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Illinois

Who should get the most blame for the budget impasse? Explain fully, please.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:20 am

Comments

How many of these characters have been doing their jobs, showing up for work every day all along, meeting + presenting a “workable” budget? MJM has been there, the Repubs have been there [input not accepted], Governor has been MIA and inaccessible all along. Since IL government has become a monarchy, I put the blame on the king….

Comment by North of I-80 Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:35 am
The voters. Everyone likes their rep and senator but no one likes the house or senate. Blago went into the election with red flags over misconduct flying everywhere, but the voters elected him anyway. Sometimes we get what we deserve.

Comment by Leigh Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:35 am
All three of em. Blago, Jones, and Madigan. Three big egos clashing, none willing to compromise. You’d think with Dems running the state, it wouldn’t be so tough to get things done, instead we have a bunch of wanna-be bosses fighting like little children.

Comment by Jerry Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:42 am
Emil Jones. Piling on the gaming bill, cozying up to ComEd, allying with Blago, rampant nepotism - all of this weakened him and made saying “no” politically easy for legislators.

Comment by phocion Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:43 am
The voters deserve the blame. How could they re-elect a goof like Blago and give Emil such a huge majority. Could you imagine how different it would be if Watson had 27 votes still?? With Emil’s troubles, he would have to behave more porfessionally or lose his power. There are certainly at least 3 Senate Dems who would have the courage to help Emil correct his behavior if he were still unwilling to be more statesman-like.

Comment by Suburbs Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:45 am
The voters that put these guys in office. It would probably be appropriate to resurrect the old-time political party from the past known as the “Do Nothings”. These elected officials now down in Springfield should switch to this political party (The Do Nothings) that best describes them.

Comment by Clara "The Clairvoyant" Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:52 am
Yeah the voters and then Emil Jones and the governor.

Comment by Levois Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:52 am
Who is in charge of this State?
Who is the Chief Executive?

Governor Rod Blagojevich
Overtime is his failure.

Comment by Truth Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:56 am
I put the blame on the Gov. He is the chief executive officer. His staff prepares and implements the budget. Part of that responsibility is preparing a budget that can win legislative approval. The Gov’s post election introduction of GRT and universal health care doomed the budget to failure. A better politician may have been able to pull it off, but the Gov can’t even work with his own party.

Comment by Objective Dem Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:59 am
The voters who still voted for Milorad Blagojevich after they saw him in action for four years are to blame. People get the government they deserve. Constitutional offices are not manipulated by the map the way House and Senate seats are. They are not to blame. Rod once said “it’s not just about the budget…”

As Governor Edgar remarked, it is all about the budget. That’s why you get a mansion, a plane and a limousine.

Comment by By Thy Rivers Gently Flowing Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 10:00 am
Let’s face it folks, they are all to blame. The rank and file let their leaders treat them all like lemmings. The leaders are driven by power and ego and not by the desire to pass a budget that is good for the state, whatever that may be. The Governor never has and never will care about Governing. He does not care about what he can do as Governor, but about what being the governor can do for him.

We elected these guys (or in the case of the leaders elected the people who elected them) so ultimately we are to blame, but pointing the finger at one or two of them is a useless exercise.

Comment by Jaded Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 10:08 am
The democratic party. The have it all in the palm of their hands and are doing their best to give the Republicans enough ammo to take back the capitol.

I think the Governor should also get some blame for putting up a budget that is unobtainable and bad for the State of Illinois.

Comment by He makes Ryan look like a saint Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 10:30 am
Rod, Rod, Rod. His dog + pony shows on the budget are the biggest joke I’ve seen in my 20+ years of being involved with state government. Big proof he is just an empty suit, with PR interns advising him on strategy.

Is Bill not awake yet??? I’m waiting for him to chime in and blame Madigan.

Comment by 312 Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 10:35 am
Read Pogo.

Comment by steve schnorf Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 10:42 am
The Governor. For all of the reasons listed above and his complete unwillingness to sit down with legislators and work out a deal. It’s perfectly fine to have goals, but sometimes you have to set them (GRT, universal health care) to get the job done.

Emil. Specifically, his lack of leadership. He continues to be willing to run alongside the Governor into the thicket. He’s lost his caucus because of this. I think he’s lost his mind.

The budget process. The mess is partially systemic and partially a product of the consolidation of power within the Four Tops. Break that up and see what happens.

Madigan. Of the three, the Speaker deserves the least blame (in my opinion). However, he does need to be taken to task for his intransigence on “the House’s budget”.

