-- 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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It’s getting worse for the Land of Lincoln!
Everyone I see moving has a young child and the reason they move out of Chicago, however they bring their bad politics with them.
In my local downstate elections I left many spots unvoted because there really was not hardly any difference between the Republicans or Democrats. In Illinois it seems, to me, they are simply one party and both candidates equally bad choices
If it was a vote against Musk, then it was a vote for never-ending fraud and waste, for millions of taxpayer$ going to insiders running “charities” and for under-worked, overpaid federal employees. Oh, and of course, the Dems favorite issue – abortion.
I’ve spoken to three political advisors who each pinned Tuesday’s election success of the left mainly on Trump and Musk. Especially that big election in WI — it was a vote against Musk. And I agree with Collin here that it’s mainly horrible messaging from Trump.
I’ve read some astute analysis of the WI race – and although I haven’t fact check it – they said that the R candidate had more votes any previous Democrat WI Supreme Court candidate in history. So from that perspective it was record turnout for Republicans in a non-presidental race. But the Democrat won the election by 270,000 votes. And surprise surprise, Democrats also had about 675,000 mail-in ballots or early voting ballots. The analysis suggested that Democrats won because of early voting and mail-in balloting. Not because voters switched their party votes because the R had the 2nd most… Read more »
Those three “political advisors” wouldn’t be part of the Illinois GOP, would they? The feckless IL GOP, the Washington Generals of politics, can’t craft, articulate, or sell a winning conservative message, so they deserve to lose. What “conservative” party would put up a leader like Jim Durkin, who is an anti-gun squish? Ditto John Curran, thanks to whom we have burdensome but otherwise useless gun dealer licensing and due process-violating red flag laws. Where was the IL GOP when the governor issued serial and unconstitutional executive orders trampling on civil rights during COVID? Being “nice” so as to not upset… Read more »
Yes, they are GOP political advisors. No argument with most of what you said, until your last paragraph above. Most Americans, 52% or so including me, support the general direction of DOGE and Trump on most things. But part of that 52%, including me, think DOGE has acted sloppily and don’t like all its means. To put this all another way, only about 35% of America is MAGA — those who tell pollsters they “strongly” approve of Trump/DOGE/Musk and all his methods. But Trump needs the additional 17% or so, at least, if he wants to maintain the support he… Read more »
Thanks for your reply. The issue is engagement or enthusiasm. Trump won all of the swing states because the national GOP was successful in activating inactive voters. They did that with a message that resonated among voters that were not part of the Ascella corridor mind hive. In a 50-50 political world, an engaging, well-articulated message will raise turn out significantly in these off-year elections. The other side gets out the vote because their paycheck depends on it. It’s unlikely they can do much to raise their turnout. The GOP, if it were doing its job, would be working to… Read more »
A weak opposition party is a feature, not a bug, of our one-party state. One look at the hapless Indiana Democrats is all you need to know about what happens when one party controls a state for decades. That’s why I don’t harp on the IL GOP too much. Yes, their leaders are feckless, and yes, we keep losing races. But this is no different than every opposition party in one-party states in the country. It’s been several decades since a one-party state flipped the other way. Nobody has quite figured out how to flip a state back the other… Read more »
No need to go soft just because our portfolios are all tanking, Mark. Republican = MAGA now and we the Trump voters are all-in whether we like it or not. The time for getting that extra 17% on board was 10 years ago.
Win the centrists or the radical left takes over again. Take your pick. And it’s mostly just a matter of language and messaging, not going soft.
Centrism is the most unprincipled political position in all, aiming to find a subjective center between the far-left nutjobs and MAGA. And every time the far-left goes even further left, the center moves further left too. MAGA beliefs have been around for decades and have stayed consistent. America First principles have been around with Pat Buccanan, Ron Paul, even Ross Perot espoused some America First principles. I understand that people are freaked out about tariffs and believe they are chaotic and came out of nowhere. But they did not. he’s been saying this for years, and for months, he even… Read more »
Hitch your wagon to the wrong star and you go down the black hole.
Democrats crawled over broken glass to vote early and often and by mail to make sure they didn’t lose to Republicans again by 30,000 votes like they did a few months back. The republican candidate had record number of votes.
It’s not the message that is the problem. It’s Democrats who always seem to win races using ballot dropboxes and mail in balloting…