-- 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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No one has sold more Florida Real Estate than the greedy Blue States that have chased out the hard-working families. Taxes will rise as more people leave the Blue States. It is called a Debt spiral and Illinois is living it. Pensions paid first and people like him have wrecked the State for the benefit of a few.
Congrats to Dems on an EPIC gerrymander. Great job disenfranchising the 42% of Republican voters and forcefully bending their will to the 66% Democrat supermajority. The idea of drawing 6 new districts and forcing 12 existing R’s to compete against each other is GENIUS! That’s exactly what the (racist) Founding Fathers imagined when they thought of Democracy. I’m so proud to live here!
Politics is a bloodsport
They cannot win honestly. For a state they claim is so BLUE they sure did their best to make sure of it.
What are you talking about? Bailey was only able to garner 43% of the vote. They HONESTLY kicked the GOPs ass. No fraud needed. Sure gerrymandering helped win more seats but every state does that. If you want it to work in your favor you’ll need to start winning statewide elections.
Time to move on from your election denying ways. The days of Trump lies are over. Put up candidates that actually stand for something the voters want and stop all the conspiracy rhetoric. Otherwise the GOP will never win in Illinois again.
GOP is never winning in IL again. Just like Dems are never winning in IN/TN/IA again. And so on. This is the way of the country now. It’s structural at this point. It’s been this way for a while but now these changes are cemented in. The best R candidate in the entire world could run in IL and maybe, at best, get 47% of the vote. D’s don’t vote R, and R’s don’t vote D. The candidates don’t really even matter any more although D’s seem to elect far more Bad candidates than R’s. Rauner might be the last… Read more »
Your prognostication skills are in question after the last election. Yet you still come at everything as if you are all knowing. The GOP can win but they will need to change their ways. “Never again”? That’s a long time.
Why should Republicans change their message? The Republican’s message brought out 6% points more Republicans this election than Democrats. Many states went blood red. The message failed to resonate in Blue states because they are hyper-partisan blue states. Just look at our prosperous neighbor to the East, Indiana. Almost completely Red, unlikely to go Blue again. Attracting residents and businesses. Lower cost of living. You keep saying that R’s need to change their message. The answer is no, R’s need to change their turnout, by adapting to VBM, that Trump himself told his voters not to do. They’ll have an… Read more »
Indiana GOP keeps Legislature control amid abortion debate https://apnews.com/article/abortion-indiana-indianapolis-legislature-7d8156d89fd19290d0f72fc08b8e43f1 Indiana’s Republican legislators didn’t pay a political price for enacting a state abortion ban despite Democrats trying to capitalize on anger among voters who support women’s right to choose. Tuesday’s election results show that Republicans will maintain supermajority control of both the state House and Senate that they’ve held since 2013, giving them power to take action even without any Democrats present. Democrats failed to defeat any of the Republican lawmakers they had targeted in suburban Indianapolis, northwestern Indiana and the South Bend area where they made the GOP-supported abortion ban… Read more »
“6% points more Republicans” Did it bring out more actual Republicans or just fewer D’s came out to vote so the percentage for R’s looks even better? You noted before the election that D’s were demoralized and R’s were energized to vote. We just didn’t see that. Also, who cares about national turnout percentage. That’s the argument Dems used when Hillary lost. Who cares? It’s all about each individual state. The fact remains that we are sitting on record inflation, open borders, high gas prices, an unstable world, and energy prices are sky rocketing. That Republicans turned out as low… Read more »
“You do realize that around 70% of the country thinks abortion should be legal in some fashion?” I don’t care. This statistic means nothing to me, or anyone else who cares about abortion. Do you know what % of the country is against red light cameras? Yet, red light cameras exist. I could do the same for any number of issues. I’m not twisting myself in a pretzel. Republicans had turnout, they had %’ages, but it didn’t translate to wins, because it’s the same problem that D’s have in past elections when they win the popular vote but make little… Read more »
And I get your point that Bailey had republican positions that were offensive to IL Dems. But there is no longer any Republican position that isn’t offensive to democrats. Hardly any statewide office holders lost in this past election. Nationwide.
