Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friend Lennie Jarratt was featured on Fox News Chicago last night. The subject was the $85 billion dollar deficit that the Illinois finds its public employee pensions confronted with. Fox News reports that every Illinois citizen would have to fork over $6,600 to instantly solve the problem. And what has caused this problem? Unions.

Lennie has some great lines in this piece and he’s right on. He is right that education in America has become “legalized theft.” Here are some of his main points:

  • Getting a public sector job is like hitting the lottery
  • The way schools levy is legal theft
  • We have the highest property taxes in the Midwest
  • Nearly all of the top 50 public sector pensions in IL are educators
  • Killing jobs and forcing people to leave the state further cutting state revenue
  • Within 4-6 years most public sector retirees are making more than when working

Illinois isn’t the only state in this union-made morass. Nearly every state in the union is in this mess.
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Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess”


Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar

From Congressman Peter Roskam’s Office (6th District)…

Roskam: “When two pillars of the Illinois business community, Caterpillar and John Deere, are forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs for next year alone thanks to the health bill, it sends an ominous message about Illinois’ economic future.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam released the following statement today following the John Deere company’s announcement that the new healthcare legislation signed by President Obama this week will increase their taxes by $150 million in the first year, after Caterpillar announced it would cost them $100 million in their first year:
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Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar”


Walsh to Bean: How is raising their taxes doing small businesses ‘due diligence’?

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

“This is about doing due diligence on behalf of small businesses and families that I represent in the 8th District,” -Rep. Melissa Bean, on her vote for Obamacare, March 23, ABC Link

Perhaps as part of her “due diligence”, Rep. Bean should have considered talking to actual small business owners in the district or small business trade associations like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
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Walsh to Bean: How is raising their taxes doing small businesses ‘due diligence’?”


Obama Supporter’s Racism Cop Out

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you want to see the ignorance of the left, below is a good video to see it in. In it a woman that supports Obamacare makes all sorts of accusations that everyone is a racist in a confrontation at a small protest outside of Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky’s Chicago-area offices. Another portly woman whines about the fact that she might be expected pay for her own healthcare and her equally portly boyfriend calls people names and asks what’s wrong with “a little socialism?”

The video shows that the only people filled with hate, the only ones resorting to name-calling and ignorance are the Obamacare supporters. But the you’re-all-racists lady is the most typical example of the left’s empty-headed line of attack against anyone that dares to nay-say their communist ideas.

One of the ignorant things this woman did was dismiss the Holocaust. It is infuriating, of course, that this chubby chider in purple was so dismissive of the Holocaust because there once was slavery. To her, slavery was worse than the Holocaust. A disgusting display of ignorance, of course. It is also a sad display of ignorance that this woman really thought that her “ancestors” were brought to Evanston, Illinois to work a “plantation.” This foolish woman doesn’t appear to know the history of her own people. There WERE no slave plantations in Evanston, Illinois so it is impossible that her ancestors were brought to Evanston to work plantations for white folks.
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Obama Supporter’s Racism Cop Out”


Kinzinger Tops Polls in 11th District

From the Adam Kinzinger for Congress campaign (11th District)…

Adam Kinzinger is currently holding townhalls across the district and after Wednesday night, he will have held 11, Debbie Halvorson, who voted yes for healthcare, has held zero. This is the first poll conducted on the Congressional Level after the Healthcare vote.

NRCC Memo
Adam Kinzinger currently leads on the ballot test 44%-38% over Congresswoman Halvorson, with 16% of voters undecided. Among high interest voters (8-10s), Kinzinger’s lead improves to 49%-35%, with 13% undecided.
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Kinzinger Tops Polls in 11th District”


Walsh to Bean: How is Spending a Trillion Dollars Being Fiscally Conservative?

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

“For moderates like myself who are fiscally conservative, this is a win,”–Rep. Melissa Bean, The Daily Herald, March 20. Link

A moderate who votes her party not her district? A fiscal conservative who votes to spend a trillion dollars of money we don’t have for something 8th district families don’t want?
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Walsh to Bean: How is Spending a Trillion Dollars Being Fiscally Conservative?”


