with how other states have approached this.

Sorry about that.

15 Comments

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