If Illinois were a house, it would be the sorriest on the block.
Ouch! Worth a read.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
James, how can you possibly call Iowa and Wisconsin red states? Yeah, Bush was the first Republican since 1988 in 2004 to win Iowa (barely), but since then Democrats took back the entire legislature there, held the governorship, and gained 2 US Congressional seats.
John Kerry won Wisconsin and no Democrat has won that in the past several decades either. We also took the entire legislature, held the governorship and Senate seat, as well as gained one Congressional seat. These two, I don't think should be defined as red states.
Illinois is one of the few states in the nation that provides health care to all children. I moved here two years ago and I love it. It is not perfect, but it takes several years to root out the Ryan-era corruption.
You are incorrect about the Dems and the Illinois budget. We have a real problem in Illinois, the budget has been pushed to the edge of deficit spending by Ryan and the Repub's in the 90's. At the same time, the people of Illinois have make it clear they want more services and to not raise their taxes (raising someone else's taxes are OK). Don't forget, that because of our corrupt form of state government (only 5 people matter), you can't cut the state fat effectively.
Now we face a game of chicken, who will clean up the state and raise taxes first? Someone is going to raise taxes and/or cut the fat in the state budget you know. Right now we don't have the political well to do either.
Our Gov. has been trying to raise taxes, so give him some credit for that.
It appears now that Gov. Blagojevich's tax plan got 0 votes in General Assembly. I don't think there is anyone who actually likes tax increases, but when we realize there are some problems what else can we do?
People know that that calling for tax increases is pretty much political suicide, especially downstate, but it's nice to see people more worried about the quality of life of Illinoisans vs. their own political ambitions. I give anyone credit for doing that, whether I agree with them or not.
As for Blago specifically, I respect the guy. He certainly has his "down" moments, but most of the things he has done for this state have been positive.
If I heard correctly on the radio yesterday, Gov. Blagojevich actually called for members of the assembly to vote no on Speaker Madigan's referendum. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, there hadn't been enough discussion about the proposal for any legislator to make an informed decision about it.
While I do like some of what the Gov. has done or proposed, he sure seems a lot more combative than he needs to at this stage in the game.
4 comments:
James, how can you possibly call Iowa and Wisconsin red states? Yeah, Bush was the first Republican since 1988 in 2004 to win Iowa (barely), but since then Democrats took back the entire legislature there, held the governorship, and gained 2 US Congressional seats.
John Kerry won Wisconsin and no Democrat has won that in the past several decades either. We also took the entire legislature, held the governorship and Senate seat, as well as gained one Congressional seat. These two, I don't think should be defined as red states.
Illinois is one of the few states in the nation that provides health care to all children. I moved here two years ago and I love it. It is not perfect, but it takes several years to root out the Ryan-era corruption.
Hi James -
You are incorrect about the Dems and the Illinois budget. We have a real problem in Illinois, the budget has been pushed to the edge of deficit spending by Ryan and the Repub's in the 90's. At the same time, the people of Illinois have make it clear they want more services and to not raise their taxes (raising someone else's taxes are OK). Don't forget, that because of our corrupt form of state government (only 5 people matter), you can't cut the state fat effectively.
Now we face a game of chicken, who will clean up the state and raise taxes first? Someone is going to raise taxes and/or cut the fat in the state budget you know. Right now we don't have the political well to do either.
Our Gov. has been trying to raise taxes, so give him some credit for that.
It appears now that Gov. Blagojevich's tax plan got 0 votes in General Assembly. I don't think there is anyone who actually likes tax increases, but when we realize there are some problems what else can we do?
People know that that calling for tax increases is pretty much political suicide, especially downstate, but it's nice to see people more worried about the quality of life of Illinoisans vs. their own political ambitions. I give anyone credit for doing that, whether I agree with them or not.
As for Blago specifically, I respect the guy. He certainly has his "down" moments, but most of the things he has done for this state have been positive.
If I heard correctly on the radio yesterday, Gov. Blagojevich actually called for members of the assembly to vote no on Speaker Madigan's referendum. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, there hadn't been enough discussion about the proposal for any legislator to make an informed decision about it.
While I do like some of what the Gov. has done or proposed, he sure seems a lot more combative than he needs to at this stage in the game.
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