8th District: Joe Walsh Responds to Healthcare vote in Congress

“Melissa Bean voted to take us further down this spending path which will bankrupt future generations. It doesn’t matter what political persuasion you are, that’s not right!”

www.JoeWalshForCongress.com


Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District

From the Hultgren for Congress campaign (14th District)…

Tonight, Bill Foster dealt the 14th Congressional District a devastating blow!

Foster’s vote to takeover health care doesn’t only run contrary to the wishes of his constituents, it delivers on the commitment he made to HIS real boss, Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union.

In the Washington Post this week, Stern boasted of the debt owed to SEIU by Foster saying that “Foster, who we ran a significant independent expenditure for, we’re telling him what it is our workers thought they were working for him for” in reference to the Pelosi/Reid health care bill.
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Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District”


GOP Chairman Elected to Full Term

-By Warner Todd Huston

GOP Party Chairman Pat Brady was elected to a full term as chairman at the State Central Committee meeting this weekend.

Brady was appointed to the position by the state GOP after former Chairman Andy McKenna stepped down in an unsuccessful attempt to run for Governor last year. Brady served the final months of McKenna’s term and now begins his own full four-year term.

Congratulations to Chairman Brady and let’s hope that he can do more for the party long-term than the failed former chairman, McKenna. Brady would be smart to heed the conservative groundswell in this nation and stop the habit of past Illinois GOP powermongers of isolating, ignoring, and working against Illinois conservatives.


Lauzen’s Legislative Top Ten

From the office of State Senator Chris Lauzen, 25th District…

Until Governor Quinn and Ruling Majorities in the House and Senate reduce Medicaid eligibility to the national average, dramatically reform and fund public employee pensions for future and current employees, secure spending flexibility on billions of federal so-called stimulus dollars, and conduct a hard scrubbing for efficiency of every agency and program in state government, Illinois will continue the budget “death spiral” that is causing employers to evacuate with their jobs, senior citizens with assets to relocate to other states, and bond rating companies to double-downgrade the financial prospects of 12.9 million Illinoisans.

To avoid wearing out my welcome by replaying budget and job-creation solutions that I have repeatedly proposed here and in Springfield, I will devote this article to “Lauzen’s Top 10” legislative initiatives that I am proposing this Spring on your behalf:
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Lauzen’s Legislative Top Ten”


Bean Puts Party Politics Ahead of Constitution, Constituents: Votes to Sanction Shady ‘Deem-and-Pass’

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

(Lake Zurich, Ill)– Yesterday, Melissa Bean voted down a bi-partisan effort that would have forced members of the House to cast their vote for or against Obamacare in the light of day. In so doing, Melissa Bean, who voted for an even more expansive government takeover of health care last year, has endorsed the so-called “deem-and-pass” sleight-of-hand House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears intent on employing to get Obamacare passed on Sunday. Twenty-eight Congressional Democrats joined every Congressional Republican in voting against allowing the use of this procedural gimmick.

Former U.S. Attorney Generals Ed Meese and William Barr had this to say about the “deem-and-pass”,

The “deem and pass” and similar options under consideration in the House of Representatives plainly violate at least the spirit of the Constitution’s bicameralism and presentment requirements. Those constitutional requirements were intended to ensure democratic transparency with a straightforward up-or-down vote in each House on all bills that become law. More importantly, these requirements were designed to ensure that the new national government actually followed “the consent of the governed,” which the Declaration of Independence had declared before the world to be the only basis of legitimate government.
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Bean Puts Party Politics Ahead of Constitution, Constituents: Votes to Sanction Shady ‘Deem-and-Pass’”


Tea Party Protest at Illinois Rep. Bean’s Office

-By Warner Todd Huston

I attended a gathering of Americans protesting both for and against Obamacare in front of Illinois Rep. Melissa Bean’s Schaumburg offices this afternoon, though those protesting against Obamacare far out numbered those in favor of it I have to say. It is also amazing that anyone came out as cold and snowy as it was!

