Democratic control of the United States Senate had barely seemed apparent at 11 p.m. last night. But Anne Caprera, Gov. JB Pritzker’s Chief of Staff, knew exactly what it meant and tweeted it out: The bailouts are coming.
With the presidency and both houses of Congress now in their control, nothing stands between American taxpayers and the insolvency of Illinois, Chicago and other failing states and cities (assuming Jon Ossoff holds his thin lead in the Georgia senate race).
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton promptly concurred. Their tweets are here:
It would be fine if bailout legislation were confined to compensation for lost revenue and costs of the pandemic, provided proper conditions were attached. But bailout efforts will likely go much further. We know that because they already tried last year.
They also will likely authorize the Federal Reserve Bank to throw unknown billions more toward bailouts. They almost succeeded with that last month when extension of the Fed’s lending power to states was initially included in the pandemic relief bill. The effort was thwarted thanks only to one diligent senator, Pat Toomey, who stalled the bill and blocked the effort.
Expect no strings to be attached.
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
If Puerto Rico becomes a state, does that mean Illinois can choose either bankruptcy or a bail-out?
It’s not like it’s something new at this point in time
I dont think the Dems will be able to do bailouts on the scale Illinois will need. Manchin from WV looks like he definitely wouldn’t support it. (He’s also on record stating he would vote against any attempt to pack the court or the Green New Deal.)
You may be right. But the way they attempted to deal with that in the oversized bailout bill they tried last year was to disproportionately favor states with Congressmen that might have been dissenters.
Everybody has a price. Especially in DC.
Ultimately I think that the self-interest of each politician is going to keep the system safe in this particular case. Because we live in a much more connected world, the politicians know that any bill like this is going to invite the wrath of their constituents, especially if they are from a “producer” state. Nobody is going to like seeing their money go to irresponsible states. There’s a huge sense of unfairness to it. Why would a politician from, say, Wisconsin, vote to bail out Illinois? The only way is if Wisconsin gets its piece of the pie. Yes, that… Read more »
“Ultimately I think that the self-interest of each politician is going to keep the system safe in this particular case.” You can not be serious. NDAA, patriot act, Iraq war just to name a few and you think the American subjects….oops, I mean “citizens” are going to keep this overstretched, near totalitarian/tyrannical thing called the federal government in check? Are you serious? The people are pissed. I’m a Ron Paul/Rothbard libertarian and I now support 4,000 dollar checks every month for citizens along with free college and free healthcare. If we have billions to give in foreign aide, we have… Read more »
Doug, only problem is that the people are going down with the ship, it should be all the politicians that started this shit.
I hear you, Doug, and I agree with a lot of what you said. I studied economics, so I know exactly how a lot of this turns out (badly). My point is that politicians are definitely concerned about themselves–not about the debt or destruction of the country. I think we can all agree on that? As such, we just had a situation yesterday where tens of thousands of people actually stormed the Capitol to get a point across. These same people, and millions more, are definitely more engaged now, due to the electronic flow of information, mostly social media. I… Read more »
So, what bs rationale does Pelosi /Schumer come up with to bailout a irresponsibly bankrupt illinois (and its +129,000 pension millionares) vrs a debt free Wisconsin?..that seems to be the next scam to perpetuate on the public..or maybe nobody will blink an eye, just “where’s mine”
Now we desperately need solutions. Here is a suggestion: taxpayers need to realize that Illinois corruption is a fact of life, and if we hope to survive we need to outbid the current market of corrupt bribery. Good news is, Illinois political industry sells itself cheaply. Illinois taxpayers would be better off financially to attempt to ‘outbid’ corrupt patronage/nepotism/no-bid-contracts traditional practices. Look at a case study, that of IDES. It takes in oceans of money by law, and when it is needed, to pay claims to valid contributors, it is swamped with fraud and procedurally incompetent to deal with valid… Read more »
As a former “internal” investigator in IDES, I can tell you internal fraud is a major problem. There is very little fraud prevention, and supervisors just look away.
Is there any practical solution for taxpayers?
Such as, civil litigation against fraudulent individuals, which might dissuade future fraud?
And I suspect the reason that no one there cares is because businesses pay for it all. They just jack our payroll tax rate up to meet their budget the following year and they’re all good.
I doubt they’d care if it was state budget money, either.
In a few days I’m going to move most of my 401k savings out of stocks probably go 80/20. I think we are on a big bubble.
I bought a big put late today.
The dems that run this state are JUST like the welfare dependent people they represent,their most famous quote…
“Yay,more FREE stuff “!!!!
The Marxist democrats have already told Breyer to get out. But senile pants crapper Ginsburg was allowed to sleep through oral arguments for years. They are totally out of control and must be stopped by any means necessary.
