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State Rep. Skip Saviano: An Illinois Republican to Dump

-By Warner Todd Huston

77th District State Representative Skip Saviano is a perfect example of the sort of Republican that may as well be a Democrat. Saviano’s latest gaff is to side with the big government, big spending Democrats on the video gambling issue.

On Feb. 1 I wrote about how the Democrats are trying to pull a tax bait and switch on those communities that legally decide to employ the opt-out clause in the State’s new video gambling law. Democrats, and wild spenders on the GOP side like Saviano, want to penalize those communities that have voted their conscience on this destructive gambling measure.

Here is the deal: Illinois passed a video gambling law expecting that it would bring in a ton of new tax money so that big spenders like Saviano and his Democrat pals can continue wasting taxpayer’s money without a hiccup in their profligate ways. But, because large swaths of the state is anti-gambling, the legislature added an opt-out clause to the bill. That way, if a community or county didn’t want to force a morally questionable law like video gambling on its citizens it didn’t have to. It could opt out.

Well, as it happens, a bunch of communities chose that option. And even more are in the process of looking into it. So many, in fact, it’s threatened the big windfall that the Democrats and lefties like Saviano expected the state to take in. So, instead of allowing these communities their votes of conscience and chalking it up to experience, now these big spenders want to penalize these communities with a new tax to replace the money the legislature expected to see as a result of wide-spread video gambling.

One wonders why they bothered with the morally destructive gambling law in the first place and didn’t just go straight for the tax? Of course, we know the answer to that. Illinois is over taxed already. The legislature didn’t have the guts to try and get a new tax, but now that gambling seems to be failing them they are looking for just another tax anyway. It’s a bait and switch, for sure.

Of course, like true wasteful politicians, guys like Saviano aren’t considering any cuts in wild over spending. They’re just looking for new money to steal. When you or I have a money problem we cut our spending. Maybe we cancel the cable or stop going out to eat. When big spending thieves like Saviano find their government short of money they just look for new taxes to be levied on the backs of the poor citizen.

If the Ill. GOP is to become successful again with its own base we need to replace big spending Democrat lite-like pols such as Saviano. With “Republicans” like Saviano, who needs socialists?

For more info Illinois Church Action has a good website that reports all the communities that have voted to ban video gambling or are in the process of discussing the issue.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.

He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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