* Check out the highlighted part of this quote about the projected $8 billion deficit in the stopgap budget that Speaker Madigan negotiated with the other leaders…

“You can either repeal programs and cut spending, or find new revenue,” Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said. “You can’t do it all through cuts. This reaffirms what the speaker has been saying for several years and reaffirms that the decision to let the income tax go down probably was not the wisest decision.”

Ya think?

It was, in retrospect, the [second] worst possible decision the Democrats could’ve made.

* The Democrats thought they were handing Rauner a booby trap when they allowed that tax hike to partially expire, but it was actually a gift. They completely underestimated his resolve to use the leverage of additional revenue to pry loose support for his economic and political reforms.

And here we stand, eye-deep in debt and wreckage all around.

Ugh.

…Adding… A commenter retorts…

[The tax hike] never should have included a sunset to begin with. That was the worst decision ever, but the Dems miscalculated on that too.

Agreed and I’ve changed the headline to reflect this wise commenter’s opinion.

…Adding More… Another commenter weighs in…

Also boneheaded: letting it expire in the middle of a fiscal year. And in an election year. How were they supposed to craft a budget in 2014 when no one had the backbone to try to make the tax hike permanent while running for re-election?

Yep.

I asked Senate President Cullerton about that once and he said it just never occurred to anyone what they were doing.

The perils of hurried passage are very real.