Yes , Illinois will be bailed out by the Federal government and the Fed. The good part of this is that taxes for Illinois residents will not go up as much as they would have w/o the bailout . Also , the $10K limitation on the deducting State and Local taxes will go away. That means Illinois homeowners like myself , will be able to deduct the full amount of our insanely high property taxes and reduce our Federal income taxes. The downside is the rest of the country will be paying for our bailout. So thank you very much… Read more »
Filthy, Filthy, Filthy, and fully debauched Illinois. When will you ever learn? What a sick mind it takes to think you can run your state fully into financial despair and bankruptcy by funding all the lazy workers and then end up demanding that the federal government bail you out time and time again. You are greed, evil and lost. Workers on jobs in state universities tell me they have enough work for maybe 3-4 hours a day. They end up having to find a hiding place to go and not be seen until end of day shift change because there… Read more »
In the 80’s I worked briefly as an IT contract computer programmer for CPS administration. Same thing literally every employee read the paper all morning at their desks, smoking, drinking coffee, shooting the bull. Contractors did all the real work. I doubt anything has changed. I had to train one Lady how to use some software, her fingernails were literally so long that she couldn’t use the keyboard, yet her job was to use a keyboard.
Amen on the fingernails
I made a comment a while back that mail-in-voting should be completely illegal, even if that meant some people who are too disabled to get to the polls don’t get to vote. 1 person criticized me for discriminating against the handicap. I don’t know if it was rigged but that’s not the point. The point is nobody knows, so you have to assume it was. A country cannot be democratic if the actual election process (verification) is severely broken. Anyone who says otherwise is either too ignorant to vote, or is complicit in voter fraud. And I would say the… Read more »
Hypothetically let’s say I manage a sixty unit apartment building. Every year about ten percent of the units change hands. I know which people have left the city/state. What’s to stop me from requesting/submitting a mail in ballot in their name. How is anyone going to find that out, and if they do how would they find out it was me. For those that say there’s no voter fraud I’ll say there is, there’s just none that you know about.
Blm now controls America.
I fully expect a Federal engorgement of debt like has never been seen before using the China virus as the excuse. My number – $5T created out of thin air. Gold and BTC will soar. The threat of negative rates will distort equity valuations even more – is 30X earnings the new norm on P/E? America is headed into unchartered waters – hope there isn’t a massive whirlpool ahead!!!
Much more to write about this, but one of my initial political takes is that the filibuster- a Senate institution for over 100 years – might have to go in order to enable this boondoggle.
There will be monumental change coming because of the elections last night.
And the Democrats don’t play nice. They will go for it all.
In the long run the Dems being in control for the next couple years may be a good thing for GOP. Remember what happened to Dem majority the last time they had full control. It didn’t last long.
Yet, as one famous center of right internet twitter pundit said:
Sometimes, the good guys don’t win, and your country goes full Bolshevik for 70 years.
That’s exactly what we are looking at how.
wishful thinking. the pop the filibuster, add states pack the senate kiss this country goodbye. There will be no need for a Republican party. Mittens ands the pretenders will just be show ponies. This is what happens when the Republicans failed to grow a spine.
“This is what happens when the Republicans failed to grow a spine.”
That’s part of the problem. The other part of the problem is immigration. Counties with more than 14% foreign born residents vote exclusively Democrat 9 out of 10 times. I’ve seen that stat a lot. The problem is that today’s post 1960+ immigrants, and their children, (other than a minority of hispanic voters) do not share the values of the Republican party. You can’t change their hearts, or their minds, or convince them otherwise. It’s over.
It’s a 51/50 vote on every issue. It’s going to be the Battle of the Bulge to get anything passed especially for R states with D senators up for reelection in 2022. No one wants to bail out Illinois. Durbin even warned IL about this. Any D who dreams of an IL bailout also has a severe case of TDS.
Good to see you back, debtsor. Did you take a break from it all?
I was wondering the same thing about debtsor when I saw him back him/her back in full force recently. Anyway, I agree with him. Why would a Dem pol in Georgia want to bail out Illinois? I expect there will be some relief, but it will just stall the inevitable, not prevent it.
I occasionally take breaks from the internet because yelling into the wind to affect change is futile. I often feel that my own complaining about IL government is basically the same as Trump haters with bad TDS yelling into the void that Trump is going to prison. It affects no change at all and no one cares, and at best, all you’re doing is commiserating with the small minority of like-minded folks. I’m looking at taking another extended break again soon, I can’t fathom the prospect of a Democrat controlled government at every level of my life, trying to cancel… Read more »
Wish I could offer some words of encouragement, but you also summed up how I felt. I assume you can’t leave Illinois yet (like I just did). Maybe some form of Fed gov help to Illinois will buy you and others a little more time to get out before things get too much worse.