Tom Cross. I understand the GOP’s desire not to raise taxes and cut spending. I’m fiscally conservative, but, at this point in time, a temporary tax increase COMBINED with cuts in spending is the only way out this mess.

Frank Watson. A non-entity making the list for no other reason than the fact that I really dislike the beard.

It’s all about compromise. Politics is about compromise. The players aren’t willing to bend. When they decide to bend, the mess will be fixed.

Comment by jwscott72 Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 10:46 am
I have to agree that the blame lies with us voters, and especially those who choose not to exercise their right to vote.

Secondly the blame lies with Blago for being a distant Governor. Oh for the Thompson days when Big Jim loved nothing more than to roll up his sleeves and meet with the leaders, and by golly he would even attend press conferences. I’m shocked that Blago has not gotten this whole thing by now. There will always be a Mike Madigan in the House and an Emil Jones in the Senate. We will always have the Gov, House & Senate butting heads until the last 5 minutes of session. But this is beyond our wildest imagination. I also would bet that you won’t see this kind of OT again during this current term of Blago’s. He thinks he can wage a war and even possibly lose at the expense of taxpayers and his own credibility and lack of leadership and we will all forget about this OT session in his first year of his second term come election day in 2010. And you know what? He’s absolutely correct! We get what we deserve. If we ask no better than Blago, we will never get any better than Blago. This guy is shaming even the most die-hard Dems, but they won’t speak up about it and when, not if, he runs again inn 2010, he will be re-elected for the above reason.

Patrick Fitzgerald, where are you? The only thing to save us is an indictment of Elvis because the voters don’t realize they can save themselves.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 11:01 am
The big problem facing everyone now is that no appropriatiob bill except Madigan’s can be passed with D votes alone. I’m not sure that the Speaker shouldn’t get credit, not blame, for that.

Comment by steve schnorf Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 11:04 am
Lemming voters.

Comment by Patriot Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 11:06 am
Blago and Emil are mostly to blame. Madigan is a stubborn old goat, but at least he knows what he’s doing.

Comment by Undercover Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 11:07 am
Blago.

He is never there, has provided zero leadership, and has alienated everbody involved. His proposals have all been far out of line. He needs to be there. If he doesn’t like Springfield, he should never have run for the office. Being gov. means showing up for work.

I personally apologize to the voters of Illinois for voting for Blago. I thought that JBT would be even worse, but now conclude that I was mistaken. I can assure the people that I will not make the mistake again. I will vote for Alan Keyes before I vote for Blago again. What a complete failure.

Comment by Skeeter Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 11:38 am
Blagojevich. He is the governor. He sets the pace. He starts the ball rolling.

He has been AWOL. He has been out of touch. He has been deliberately playing chicken with the rest of us as the drop-dead date looms. What we are seeing is what he wants - a government in crisis and he as our savior.

Instead of a budget, he unloads a far-fetched stink bomb with impossible tax increases to support it. Instead of working with the GA, he stayed out of town and turned leadership meetings into PR stunts when he did return.

Who has spent over $70,000 of our money in air flights and has nothing to show for it? Blagojevich.

He has had four years to find a working relationship with the GA. He squandered those years raising campaign funds and positioning himself for the White House.

Blagojevich. This rotting fish has his name all over it.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 11:39 am
Blame Canada.

No, everyone is to blame for this mess. No one is really taking the high road in this disaster. It’s all about who can outwit the other in all these antics and who can top who in the media soundbytes. At this point, I’m all for hosting a State boxing match where all the leaders and the Governor just duke it out. Whoever wins can have what they want and end this thing. It would be more enjoyable to watch, we might be able to pull down some good cash through ticket sales (and there probably needs to be some beer involved), and it would definitely be a more mature way to go about solving this budget impasse than they currently are going about it.

Comment by Overtimer Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 11:45 am
How’t that Pogo line go? “We have met the enemy and it is ourselves.”???

Primary responsibility should be assigned to the Governor. He appears to have learned nothing from his first four years in office. At best he was ill-advised to make the “no sales or income tax increase pledge” when he didn’t need to do so to win.

Secondly, he did not present any campaign propsosals to lay the groundwork for his GRT tax plan - he just pulled it out of a hat and expected everyone to jump on board.

Third when it was evident that the GRT tax was DOA, he ws compltely inflexible/unwilling to consider any alternatives. I would have been hapopy to see a compromise - some combination of a scaled back GRT and and income tax increase. The House would have supported an income tax increase if the Governor had not promised to veto it.