I suppose there were just over 100 folks out with their Gadsen flags, American flags, and both professionally printed and homemade signs with their favorite slogans upon them. One fellow even showed up with his tricorn hat and a pitchfork!
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Tea Party Protest at Illinois Rep. Bean’s Office”


Tell Your Illinois Representatives to Vote ‘No’ on Obamacare

We are coming to crunch time, folks.

If you don’t want to see the end of the United States as a free country, if you abhor the idea of the emergence of the new European States of America, then call your Illinois representatives and tell them to vote “no” on this Obamanation of a bill.

  • Bobby Rush (D-01) 202-225-4372
  • Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-02) 202-225-0773
  • Dan Lipinski (D-03) 202-225-5701
  • Luis Gutierrez (D-04) 202-225-8203
  • Mike Quigley (D-05) 202-225-4061
  • Peter Roskam (R-06) 202-225-4561
  • Danny Davis (D-07) 202-225-5006
  • Melissa Bean (D-08) 202-225-3711
  • Jan Schakowsky (D-09) 202-225-2111
  • Mark Kirk (R-10) 202-225-4835
  • Debbie Halvorson (D-11) 202-225-3635
  • Jerry Costello (D-12) 202-225-5661
  • Judy Biggert (R-13) 202-225-3515
  • Bill Foster (D-14) 202-225-2976
  • Timothy Johnson (R-15) 202-225-2371
  • Don Manzullo (R-16) 202-225-5676
  • Phil Hare (D-17) 202-225-5905
  • Aaron Schock (R-18) 202-225-6201
  • John Shimkus (R-19) 202-225-5271


Quinn Lies About ‘Losing Middle Class’ Without Unions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pat “the accidental governor” Quinn told a union crowd that Illinois GOP Gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady would somehow destroy the middle class by his anti-union stance. Quinn also made the essential claim that without unions there’d be no “middle class.”

“We’re not going to have a middle class if we allow a lot of anti-labor, anti-union operators to get in politics and tear to shreds fundamental things we all agree on,” Quinn said. “He doesn’t believe in the minimum wage. He wants to abolish it.”

There is, of course, a glaring error in Quinn’s wild-eyed union claim. As of 2009 union members accounted for only 12.4 percent of America’s workforce. With this fact one wonders how the middle class could be eliminated by anti-union forces when union workers make up such a tiny percentage of the total U.S. workforce already?
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Quinn Lies About ‘Losing Middle Class’ Without Unions”


8th District Race: Walsh Address His Foreclosure Issue

-By Warner Todd Huston

Joe Walsh, the GOP nominee for the 8th District Congressional seat, sat down with the folks at the Daily Herald to talk about the 2009 foreclosure on his Winnetka condo that recently became widely known.

Walsh’s version of the final analysis is that this bank foreclosure on his Winnetka condo makes him just like a lot of Americans that lost their homes due to this bad economy and as a Congressman he’ll be in a position to do something about it.

The Daily Herald, though, was skeptical that Walsh, with a current rent payment of $3,300 a month, could be an “average Joe.” They peppered Walsh with questions asking how he could claim not to be a rich man with such an expensive rent payment?
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8th District Race: Walsh Address His Foreclosure Issue”


2nd District Hayes: Jr. ‘Joyriding’ at the Tax Payers Expense

From the Hayes for Congress (2nd District) campaign…

CHICAGO: The following statement was released today by Rev. Isaac C. Hayes, the GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2 in response to Rep. Jackson Jr.’s excessive automobile expenses.

“This amounts to nothing more than a never ending display of arrogance,” said Rev. Hayes, “a thumbing up of his nose to his constituents.” According to him, Rep. Jackson is taking “joyrides” while the rest of the country continues to “lose their jobs and homes.”
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2nd District Hayes: Jr. ‘Joyriding’ at the Tax Payers Expense”


Illinois Hits Highest Unemployment Rate in 27 Years

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois has reached an unemployment rate of 12.2 percent. ChicagoBreakingNews says that this is the highest rate in 27 years.

