-By Warner Todd Huston
Only days after the 2014 election that gave Illinois a new business-minded, tax-cutting Republican as its new Governor, Illinois State Senator and nominal Republican Dave Syverson gave us all a perfect example of why the Illinois GOP is such a crashing failure when he chirped up that he’d love to make the “temporary” state income tax hike permanent, BEFORE the new Governor even gets a chance to take office.
The 2014 midterm elections were a sharp rebuke to a nation of big spending, big government Democrats that have destroyed state budgets, the American healthcare industry, and engorged government in every corner of the nation. This wave election even affected deep blue Illinois as an insurgent first-time Republican candidate beat a thoroughly entrenched Democrat incumbent.
One of the reasons that new Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner beat Democrat Pat Quinn is because Rauner ran on his outsider status, his business acumen, and his promises to cut taxes and get the state back from the brink of collapse. Rauner promised to change the absolute fact that Illinois is the worst state in the country in every single measure of what makes a successful state.
Now, normally one might think that an opposition party like the Republicans are in Illinois (the Democrats completely control both houses of the state government) would look at Rauner’s win and think that they should wait for him to take office so that they can help him transform the Land of Lincoln from the worst state in the union and into a better place to live.
But if you would have thought this was a logical move for a political party that is out of power but on the verge of having one of its own as chief executive, you don’t know the monumental failures that are Illinois Republicans.
As proof of this sad state of affairs, another one of the reasons that Rauner won election is the controversy over the state income tax hike.
In 2011 the state legislature hiked the state income tax a whopping 67 percent with the provision that it was only temporary. The law that hiked the tax is supposed to sunset on Jan. 1, 2015. As the new year begins, the income tax is supposed to fall from its “temporary” 5 percent down to 3.75 percent. Then, by 2025, it is supposed to fall further to 3.25 percent.
Naturally, the Democrats and Quinn wanted to ignore the sunset provision and make the 5 percent rate permanent. Rauner ran against that notion.
As I noted, we have a new governor riding a wave of nation-wide Republican sentiment who wants to come into Springfield and make sure that the state income tax follows the law and is lowered on schedule.
So, what does Rockford’s “Republican” Senator Dave Syverson do? He pushes to make the tax hike permanent before our new Governor has any chance at all to do anything about it.
This is everything that is wrong with Illinois Republicans all wrapped up in one issue.
We have a so-called Republican doing the following:
- Going against the GOP’s usual stance against tax hikes
- Trying to act fast enough to defeat his own party
- Refusing to work with a low tax governor
- Siding with Democrats
- Working as hard as he can to hurt the people of Illinois
Let’s hope that the Illinois GOP will work to defeat Syverson’s destructive actions. Let’s hope the state party finds a way to destroy its own left-wingers (like Syverson). Let’s hope the party punishes Syverson and isolates him and takes away his perks (like a good party would by such a betrayal). And let’s hope the state party looks for ways to work with their own new governor as he looks to begin the difficult task of brining Illinois out of its last place standings.
Don’t be surprised if the Illinois Republican Party fails to do any of this. But we can all hope, can’t we?
Regardless, acting like this will never, ever help the Illinois GOP break out of its minority status and become a useful party of leaders again. The Illinois GOP is moribund and so lost that it can’t even see the conservative tidal wave sweeping the rest of the nation.
Here are some more of Illinois worst hits that are thanks to left-wing politicians like Syverson:
- Ill. Sen. Dave Syverson is an Example of Why the Ill. GOP is a Miserable Failure
- Illinois a ‘Sinkhole State’: Rates Second Worst for Liability Per Taxpayer
- Illinois Worst in Midwest for Private Sector Job Creation
- Illinois One of the Worst GDP Growth in Entire Midwest
- Illinois Ranks as ‘Worst’ For Small Businesses
- Of the Fifty, Illinoisans Have Least Trust in the State Government
- Poll: Even People in Illinois Say Illinois Worst State to Live In
- Illinois has the most underfunded pensions in the country and faces a deficit growth of $17 million per day.
- The state also has the worst funded teachers pensions in the country.
- Illinois was identified as one of the worst states in the union for its oppressive, jobs-killing lawsuit climate
- Illinois had more home foreclosures than almost every other state.
- Illinois ranks as the 49th worst debtor state in the nation.
- Illinois was ranked the 48th worst state for business.
- Illinois ranked 48th for unemployment making it among the worst five states for joblessness.
- Its government also has one of the worst rankings for state transparency and accountability in the nation, too.
- As to big city stats, Chicago tops the nation with the highest unemployment rate.
- Illinois has the worst credit rating
- Illinois Tops Nation in Growth of Food Stamp Recipients
- Mercatus: Illinois ranks at the bottom of the most free states
- Illinois Ranks as One of Worst States for Losing Citizens
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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
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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