Rauner rips Madigan's 'Chicago political machine' as overtime jockeying on budget begins

[alp227]

Source: Chicago Tribune

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner renewed his attacks on Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and the "Chicago machine" on Wednesday, traveling to Downstate towns where he played up regional political differences in his effort to pin blame for the budget impasse on Democrats.

"We've got to stop this. The tragic fact is, Speaker Madigan and his Democrats have controlled the General Assembly for more than 30 years," Rauner said while visiting a state prison in Vienna. "And in those 30 years, we have the highest deficits, debt, unfunded pension liabilities in America, thanks to their policies."

The visit to the Vienna prison was one of five stops Wednesday on the two-day road trip the governor has embarked on in an attempt to gin up grass-roots support for his latest request, that Democrats send him a six-month spending plan to get the state through the November election and ensure that schools have the money they need to open in the fall. The mini-tour comes a day after a dramatic end to the spring session that saw Democrats unable to agree on how much money to funnel to schools in the midst of their broader budget fight with Rauner.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-budget-rauner-madigan-met-0602-20160602-story.html

[Itchinjim]

1. Fuck Rauner.

Fuck that Walker wannabe.

[truebrit71]

11. Dammit that's my line!

Fuck Rauner. Twice. Sideways.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

2. The real tragic fact is that Rauner is nothing more than another

Run of the mill lying ass billionaire who bought a Governorship to further enrich himself, while braying to the downstate redneck stoopids about how he has so much genuine concern for the financial state of the State and who really wants to "Brownback" Illinois.

This guy is said to have made big chunks of his billions, buying up nursing homes, making drastic staff and funding cuts, to the point they'd have to close, then selling off the remaining assets. That happened to a nursing home my wifes alzheimer stricken Grandmother was in. It was de-certified and had to close, causing the need to move her to another more costly home, on very short notice. Oddly enough her only children, my MIL and her sister, were carrying the expense, and being repugs solely because their Father was, actually voted for this hump just months later, even though his action likely hastened Grandmas passing and at least indirectly screwed the both of them pretty good. This practice was common place during the 70s and 80s by Mafioso. It was called Bust out jobs. The main difference was that the businesses were mostly acquired through extortion and they were, when exposed,vigorously prosecuted by the likes of Giuliani.

It was disclosed, during his campaign, that even doing nothing but sitting on his billions, that money would earn him 26 K an hour. So this steaming turd buys an election, and right away starts with the BS budget cuts that hurt everyone without piles of cash. Madigan, et al, blocked his attempts to cut state workers pay, from 50K a year to less than half that. Imagine. A guy who make 26K an hour,(maybe I'm dismembering and it was 26K a day), wanting to gut punch hi-way workers, snowplow drivers, state troopers, etc., by halving their pay. Knowing, how could he not know, that these folks would have mortgages, car payments, etc. based on their current wages.

If this sorry POS actually had genuine concern for the condition of the State, I'd think he'd set an example himself. Maybe forgo the Governors salary. Maybe use his own jets to fly around and lie to the rubes, instead of State planes. With his assets and resources, he'd never miss it. I'd really consider getting behind a guy who'd do that, even though he'd never notice or suffer from the costs. But no. I'm told by people much smarter and more in tune than I, that if you follow the money, or where he wants it to go, it always leads to benefiting himself and other filthy rich pukes,while screwing just about everyone else.

If anyone needs to be a one term wonder. it's this sorry excuse of a human.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. EXCELLENT! here's what needs to be happening:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=recall+rauner

check it out, if you're an illinoisian, Do something!

I have....member of IEA/NEA

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

6. I am an Illinois resident

I like to think I keep up pretty well with things, and was unaware of the recall movement. Of course I signed the petition, as will my wife, later today. Thanks for the link.

[Midnight Writer]

5. Thank you, Hayduke. Rauner's "business associates" are currently buying nursing homes,

and assisted living facilities around the state. These places are going broke because the State is refusing to reimburse them. Once they are bankrupt, Rauner's cohorts step in and buy them at bargain basement prices. With the baby boomers reaching the age when many need full time care, there is a fortune to be made. Rauner knows this, and to his business man's sense of values, he sees nothing wrong with using government power to make a healthy profit for his cronies.

[dicksmc3]

3. Ruiner is a CROOK!!!

They need to lock his ass up at that prison!!!

[Arazi]

7. Governor Ruiner at work. Such an asshole

[ancianita]

8. By not turning out for elections, this is what stupid, lazy Illinois Democrats did to themselves.

I always bitch that they get the schools they deserve, but in my heart I'm mad for the kids who never seem to get the schools they deserve.

Now, Claypool, a bureaucratic hack, won't chop the top of central office overpaid patronage workers to open the schools in September. No general superintendent has chopped his minions in decades. But the public must demand it.

With the right lawyers -- although speaker Madigan's daughter is the state's attorney general -- a hardcore multiple-union strike in Chicago can stipulate the stripping of the appointed board structure from Rahm as a pre-condition of teachers going back to work, and it can force an elected board legalized at the state level.

A multiple-union strike could force major budget cuts that don't affect the classroom:

1. 25% cut of all administrator positions at central office,
2. 10% pay cut for all remaining employees there.
3. Throw in the millions saved from cut budgets and positions of all -- and I mean ALL -- "special projects" people who drive the bureaucratic innovation treadmill, and then classroom learning will be able to step off that treadmill into the known classic learning models -- texts, existing tech and all. Such freedom. The stuff of private schools.

Why? Because historically, NObody at central office ever suffers from budget cuts. Now, EVERYBODY at central office should share in the pain of the pink slip. That's where internal budgeting savings begin. That's where salaries are waste. That's where the budget is most malleable and the system is most expendable.

4. Once those cuts are made, the population would be willing to see a raise in property taxes that are paid twice yearly, along with a one-time raise in the state income tax. With chop-the-top cuts alone there would be enough to pay engineers to open schools, teachers to teach, kids to learn and maybe even whole food to eat.

Looking forward, people of this city and state mustmustmust elect better stewards of tax money from governor to board members to mayor.

I hope the union powows early and often over their vision. I hope they make board restructure demands, I hope they demand new teaching certification qualifications for administrators, that they get a knowledgeable team of legal help, one of whom might be a city hall defector (risky).

These corrupt tools that leech on taxes at all levels must be made the last of the long line of public school hatchet men. No more Rahms or Claypools.

Sometimes a manufactured crisis can get wrangled into an opportunity.

Teachers in the state sound weary but courageous, and if the public knew of all of the past waste, it would feel even more compelled to build a stronger alliance.

Of course, maybe this all seems so obvious, and is easier said than done. But it can be done.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

10. By not turning out for elections, this is what stupid, lazy Illinois Democrats did to themselves.

Ding ding ding ding!

The player wins a cigar!

I tried to explain, during Illinois last election, to people I know who were disgusted with Quinn and promising to sit out, that staying home would amount to a Rauner vote. That if there was ever a choice between just the lesser of two evils, that election was it.

I know so many people who usually vote Dem, so they claim, including our two daughters, their husband/fiance and their circle of friends, who stayed home, many thinking they were making some grand statement by doing so. These days, many of them are the loudest whiners of Rauner winning. When they whine in front of me, and at times they do, I tell them to STFU, it's YOUR fault! YOU did this. YOU.

[FighttheFuture]

9. Ruiner is doing to Illinois what Brownback has done to Kansas! Asshole.