The state’s monthly jobless rate, which soared from last years up from 8.7 percent, outpaced the national rate of 10.6 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate in January 2009 was 8.5 percent. The rates are not seasonally adjusted.

Thank you Governor Pat “union hack” Quinn and President Obama “economy killer” Obama. Good work for the both of you… if you intend the destruction of the country, that is.

(For an ongoing update of unemployment stats, see this National Conference of State Legislatures page.)


8th District Walsh: Chicago Area Unemployment Rate Hits 11.6% (Despite Big Government Spending)

From the Walsh for Congress (8th District) campaign…

(Lake Zurich, Ill)– Yesterday, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that unemployment in metropolitan Chicago jumped to 11.6% this January, the highest rate in almost 27 years. (Article)

That is higher than it was before the $800 billion stimulus, and higher than it was before the bank bailouts.
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8th District Walsh: Chicago Area Unemployment Rate Hits 11.6% (Despite Big Government Spending)”


Palatine Tea Party: Healthcare Protest At Rep. Bean’s Offices

-By Warner Todd Huston

The folks at the Palatine Tea Party has some good video and photos of the protest outside Representative Melissa Bean’s offices (D, 8th District).

The protest was held at noon on Monday, March 15.
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Palatine Tea Party: Healthcare Protest At Rep. Bean’s Offices”


GOP Slate on FaceBook

Bill Brady – Governor
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bill-Brady/121898485564?ref=ts

Jason Plummer – Lieutenant Governor
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Plummer/132646891026?ref=ts

Dan Rutherford – Treasurer
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dan-Rutherford/104696265020?ref=ts

Judy Baar Topinka – Comptroller
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Judy-Baar-Topinka/153417423039?ref=ts

Robert Enriquez – Secretary of State
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150151784847&ref=ts

Steve Kim – Attorney General
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=144297595818&ref=ts


Why is Judy Running?

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, the primary is over. The candidates are ready to start their race to the general election finish. Over the last week the GOP has firmed up its final slate and all the big office candidates met for a unity video and have gone out on the stump together a few times to rally and unify the Illinois GOP… all except Judy Baar-Topinka, ostensibly our GOP candidate for Comptroller.

Judy has not shown up to any of the unity meetings and was not in the unity video that the Illinois GOP was shopping around. She has been mysteriously absent from all of the campaigning thus far.
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Why is Judy Running?”


Fact vs. Fiction: What You Should Know About Obamacare

From the Walsh for Congress (8th District) campaign…

Fiction: You can keep your existing coverage.

Fact: Wrong. If government insurance is less expensive to employers (who are already paying for it with their taxes) many will drop their current plans in favor of the less expensive, government-run plan. Private sector insurance will not be able to compete with the unlimited funding and will go under further increasing the states’ Medicaid burden.

Fiction: Care will not be rationed.

Fact: Wrong. The House version would establish a new tax on every health insurance policy to fund 111 new federal bureau­cracies including the Health Benefits Advisory Commit­tee that would be tasked with deciding which treatments are more cost-effective. The research findings would be used by the government to ration care.

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Fact vs. Fiction: What You Should Know About Obamacare”


Rep. Mike Quigley: Worst Big Government Record in Congress

From the Ratowitz for Congress campaign…

David Ratowitz, Republican Candidate for Illinois’ 5th Congressional Seat, Attacks Incumbent Mike Quigley (D IL-5) for Fiscal Irresponsibility

U. S. Congressional Candidate, David Ratowitz (IL – 5), asks, “Who does Mike Quigley think he is fooling with a toothless ‘Sense of the House’ resolution on fiscal controls? Obviously, Mike Quigley doesn’t care about us, otherwise he would offer real opposition to the big government programs that spend our money instead of faking reform.”
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Rep. Mike Quigley: Worst Big Government Record in Congress”


Anti-Healthcare Rally in Schaumburg – Tuesday, March 16, NOON!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to have enough votes to shove ObamaCare down Americans’ throats by Friday.

Will you be available during lunch on Tuesday for a show of opposition to Congresswoman Melissa Bean? She is the ONLY swing vote in Illinois, so YOU can make a difference!

