Why is Democracy for America Chicago doing the the Flobeejevich’s dirty work for him?
Here’s the message from the Illinois for Dean listserv:
To the people of Illinois:
When I was elected Governor, I made a promise to the working people
of Illinois that I would fight to protect those things that are most
important to them and their families ? their health, their safety,
and the future of their children.
Back in February, I presented the General Assembly with a balanced
budget for the coming fiscal year. My budget will invest $600
million more in health care for working families, seniors and
children. My budget will invest $400 million more in the education
of our children. My budget will send 8,000 at-risk children to pre-
school. My budget will give more money to state police and to
investigators to help keep the people of Illinois safe.
But now, with the state’s budget deadline looming in less than two
weeks, legislators are dragging their feet in hopes of forcing me to
accept a “no-growth” budget that will make 150,000 people lose their
healthcare and send schools across the state into a financial
quagmire.
I will not do that. I will not compromise my values, because they
are the values of the people who elected me. A no-growth budget is a
no-future budget, and I will not sign away the future of Illinois.
I am asking you to join me today as I fight for your values, your
families, and your state. Call 1-866-757-1032, and tell your state
representative that you want a state budget that is best for you and
your family. Let your representative know that you’re watching
what’s happening in Springfield, and that you expect your elected
leaders to represent your interests, do the right thing, and support
my budget.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Rod R. Blagojevich
Governor
What the good Governor fails to mention while invoking Howard Dean is that his budget puts the pain on future generations. This is a man who wants to mortgage the future of the State of Illinois on the backs of future taxpayers. Why? Because he can claim that he held the line on taxes—which is BS too if you look at the fee increases this clown has suggested.
Governor Dean was attractive to me because he made a very coherent argument–that to have social justice you must first have fiscal responsibility. You cannot spend money now that you do not have and hope to create a sustainable budget. It will backfire eventually.
The Flowbeejevich has suggested a program of borrowing to pay for current operations. Borrowing is an important tool for government when it is making long term investments such as roads or school construction, but a horrible idea when paying for current operations. After all, what do you do when you can’t borrow anymore? You cut operations because you can’t cut debt payments.
If the good Flowbeejevich had, say, taken on a really hard issue like school finance reform for rural schools, I might give him a little slack. Instead, he has avoided hard issues and tried to demagogue on a few small ones and now he is trying to sound like a reformer. He isn’t reforming anything. He is trying to “run business as usual” TM by borrowing from taxpayers of the future to make his administration look good to taxpayers of today.
There is another example of this kind of irresponsibility and it is Schwarzenegger in California who has sold bonds to cover current state expenditures.
Of course, last year the Flowbeejevich tried to make the budget work by a series of one-time financial changes. The problem again is how do you cover the structural costs you are hiding in a current budget the next year? Maybe you can do it for three or four years, but ultimately the bills come due.
So call your State Lege Members and tell them to back a budget that doesn’t operate under smoke and mirrors. A no-growth budget isn’t perfect, but it certainly leaves us in a position to address problems in the future. Either we deal with structual problems now or later. If later, those programs he claims to be defending today will suffer tomorrow.
ArchPundit