My Blog

Category: Politics

  • The Rahm Situation, Part II: The Sword

    He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
    — Matthew 26:52

    Surely it is folly to suggest that Rahm is getting any less than he fully deserves.  When you live your life in politics and have so playfully toyed with so many peoples lives as he has, things just have a way a catching up to ya.  There is such a thing as karma.

    Obama got elected to his first office in Illinois by knocking his opponents off the ballot.  When Obama and Rahm entered the White House they had no interest in working with anyone in any party on any issue.  The quote was something like, “We won, they lost.”  So much for being a team player.

    I guess the issue is that no one should feel bad for Rahm.  He’s a big boy and knew what he was getting himself into.

    There’s letters seal’d, and my two schoolfellows,
    Whom I will trust as I will adders fang’d—
    They bear the mandate, they must sweep my way
    And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;

    For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
    Hoist with his own petard, an’t shall go hard
    But I will delve one yard below their mines
    And blow them at the moon.
    — Hamlet

    More than once Rahm fancied himself Claudius the King.  Is it not just fitting that the game he has played so well for years has handed him this moment?

    I don’t know how it’s going to end; only the Illinois Supremes do.  But Rahm is an excellent politician.  This little set-back will not knock him out of the game.  It can only delay his entry.

  • The Rahm Situation, Part I: Enforce the Law

    The surest way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.
    — Abraham Lincoln

    While editorial boards, talking heads, and policy wonks from near and far are condemning the recent Appellate Court decision removing Rahm from the ballot based on emotion, there has been little discussion in the media as to what the law actually says.

    It’s time we acknowledge, our city and state governments have passed a lot (a LOT) of poorly worded, half-baked laws.  As someone who’s read a few laws in their day I can tell you that many of our laws as so poorly written that even our best judges struggle to figure out what the law really is.  This leads to more appeals and costs everyone money.

    I read both the majority opinion and the decent of the Appellate Court.  Then I reviewed the actual code.  In the end, I believe the Appellate Court got it right.  There are two requirements to run for office in this city and one of them is residency.  As John Kass wrote his headline today, “The law, at least, doesn’t care who sent ya.”

    Further, I’m against judicial activism.  I believe judges should rule as the law “is” and not what they think the law “should be.”  We should follow Lincoln’s advice and strictly enforce the law as it is written.  And then, we should change the law, so that we don’t have this problem again.

  • Wall Street Partying in Davos, We Suffer

    I realize this is not a local issue but I can’t help myself:

    JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s profits last year were the highest in the bank’s history, and Citigroup Inc. returned money to the U.S. Treasury and reported its first full- year profit since 2007.  Governments have so far opted against breaking up or levying extra taxes on banks deemed too big to fail, and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets global financial-regulatory guidelines, isn’t requiring lenders to meet new capital standards until 2015.

    (Full story here.)

    Does anyone remember “to big to fail”?  So ya’think those “to big to fail” companies are bigger or smaller today than they were back in 2008?

    They’re all BIGGER!!

    So what are we doing about it?  Nothing.  Nothing at all.  Those “to big to fail” are making record profits while the rest of the country pinches pennies and struggles with massive unemployment and sliding home values.

    You and I, the taxpayer, have been sold a bill-of-goods, a bridge to nowhere.  We, our children, and our grandchildren will have to suffer the effects of our tax dollars going to bail-out these bankers for years to come.  But now they party in Davos likes it’s the 1980’s.

    Something is wrong here.  Very, very wrong.

  • Bankruptcy an Option

    From yesterday’s NYT:

    Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.  …

    Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court.  …

    But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.

    (Full story here.)

    I said that bankruptcy should be an option in my response to the Chicago Tribune’s Ed. Board.  No one else but this on the table.

    More and more people are realizing that cities and states are under-water and that something must be done.  Bad management led to the collapse of GM.  Similar bad management has led to the collapse of Chicago and Illinois.  Why can’t we seek a similar remedy?

    It’s not going to be pretty; but neither is falling off the cliff like Detroit.

  • Big Tax Hikes Result in Less Revenue

    Last year, voters in Oregon voted to raise taxes on the highest income earners in the state, giving Oregon the highest tax rates of any state in the nation. It hasn’t worked out too well for Oregonians, according to the Wall Street Journal:

    In 2009 the state legislature raised the tax rate to 10.8% on joint-filer income of between $250,000 and $500,000, and to 11% on income above $500,000.  …

    Congratulations. Instead of $180 million collected last year from the new tax, the state received $130 million. …

    One reason revenues are so low is that about one-quarter of the rich tax filers seem to have gone missing. The state expected 38,000 Oregonians to pay the higher tax, but only 28,000 did.

    (Full story here.)  Hat tip to SCC for the story.

    As Homer Simpson says, Doh!

    Again, I’ve written about this here and here.  People simply leave.  Those who do not understand the Laffer Curve will perish from it.

    And note, this does not happen with a bang.  This happens slowly, quietly, over time.  One middle class family moves to Evanston, then one to Riverside, and another to Elmhurst.  Pretty soon10% of the people paying the bills have left.  Those first on the bus get to pick the best seats.  The rest have a real problem.