Like I tell people, this state is actually a decent place to live for upper middle class residents. Housing prices are far more affordable than other comparable states (although taxes are high). My $400,000 home in Santa Clara, CA would be upwards of $1,000,000, or around $750,000 if it was picked up and moved to Long Island or suburban Boston. The 5% income tax rate is reasonable low compared to surrounding states. The schools in expensive areas are very good because the districts are hyperlocal and most of that RE tax dollars stays in the district. We have lots of… Read more »
Fear not, as the darkest hours are just before dawn. I would have preferred to have a split Congress, but it wasn’t to be. While the liberal media will crow loudly about this tremendous development, it won’t result in the sweeping change the Dems are looking for. What it will do is expose the fractures within that godforsaken party though. Biden is not a progressive, though I doubt he lasts long. The key is to leverage what happened in 2020 to steel our resolve, so that 2022 is a bloodbath for the House.
“:What it will do is expose the fractures within that godforsaken party though.”
I hope your right but I can see many such cases of 51-50 votes.
Agree. Good your back. Hope all is well.
I agree with debtsor. I think there will be a bailout-ish bill, but they’ll only be able to throw a little dirt into the gigantic hole that is Illinois debt. As much as I made noise about the gross pension bailout request from the Illinois contingent (see here: Illinois Asks for $10B(+) for Pensions — Most Disgusting COVID-19 Bailout Yet?), $10 billion really covers only one year’s worth of costs, if that. The official unfunded state pension debt is over $100 billion, and a realistically-measured pension obligation is much much larger. Congress will never be able to shovel enough money… Read more »
btw, Mark, I’ve grabbed this post and it will be the first one on my next public pensions post.
While I’m not happy with the current state of public finance, I live in Westchester County, NY, and I’m used to being unhappy about it. The bonus for me is I will have A LOT to write about over the next two years.
Ok, one magic question what is the damn solution to all this ! And if you have the magic solution move to Illinois and run for Governor.
Do we think Ayn Rand was prescient when she wrote Atlas Shrugged? The takers and the moochers have won. Sadly, if there was no fraud, the people of Georgia pulled the lever. Arguably, while I think we have just sealed the coffin on our nation, our values, and our future, we cannot begrudge these folks their vote. The outcome is catastrophic, but, in reality, we were already marching down the path to serfdom before the election. When almost half of your society is takers, the future can never look bright. Hey, maybe the play is to stay in Illinois as,… Read more »
Democrats foam at the mouth whenever they hear Ayn Rand.
That just means that she was over the target.
I have always thought she was a brilliant thinker, and her mastery of human nature is nothing short of remarkable.
I respectfully disagree. It may not be in her novels (depending on how you read them) but she expressly said she does not believe that charity is a virtue. And her views about objectivism (for example, she said she can objectively proove that cats are wonderful) is nutty to me (not that I don’t like cats). Most importantly, while her books are interpreted by many as an endorsement of self-reliance, which would be fine, they are read by others as an endorsement of selfishness, which is not. Greed is good — that’s the interpretation many have of her books, fair… Read more »
I read Atlas Shrugged as a college student and it was a slog to finish. It was one big long from tweetstorm. While in theory agreed with much of what she said, it would have been more engaging if it the book were 250 pages shorter. That’s the real problem with Ayn Rand.
Respectfully disagree, Mark. While I too found some of her nuggets to be just plain silly, that is the case with any other philosopher that I ever read. And of course she did not help her cause with the title “The Virtue of Selfishness”. But her basic premises I think are correct- that no one has a “right” to something that puts an obligation on someone else to provide it for him, that ivory tower philosophy ultimately has real world consequences, and that there is an objective reality that we must respect and doesn’t accede to our wishes. These ideas… Read more »
That interpretation of Rand would be fine if that’s as far as it went, but she’s further commonly interpreted to believe in social darwinism, which is why so many of us are repulsed. Heed the lesson of former House Speaker Paul Ryan. He initially often said that Rand inspired him into public service, and was such a fan that he gave out copies of her books to staff and friends. But public criticism was so widespread and intense that Ryan decided to make a shameless about face, disavowing her and claiming that his admiration was just an urban legend. Oh… Read more »
I hear you, but I still have to also disagree. I think her philosophy has been broadly misinterpreted and slandered, simply because it cuts at the heart of why collectivism fails. She is a “pragmatic” and her statements were more to the extreme — I believe — to test and prove that they work even under rare circumstances. This is just how philosophers argue. Mark, how many times has your writing been slandered and completely taken out of context to fit someone else’s agenda? Too many, and without your ability to respond then and there, you have to either accept… Read more »
Thanks, it’s a worthwhile debate and not boring.
Just re-read Atlas Shrugged a few months ago. I had forgotten all but the most basic plot. Even in 1957, she correctly attributed what led to the ultimate downfall- the State Science Institute and govenment scientists. Dr. Fauci anyone?