Monday, June 2, 2008 11:16 PM CDT
COLUMN: Righter, Rose, Flider must be 'rebuked' for opposing pay hike and demanding state budget be balanced
By HARRY REYNOLDS, Editorial Page Editor
hreynolds@jg-tc.com
Members of the Illinois General Assembly wear rags, stand in soup lines, drive old jalopies — even hunt with tin cups on street corners. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has it a little better; he shuttles between Springfield and Chicago in a World War I plane and secretly works in a McDonald’s restaurant.
I’m tired of newspaper readers constantly complaining about the fact Blagojevich and the poor devils in the legislature don’t get anything done. That’s not true. Why don’t you all shut up, fill your luxury cars and trucks, stuff your bellies at the finest restaurants, crank up those air conditioners and hold benefits to help Ameren pay its bills?
The fine folks in Springfield tossed together a $59-billion budget shortly before running for the exits. You may think they should have done something realistic — like tackling the state’s huge deficit head-on. That would have been irresponsible.
The venerated Springfield lawmakers and governor (who uses a map to find the way to his office) didn’t want to leave. They wanted to do a budget-busting budget, but a Force 5 tornado was heading right for the General Assembly.
According to one of my inside sources, legislators were last seen screaming in terror as they poured into the streets. Many of them barefoot because they cannot afford Chinese-manufactured shoes.
Old ladies crumbled beneath the onslaught, many dogs were trampled. Some cats lost a life or two. My source said his heart went out to the lawmakers. Where, he wondered, would they go?
Some good news came out of the legislature. The state may delay payment of Medicaid bills, which means some doctors will probably quit seeing Medicaid patients. And that’s a good thing. The poor have it too good.
Nothing like children going without medical treatment. It toughens them. The little moochers need to find jobs. If our lawmakers and Blagojevich really wanted to help them out, they’d come up with the money to send the tykes to sweat factories in third-world countries to work 12-hour days, seven days a week for pennies.
Don’t feel sorry for doctors. Occasionally, people with zits sue them. Physicians enjoy watching their malpractice insurance soar in the wake of multi-million dollar settlements, but that doesn’t compare to the warm, fuzzy feeling they get when they have to slam the door on the poor.
Doctors can feed their families; they get to wear white coats. Some of them can even afford ties.
Fortunately, the tornado was responsible for inaction on legislation to fund construction of new roads, bridges and schools. If we’re lucky, the state won’t have enough to repair existing roads. We don’t really need them anyway.
Mechanics and body shops need the work. Nothing like watching a car owner pull into the shop. You should be thrilled watching the vehicle you paid thousands for being reduced to a pile of junk in a few short years.
With gasoline hovering around $4 a gallon, motorists should be calling oil company executives (who barely make enough to buy their daily bread) to congratulate them for Big Oil’s record profits.
The $59-billion behemoth, red-ink spilling, poverty-inducing Illinois state budget is a credit to our legislators. They’ve worked diligently for months to swamp government and empty constituents’ wallets.
You are probably unaware legislators don’t vote to raise their own salaries. An independent board does the job for them.
The board was created by the General Assembly after tight-fisted taxpayers began raising hell every time legislator voted for a pay raise.
If lawmakers don’t spurn the board’s decision, they have no choice but to take the extra money.
Really.
The Force 5 tornado denied lawmakers such an unselfish act — for the time.
Unrejected, their annual salary would increase from $65,353 to a mere $72,985. The boost is roughly 10 percent.
In this time of economic recession with gas, utility, and food prices soaring, would you begrudge the governor and hard-working legislators such a tiny increment? Are your hearts so hardened to the economic plight of the men and women who do their best to bankrupt the state?
How can taxpayers be so callous and cynical? Who among you would swap jobs with your legislator? Could you possibly afford to serve the people? Could you afford to give up your fine benefits in order to receive theirs?
And why should we reasonably expect state government to conduct business in a fiscally sound manner? Balancing the budget is no trifle. It requires time and the willingness to cut pork. It requires the guts to stand up against deficit spending.
These people cannot do it. And we should be applauding their failure instead of criticizing them. Why should we expect legislators and the governor to do what every household must do?
You ungrateful wretches!
Editor’s note: Republicans Sen. Dale Righter and Rep. Chapin Rose, and Democratic Rep. Bob Flider should be harshly rebuked for opposing a pay hike and demanding a balanced state budget
We didn’t elect them to act responsibly.
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Early Bird wrote on Jun 3, 2008 5:24 AM:
No Harry, some of us are well aware of how raises come about.
We don't need your comments about how we are unaware of how state government works. That is the kind of condescending comment I have come to expect from you.
They set that automatic raise mechanism in for a reason. How wonderful for them to get a 10% raise when so many people are suffering with the high cost of gasoline and food.
I did get a chuckle from your little synchophantic comment that you closed your inane, as usual, editorial with.
I have never understood why small town city editors such as yourself feel the need to butter up our local politicians.
Perhaps you could let us know the reason for that sometime, Harry. "