Lawmakers were told the White House invited at least 200 to the bill ceremony, enough to include almost all yes votes. Illinois Democratic Reps. Marie Newman and Bobby Rush are among those who will attend the White House signing.

Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, of Wirepoints: “The hubris of Illinois politicians never ceases to amaze. The same group of politicians who have run this state into the ground with decades of bad decisions somehow think they know which industries — and which players — are going to succeed or fail. And they do it all at taxpayer expense.”

Joseph Baar Topinka, Commander, American Legion Post #488, said memorials like the one in Riverside are like “postcards to the future…They must be preserved and revered in the present. If they are not, the future will not have them from which to learn from the past. What a loss that would be to communities like Riverside, that are steeped in history.”

“I have come to believe, after 14 years in our nation’s government, that eventually we all must learn that we need an ability, indeed, perhaps better referred to as a response-ability, to drop our negative judgments, defensiveness, resentments, hatreds and criticisms that serve only to short-circuit our natural gifts of love,” he wrote. “We do, indeed, need to remind ourselves constantly that love is the only reality there is and that we are all here to love and serve.”

Holly Bieneman, director of planning and programming for the Illinois Department of Transportation, explained how projects will be selected and prioritized: IDOT will use a data-driven decision process to prioritize capacity changing projects, “so that’s projects that add lanes, new interchanges, new roads. That is something that was legislated over the summer and signed by Governor Pritzker and put into law.”

Brad Weisenstein, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “But if you are an electric car manufacturer, there may be a few questions you should ask Illinois’ climate-friendly governor before investing millions in the state. After the five years is up, what happens to those corporate taxes…In a few years, those electric car manufacturers will be subject to the same bleak business environment as every other manufacturer in the state. Since 1990, Illinois has lost nearly 370,000 manufacturing jobs, a 40% decline compared to the 31% decline nationwide.”