C’Mon, Emil is the Voice of Fiscal Sanity
Illinois Senate President Emil Jones said Wednesday that if Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s budget cuts for social programs, health care and other statewide offices stand, the blame will fall squarely on the House led by Speaker Michael Madigan, a fellow Chicago Democrat.
The House voted to override those cuts, but Jones said the Senate will not do the same.
“We have to have a balanced budget,” Jones said. “I’m not going to get involved in playing silly games and giving false hopes to people when the money isn’t there. I support many of the programs that cut. But we in the Senate also supported the revenue to support the budget. That’s why we passed the revenue to support the budget in May. Now, if the House was genuinely sincere about passing those programs, then they in turn would pass the revenue to support it.”
Jones compared the House’s approval of the budget without enough revenue to support it to “check kiting.”
“The House is good at check kiting. Send them a big check, knowing dog-gone well the check is going to bounce. And that’s where we stand right now.”
And fund sweeps aren’t check kiting? Yeah.