Join all northeast Illinois Tea Party and grassroots organizations at Congresswoman Melissa Bean’s office on Tuesday for a “Health Care Bill Rally”

1701 E. Woodfield Road (Suite 200)
Schaumburg
March 16th
!2 NOON

Feel free to bring those signs, bullhorns, etc.


Bill Brady Launches 2010 IL GOP Gubernatorial Bid

So, now that State Senator Bill Brady is the affirmed GOP nominee for Governor, he’s officially launching his campaign. Here Brady appears with the GOP slate of candidates.

In attendance is:
Lt. Gov. Candidate Jason Plummer
Treasurer candidate Dan Rutherford
Secretary of State candidate Robert Rodriguez
Attorney General candidate Steven Kim
(Comptroller candidate Judy Baar-Topinka not in attendance)


Roskam Praises Ban on Earmarks by House GOP

From Congressman Peter Roskam…

WASHINGTON, DC – Today the House Republican Conference adopted an immediate, unilateral moratorium on all earmarks, demonstrating House Republicans’ commitment to reducing the out of control federal spending that imperils America’s future.

“Adopting this year’s ban on earmarks is a significant first step toward reigning in a government that is spending, borrowing and taxing away a prosperous future for our children and grandchildren,” said Congressman Peter Roskam. “House Republicans proved today that we understand that strong leadership is required to address exploding federal deficits – which are running at $220 billion a month – and restore the fiscal stability of our country.”
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Roskam Praises Ban on Earmarks by House GOP”


Bean Set to Vote Interests of Trial Lawyers Over Interest of Constituents

From the Walsh for Congress campaign…

(LAKE ZURICH, IL)– With the Obamacare legislation nearing a vote, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-8) remains intent on representing the special interests that control her political party as opposed to voting the interests of 8th district families.

Bean, who received more than $31,000 in campaign contributions from trial lawyers during her 2008 re-election campaign, is set to vote for a federal government takeover of health care that, among other things, fails to meaningfully address increasing health care costs directly attributable to frivolous lawsuits and excessive jury awards.
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Bean Set to Vote Interests of Trial Lawyers Over Interest of Constituents”


Truth in Accounting: Governor – You Can’t Balance Illinois’ Budget By Borrowing Money

From Truth in Accounting…

Institute for Truth in Accounting Issues Guide to Honest Budgeting

March 11, 2010 — To help citizens determine if Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget is truly balanced the Institute for Truth in Accounting has published “Are We Unbalanced? – A Guide to Reviewing Governments’ Budgets”.
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Truth in Accounting: Governor – You Can’t Balance Illinois’ Budget By Borrowing Money”


Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’

-By Warner Todd Huston

In his budget speech, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a one percent hike in the state income tax in order to”restore our education budget to current levels.” A one percent increase is like a 33% increase if the tax goes from a flat tax of 3% to one of 4%.

In his speech (beginning on page 10) Quinn addresses the education budget. Sadly, Quinn’s proposal does nothing to address why the problem has arisen in the first place.

Quinn asks for no necessary cuts, he asks for no union concessions, he makes no effort to tighten our education belt in Illinois. Quinn should be slashing the unnecessarily lavish benefits that teachers unions force out of the state, hundreds of useless administrators should be fired and their positions eliminated. The whole education establishment needs to be assessed for it excess. Those imagining that the “fix” is just to pump more money into these failing schools are fooling themselves.

But Quinn is doing nothing but treading water with the state’s education establishment when he should be demanding a bottom to top review of the waste of public education in Illinois.
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Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’”


How will Bean Vote for The American Death Panel?

From the Palatine Tea Party…

(Palatine, Illinois) March 10, 2010 – We the People reject this government takeover of 1/6th of our United States economy to government run healthcare which Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are proposing. The government can not run anything successfully without running deficits. Saying the healthcare bill is deficit neutral is nonsense and the American people know it. Does Bean know the will of the people which live in her district and knows what is best for our families? If so, how was it measured and by whom?
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How will Bean Vote for The American Death Panel?”