    But we can stop this.  We just need to say “Enough!”

  • Wisconsin ‘Open for Business’

    Wisconsin is open for business. In these challenging economic times while Illinois is raising taxes, we are lowering them. On my first day in office I called a special session of the legislature, not in order to raise taxes, but to open Wisconsin for business. Already the legislature is taking up bills to provide tax relief to small businesses, to create a job-friendly legal environment, to lessen the regulations that stifle growth and to expand tax credits for companies that relocate here and grow here. Years ago Wisconsin had a tourism advertising campaign targeted to Illinois with the motto, ‘Escape to Wisconsin.’ Today we renew that call to Illinois businesses, ‘Escape to Wisconsin.’ You are welcome here. Our talented workforce stands ready to help you grow and prosper.

    —  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

    (Full story here.)

    Wow!  Thanks to the trifecta of stupidity known as Quinn, Madigan, and Cullerton we can begin to shed even more jobs from Illinois.

    Of course, we can’t really blame Quinn, he ran on the platform of raising taxes.  So it says more about us (and by us I mean the people, not including myself, who voted for him) than it does about him.

    Despite the fact that the state voted these people into office, we really, honestly, deserve better than this.

  • Illinois’ $13 Billion Deficit Took Years to Produce

    The legislative session that began today as the House convened will take aim at a budget deficit of at least $13 billion, including a backlog of more than $6 billion in unpaid bills and almost $4 billion in missed payments to underfunded state pensions.

    The fiscal mess is largely of the lawmakers’ own making, and failure to address the shortages threatens public schools, local governments and other public services, said Dan Hynes, the state’s outgoing comptroller.

    “We’ve reached a very critical and concerning point,” Hynes said in an interview in his Chicago office, with packing boxes stacked in the corner. “What’s missing right now is a general understanding by the public of where we are, of how bad it is, and what the fallout would be if we don’t deal with it properly.”

    (Full story here.)

    Hey Dan, I agree with you.  But where have you been for the last four years?  Now that you’re out you’re going to claim that “lawmakers” are responsible?  Let’s just call them “politicians” because that’s what they are.

    The full story is worth reading.

    What the public may not appreciate, Wall Street does. Illinois shares with California the lowest U.S. state credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service, which in September forecast possible “further financial deterioration.” Unlike California, Moody’s assigned Illinois a negative outlook.

    Illinois’s deficit, about half its $26 billion general-fund budget, puts it among the U.S. states confronting $140 billion in shortfalls in the coming fiscal year after closing $160 billion in gaps this year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group.

    In other words, we’re in real trouble.  Sufficient trouble that people in the know, like maybe the State’s comptroller, should have been screaming bloody murder years ago.

    Hynes’ puffing now is just too little too late if you asked me.

  • Yes Virgina, People Flee High Taxes

    The results of the 2010 Census are coming in and show:

    First, the great engine of growth in America is not the Northeast Megalopolis, which was growing faster than average in the mid-20th century, or California, which grew lustily in the succeeding half-century. It is Texas.

    Its population grew 21 percent in the past decade, from nearly 21 million to more than 25 million. That was more rapid growth than in any states except for four much smaller ones (Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho).

    Texas’ diversified economy, business-friendly regulations and low taxes have attracted not only immigrants but substantial inflow from the other 49 states. As a result, the 2010 reapportionment gives Texas four additional House seats. In contrast, California gets no new House seats, for the first time since it was admitted to the Union in 1850.

    There’s a similar lesson in the fact that Florida gains two seats in the reapportionment and New York loses two.

    This leads to a second point, which is that growth tends to be stronger where taxes are lower. Seven of the nine states that do not levy an income tax grew faster than the national average. The other two, South Dakota and New Hampshire, had the fastest growth in their regions, the Midwest and New England.

    Altogether, 35 percent of the nation’s total population growth occurred in these nine non-taxing states, which accounted for just 19 percent of total population at the beginning of the decade.

    (Full story here.)

    You cannot tax your way to growth and prosperity.  People will (a/k/a already have and continue to) leave high tax areas like New York, Massachusetts, California, and Illinois for low taxes places like Texas, Nevada, and Florida.  High debt plus high taxes means the loss of the middle class, jobs, and everything a city (or state) needs to survive.  In Chicago we have the trifecta, debt, taxes, and corruption.

    We need real change and we need it now.

  • Meeks unsure who’s a “Minority”

    Mayoral challenger James Meeks scrambled Thursday to put out a political fire touched off by his suggestion that only African Americans should be eligible for city contracts set aside for minorities and women.

    (Full story here.)

    Of course the Reverend knows what a minority is.  It’s those who will vote for him.  No one else matters.

  • Aldcreature’s Son Get 100k+ job at Water

    The son of former Ald. Bernie Hansen 44th has been promoted to a $103,632-a-year job in the city’s Department of Water Management — six months after he was put on unpaid leave for a DUI arrest that stripped him of the driver’s license he needed to do his job.

    Paul Hansen was a $97,760-a-year assistant district superintendent in water management, the department at the center of the Hired Truck and city hiring scandals.

    (Full story here.)

    Had enough yet?