IL is officially a lost cause now, it’s not coming back, just as TN and FL aren’t ever coming back to the Dems either.
His abortion position was also offensive to independents. His Highland Park shooter comments were also offensive to most people. If you don’t care what 70% of the electorate wants then don’t get upset when all your neighbors vote differently than you. You’re not losing elections because they are stolen but because the majority of the electorate doesn’t agree with you.
Yet, across the country, Republicans scored major victories in TX, FL, NY, TN and on and on.
What’s left of the electorate in IL doesn’t agree with republicanism. That’s OK. Nationally, the state has been written off and we are a laughing stock to half the country.
If it’s written off then quit complaining about it. Just accept it for what it is while you live here or move out. If you really believe there is no hope then why spend another second thinking about it? Let alone discussing future strategies. Your logic makes zero sense.
I love the new VBM strategy you are touting. Now you’ll just need to convince the low intelligence election fraud crowd that permeates throughout the party, that voting by mail is good. So many of these wackos think that if they voted early their ballot wouldn’t count. It’s hard to corral all the crazies in the party but good luck.
Also, I’m not suggesting the national GOP change its stance on abortion but I do expect that the party understands that candidates in deep blue states will need to more align with mainstream society.
In order for the republicans to make big strides in Illinois, they would have to crack the Cook county democratic way of appealing to voters. At the same time they would have to ramp-up the fund-raising, which includes big business and having candidates with deep pockets. Cook county is and always has been the problem for republicans. The election results for anything statewide typically shows that.
Maybe don’t call their home a hell hole? Maybe don’t argue that you want to secede away from Chicago? Why would anyone believe you have their best interest when you always complain that all the problems in the state stem from Chicago. People tend to not vote for someone that they feel is an outsider. Moving to a luxury apartment for the last two months of the election won’t fool the electorate.
R’s need to start minimizing their losses. You can’t do that when you constantly put down the city and the people that choose to live there. Politics 101.
Bailey performed roughly the same as every other R candidate in Cook County, from what I’ve heard. Calling it a hellhole didn’t really affect him. Rauner lived in Chicago and it didn’t affect him either. The reality is, Surprise! Chicago Democrats don’t vote Republican. And Indiana Republicans don’t vote for Democrats! It’s game over at this point. However, the silver lining is that WI is about to turn red as people continue to flee Illinois. Sure, the statewide offices *just barely* went blue, but R-Ron Johnson won again, and the R dominated legislature gained seats, and is just short of… Read more »
Your point that it “didn’t really affect him” is one of the dumbest defenses of the his statement. If Republicans want to win elections they need to win in the suburbs and minimize losses in the city. Do you think it actually helped him? If not then why say it? Your excuse that he really didn’t do worse than Rauner also isn’t true. When Rauner won he got 33% of the vote in cook. When he lost it was only 24%. Even in Rauner’s loss he got 426k votes. How many did Bailey get this time? 325k? You continue with… Read more »
I get what you’re saying. Bailey is unpopular in Chicago/Cook because he’s Trump acolyte. This is true. But no Republicans will likely ever win in Cook County again regardless of their message. You also keep repeating that the Republican message is unpopular. Yet the facts on the ground don’t support this. I’ve showed you popular vote totals around the country showing R’s won the popular vote, by a lot. I’ve showed you states, our neighbors too, that had clean sweeps by Republicans, and in WI where R’s lost, it was only by the smallest of margins. I’ve shown you data… Read more »
You keep repeating that the Republicans did well. They didn’t. Running up the score in a few states may make it look better nationally but they had a horrible election where it counts. Stop with the Hilliary Clinton style of thinking that national totals mean anything. They don’t
I have to admit your post has considerable merit. There is a fix/solution to the dilemma though and it is called the primary elections. I do often hear complaints regarding the general election candidate choices that, interestingly enough, come from many that did not vote in the primaries. I hear so often failure in math and reading education in the schools and here is another…the Illinois Constitution or Civics classes high schoolers are supposed to take.