If he had been willing to compromise, he might have been able to partially implement his vision for expanding access to health/medical care for those without insurancc.

I think a tremendous opportunity to reform state eduction funding and improve the State’s fiscal situtation has been completely squandered.

I give Emil Jones the oscar for best supporting stooge. He was so busy acting out his Godfather fantasy, he couldn’t come up with a budget at all. In addition, I see him as a complete obtructionist on the electricity rate issue, so important to downstate legislators and citizens.

Madigan made both Blago and Jones look like fools. I give him credit for his competence, but fault him for pursuing his own agenda - destroying Blago - rather than crafting a budget that better met the needs of the citizens.

We’re stuck with Blago for the duration. Senator Jones should be unseated by the Democratic caucus for his abysmal performance.Madigan isn’t going anywhere, but I wish he would go away too, particualrly for his role in annointing Todd Stroger as Cook County Board President.

Bad govenment is bad politics! Not a statesman to be found anywhere among the three of them. However,I still respect Mike Madigan - I wouldn’t want to cross him myself - I’m not sure why Blago and Senator Jones were so eager to do so.

Comment by Captain America Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 12:07 pm
The voters. Previous posters explained it well.

Comment by Tom Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 12:10 pm
The Gov. is proving to be more inept at providing anything other than press releases than most of us thought. It is his lack of leadership and credibility that has created the problem.

Comment by blogman Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 12:21 pm
It’s our surrounding states’ fault. They make governing and budgets look boring and routine. No glamor, name calling, grandstanding, nothing. Just boring get the peoples’ work accomplished. Yes, it’s definitely their fault!

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 12:28 pm
What are you kidding Of course its “Rod the less than magnificent” Or should he be called Mr.48% incumbent. Why should he engage in any meaningful discussion on the budget. He hasn’t in the previous 4 years. Its time to grow up and Lead or get out of the way and let those who actually understand State Gov 101 take the helm.

Comment by The Cardinal Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 12:28 pm
The Guv: no leadership, is never here, and wouldn’t change his budget ideas after a complete failure. Then he wants these leaders meetings, and he shows up late.

Comment by scoot Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 12:41 pm
Blame?!! How about praise! I havent spent this much time in Springfield in years — what a blast!

Comment by 420 Friendly Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 1:09 pm
To me, it’s a tie between two groups.

1. The voters. The voters in this state obviously have no idea what monster they would create when Blago got four more years and when the collar county voters put Emil in a super-majority. There was a budget snafu during each spring session of Blago’s first term and people still bit into his candy. JBT would have been a much more efficient administrator, and Emil might have caved if she were governor and if she and MJM formed a bond.

2. Blago’s staff. Blago is Illinois’ version of President Bush: listening only to his staff and loyal advisors and never to his critics and opposition. People like Nix, Ayra, Harris, Rossi, Ottenhoff, etc. are telling Rod what he wants to hear and are affirming his beliefs. They are being paid big bucks to do the people’s work and they (should) have the job security that would allow them to ring his bell and get him to act. Instead, they are stroking his ego, acting confrontational and refusing to work with other staffs and leaders. It seems as though his upper staff get a kick out of the way they are handling this mess - especially with the air and facetime his advisors and press people have gotten.

In government, you are as good as your advisors and staff. Seriously. Too many politicians - especially Congressmen and Senators - are never told what is good and bad and as a result malfeasance and corruption occurs. Elected officials get a big head and go on ego trips because their staffs and campaign advisors either don’t care or are too afraid to say anything. Blago is no different in this regard. And who can blame him? He was, for the most part, comfortably re-elected, and now he lives in his own home, commutes back-and-forth as he pleases, does as much or little work as he wants, and really does have nothing to lose if the budget impasse trudges along. And unless his staff step up the plate and bark some orders, this will never end.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 1:36 pm
1. Blagojevich. His flat-out refusal to drop the Gross Receipts Tax or scale back his health care plan is what got us here.

2. Emil, for being dumb enough to follow Rod, and for bungling the electric rate issue so badly that he helped add to the logjam.

3. AFSCME, SEIU, IFT and IEA. By abandoning their own education funding plan and hitching their wagon to Rod’s star, they not only reinforced Rod’s stubbornness, but also burned all of the bridges they had so painstakingly worked to build with Madigan.

