-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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The only thing that fat boy is succeeding at is making Illinois a pariah state that no one will want to live in or to do business in. That slob is utterly delusional and lives in a lunatic Leftist world of fantasy.
Terrific Russ Stewart Comment about JB: “Incumbent JB Pritzker (D) is a big man with a big fortune and big dreams who is suffering a big delusion – namely: that he’s going to get elected president in 2028. That’s laughable.”
Pritzker’s calculation has to be that 1) the far left prevails in the current civil war engulfing the Democratic Party, which is why he staked out his place in claiming Illinois as the “most progressive state,” thereby leading to his victory in the Dem primary, and 2) Trump crashes and burns, leading to a heavy backlash vote against the Republican nominee in the general election. I think Pritzker just might be right about the primary because the crazies have the numbers in the Dem base. As far as Trump, I expect he will clean up his act, but the list… Read more »
His approval numbers are above water in other polls. Don’t fall for the fake news. Nobody in MAGA world is upset with what we are getting. Sure, we want more, but nobody regrets their vote. Nobody
https://x.com/honestpollster/status/1900555434995454235
I agree that it has not reached the point of regretting a vote for him, but that’s an entirely different question. The polls have gone the wrong way for him just recently. https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/approval-rating And my reading of specific polls says there is a growing list of things even many who voted for him don’t like: tariff uncertainty, the Gulf of America, Panama Canal, Canada as 51st state, taking ownership of Gaza and even the breadth of federal layoffs. Reuters/Ipsos poll is most recent major one. Yes, take off five points if you want because it’s them, but the numbers should… Read more »
Trump +10 in another poll from just hours ago
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1900991942588006791
This is interesting. He’s going for the progressive street cred with a #Resistance slant to win the primary; and then he hopes an expanded ballot harvesting operation wins him the election. I know that’s his calculation but it’s totally boneheaded. Bloomberg thought he’d be the savior in the 2016 primary too and look how that turned out for him.
Until all public sector unions are busted nothing will change for Illinois, cook county or chicago. They are unconstitutional and their end is near.
Then it won’t end because public sector unions have never been ruled unconstitutional and there is nothing on the horizon to indicate that will change. It’s also a constitutional right in Illinois to join a union. The 10th amendment provides that powers not delegated by the constitution of the US are reserved to the states or the people. Nothing in the constitution prohibits joining a union no matter what obscure article you read on the matter. Public sector unions aren’t going anywhere and they are a right in Illinois.
Keep dreaming PPF. I believe that Trumps longest lasting change will come from taking on the federal workforce, challenging their union’s existence and their extreme obstruction and control limiting the actions of the executive branch of government in court and busting that union. The legislative branch allow the existence of public unions (in return for campaign contribution bribes and boots on the ground at election time) who then shackle the executive branch. thus the unconstitutional nature of these groups. The rest of that rats nest house cards will come tumbling down all the way to Chicago. Read “Not Accountable –… Read more »
Gov Jelly Belly is as usual speaking of counter the truth. Illinois and particularly Chicago spends record amounts of money taking care of teachers unions instead of educating our kids. Now the legislature in is attacking home schooling.
JB, how on earth do you convince your addled little brain that having anything less than 100% of children performing at grade level (ex-special ed and IEP) is succeeding?
Give me an effing break. That you’re still able to find either leeches, sycophants, and simple morons to support you is 100% evidence of the failure of our schools…
For the love of Mike, what will it take to run this delusional slob out of IL?
Unfortunately the presidency. But one silver lining-Big Maybe?-is if he becomes president he would help Illinois get out of the pension mess via a bailout for part or all of it over a few years.
Why should out of state taxpayers bail out the evil of Illinois? Besides, IL would be in the same mess a few years later. Democrat scum and their private sector union puppet masters never learn.
I just wonder how JB the Hutt defines ‘success’. Illiteracy in math and reading and ignorance of the history of the US seem to dominate Illinois’ school curricula.
By far, the most egregious example of JB the Hutt’s and the IEA’s ‘successes’ is the complete lack of economic education in schools. This helps the left sell socialism and the politics of envy to students.
If your graduation rates are high, but the students churned out can’t read or write, high graduation rates are a useless statistic. JB the Hutt is a useless governor, so bird of a feather there.
The more cuts the better the way I see it because cutting failures is the way to success
Just cutting the fat.
If this is success, I’d hate like hell to see what failure looks like; we have a generation of uneducated people.
“… succeeding in Illinois …? At what? Misleading the population with lie after lie?
This man has no shame.
Bingo!
My teacher friend told me years ago that teachers can no longer hold students back when they’re failing – they have to pass. So… yeah, they graduate. I’m not really sure what we are doing well. Read an article recently in Sun Times that legislators are looking to tax us for miles driven because infrastructure dollars are short. Yet, we received billions from Biden’s law just for roads and bridges and millions more for transit, etc. Under Pritzker the gas tax has doubled and will continue to increase with inflation as part of his infrastructure plan. Registration fees have gone… Read more »
Succeeding at what? And who, aside from many IL residents, is he driving crazy?
What drug JB is on, that’s the one they should tax the hell out of.
Absolute definition of gaslighting
Succeeding not a chance in hell, I’m sick of hearing Pritzker lie day after day on the communist news media outlets in Illinois. Everything Trump does is wrong but everything Biden did was fabulous., Pritzker’s rhetoric is going to cause trouble if he doesn’t tone it down, his aspirations for President must have him salivating like a pig in heat.
Highest graduation rates!! Haha, if everyone passes, everyone graduates.
Dismal results may be the reality that Pritzker is seeking. A state full of no talent, low IQ types is exactly the population that will keep the Governor in office as long as he chooses.
Is the news media outlet in Chicago that blind to the true hard facts that they either do not report it or leave out portions of a storyline to manipulate the public’s views on Illinois dismal diehard situation. I cannot believe the people doing the reporting have the gall to lie day in and day out and knowingly know they are hard left propaganda pieces.
Media is generally hard left and journalists no longer believe in ‘Truth to Power’ but instead believe that they are doing their part to actively support the regime. On top of that, most media organizations are losing money and readership and JB every four years supports them with millions of dollars in advertising money during election campaigns. No one has bothered to put together exact or current figures but NPR reported that JB spent $80 million on digitial and tv ads just in 2018 alone. That’s a lot of money, a lot of money, to spend on local media that… Read more »
The Chicago media is completely worthless, except as a propaganda arm of the DNC. By malinforming their shrinking audience, they keep Illinois’ incompetent political animals in power.
Legacy media is the enemy of the people and hero of the narrative
Mainstream media is the Pravda propaganda arm of the Democrat party. They have learned absolutely nothing from their last four years of failure and they continue to delude themselves that they are relevant. All will be out of business within a few years.
Mark, at what point do we go full Ayn Rand? The evidence you tirelessly provide seems only to resonate with those of us already sold on the realities our city and state face…
How do we get to the “folks” (read: MORONS – sorry, unkind) who still buy into the Jabba narrative? Seriously, one example is Chicago. BJ has the lowest approval ratings ever recorded and nothing is changing…
I think it won’t happen without further collapse and severe hardship.
Good question . They are inper opus to logic and common sense