4. Madigan, for not trusting his instincts and backing Paul Vallas for Governor, instead staying out of the Democratic Primary for Governor in 2002.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 1:41 pm
The Governor has to shoulder most of the blame, he tried to force through the GRT when it became clear that was zero chance of it passing he refused to abandon it or his health care plan and did not met with the legislative leaders or even call for any until it was pass the deadline.
Next would be Emil Jones for blind following of the Governor.

Comment by RMWStanford Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 2:00 pm
1. All of the elected officials. They do not want to acknowledge that they work for the citizens of Illinois.
2. All of the citizens that are too lazy or too indifferent to cast a ballot.

Were these elected officials all raised with wolves?

Comment by i d Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 2:01 pm
Greed on the part of all.

Blago and Emil are greedy for more of our dollars–whether from tax increases, GRT, or gambling–take your pick –it’s not about education and health care, it’s about the graft and patronage that come with the extra monies they are trying to bring into state government. Remember, this is all about additional monies. Next year’s revenues
plus natural revenue growth are themselves enough to fund state government.

Madigan is greedy for power for himself and, soon, his daughter.

The education bureaucracy wants more money for itself including huge salary increases for education bureaucrats, regardless of performance or if the kids learn anything.

The legislators want whatever scraps they can pick up.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 3:06 pm
I’ve gotta go with Bill. I blame him for this impasse.

Comment by WTF! Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 3:35 pm
Who is to blame? The ones who can push their leadership to end this nonsense by revolting and actually performing their jobs. The Democrat House members and the Democrat Senate members.

Instead they sit by quietly and twiddle their thumbs instead of demanding action and participating in the action.

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 3:39 pm
Cassandra,
I think it would be hard for you to be more wrong. Education bureaucrats take uo very little of our education spending. Madigan has no need to be greedy for power. He already has it. And, as far as the Governor and Senate President are concerned, they don’t get any of the increased monies, Their salaries are set by law. I don’t know what causes you to believe the Governor and Emil don’t care about education and health care; I have absolutely no doubt that they do. And, last, I predict that neither House can pass a budget based on natural revenue growth alone. The $600m+ pension payment increase and the union contract pay increases alone make that virtually undoable because of the cuts it would require in other areas.

Comment by steve schnorf Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 4:09 pm
All legislators have a share of the blame, but the governor has the most fault. That office has a singular stature and power to lead, even if there is disagreement. This has been said so much that it probably rings hollow by now: G-Rod exhibits no leadership. No skills at all.

I like how other posters aren’t letting the electorate off the hook. I have been ashamed as I watched fellow Democrats suck up to G-Rod. Where have our standards gone?

Comment by Ambulance chaser Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 4:26 pm
Voters. You get what you vote for. See YDD comments which pretty much hits the target.

Comment by Blue Dog Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 4:49 pm
anyone involved

Comment by anon Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 4:53 pm
Blago and Jones. They never even had a budget alternative. What a joke. I don’t know which is worse. I do feel Madigan is the smart one and could do more but seems to be more interested in making Blago look bad. But hey…why put forth an effort. Just let the Feds continue their work. I just can’t see him getting re-elected. The com-ed thing did it for me with Jones and of course his family and all of their political pay offs. Bottom line! Jones loses seats and Governor Crookovech is on his way out. Vote Republican!!
.

Comment by anon Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 6:18 pm
Blago & Jones are primarily at fault. I’ll put Blago’s campaign contributors next on the list of villains. Then add the gullible voters.

Comment by Norseman Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 6:57 pm
Everyone who voted for the Greens. They insisted they were going to ’send a message’. I’d still like to know: to who???? And what’s changed????

Comment by sad public servant Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 7:51 pm
Yellow lapdog republican,
That’s right its the unions’ fault.
Typical!

Comment by Bill Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 8:34 pm
The list is long, but I guess at the top is Flying Elvis.

Comment by Southern Illinois Voter Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 8:41 pm
Sad public servant,
You speak truth. God bless.

Comment by Truth Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:03 pm
My, my, my…..Bill is a little seneitive tonite….

Comment by Joe Schmoe Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 9:14 pm
Every elected official and their appointees who work in the Capitol, at JRTC and at the Ravenswood
“bunker.” All voters who vote blindly and only look at the D or R after candidates’ names instead of examining a candidate’s record. Such an examination of Milarod’s career from Machine man to governor would have revealed his absolute lack of work ethic and his ego.

Comment by Disgusted Thursday, Jun 21, 07 @ 10:27 pm