Ill. Policy Institute: 33%!

March 11, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Free Trade, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Illinois Policy Institute, Illinois State Government, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

The Tax Drumbeat Begins
There’s no debate that Illinois is a financial disaster—and in yesterday’s state budget address, Governor Pat Quinn proposed his preferred solution: a 33% income tax increase, plus increased spending. Institute CEO John Tillman appeared on Chicago Tonight to talk about Springfield’s real problems—and solutions that don’t involve emptying taxpayers’ pockets.
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Bean Set to Vote Interests of Trial Lawyers Over Interest of Constituents

March 11, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Campaign Finance, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Joe Walsh, Melissa Bean, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

From the Walsh for Congress campaign…

(LAKE ZURICH, IL)– With the Obamacare legislation nearing a vote, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-8) remains intent on representing the special interests that control her political party as opposed to voting the interests of 8th district families.

Bean, who received more than $31,000 in campaign contributions from trial lawyers during her 2008 re-election campaign, is set to vote for a federal government takeover of health care that, among other things, fails to meaningfully address increasing health care costs directly attributable to frivolous lawsuits and excessive jury awards.
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Unions Top the $1 Billion Club in California Political Spending

March 11, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, California, Campaign Finance, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Lobbyists, Media, Media Bias, Pensions, Public Employees Unions, SEIU, Senate, Socialism, State Government, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The California Teachers Association spent $211,849,298 on lobbying and political spending to get its way in California in 2009. Along with the CTA, the Calif. State Council of Service Employees and 13 other organizations spent a total of one billion dollars on political lobbying of the State House at Sacramento. All of these special interests have helped push California to the brink of insolvency.

But, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the two unions mentioned above far and away top the spending of the other top lobbying spenders in California. The next closest in spending was the Big Pharma clocking in at $104,912,997 on its political spending with various and sundry Indian casino groups whose spending was in the less than $85,000,000 range.

Commission Chairman Ross Johnson said in a press release, “This tsunami of special interest spending drowns out the voices of average voters and intimidates political opponents and elected officials alike.”
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Expert Testimony

March 11, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Government, Corruption, History, Inernet, John Armor, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Net Neutrality, Taxes, Technology | No Comments

-By John Armor

Before we get rolling, a pet peeve. Entirely too many reporters are too lazy to check their quotes. Time and again, they will say in their lede that “some wag referred to lies, damned lies, and statistics.” No, no, no. That was not “some wag;” that was the greatest of all American humorists, Mark Twain.

Twain’s Autobiography attributes the quote to the quick-witted British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disreali. But Disraeli’s biographers can find no trace of it. Apparently, Twain attributed it to someone else who was conveniently dead, to fend off attacks for using that shameful word, “damned,”

I’ve modified the Twain quote to apply to recent hearings before the Federal Communications Commission. I’ve testified before a handful of federal hearings. I’ve attended dozens of such hearings. And I’ve never heard more lying, by more people, not even from sitting through an entire day of traffic court and hearing the infinite reasons why each particular motorist was not guilty.
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Truth in Accounting: Governor - You Can’t Balance Illinois’ Budget By Borrowing Money

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Liberals, Pat Quinn, State Government, Taxes, Truth in Accounting, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

From Truth in Accounting…

Institute for Truth in Accounting Issues Guide to Honest Budgeting

March 11, 2010 — To help citizens determine if Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget is truly balanced the Institute for Truth in Accounting has published “Are We Unbalanced? - A Guide to Reviewing Governments’ Budgets”.
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Just One More Scam

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Chicago, Dan Scott, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Taxes, Vote Fraud | No Comments

-By Dan Scott

While reading an article on low tax Texas vs. high tax California, it reminded me of the quickly dropped issue of the US Census. Last year’s scandal revolved around President Obama making some of his White House flunkies overseers of the Census.  We all understood the implications of a highly partisan administration attempting to influence the outcome of the count.  That being some states will be winners and others losers when it comes to the House of Representatives, along with federal funding.  Given the predilections of this politician, padding the count is the Chicago way.

I would like to draw everyone’s attention back to something we have lost sight of regarding the Census.  The counting that is done is without respect to citizenship.  When the Founding Fathers wrote the provision of the Census into the Constitution, the intent was to count people who were current citizens or becoming citizens by virtue of choice, i.e. voting with their feet to live here.  In today’s environment, we have some 13 to 20 million people illegally residing within the borders of our country who for the most part are economic sojourners with little desire for the responsibilities that come with citizenship.  Furthermore, most of these people are here due to the incompetence of our government in securing the borders and to add insult to injury recently those (DHS) who enforce the laws have intentionally turned a blind eye to their presence.  In all cases, local political officials have misused their positions of power to attract as many of these people as possible by refusing to and in most cases obstructing the enforcement of the law.
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Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Bill Brady, Budget, Chicago, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Government, Ill. County, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Liberals, Pat Brady, Republicans, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In his budget speech, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a one percent hike in the state income tax in order to”restore our education budget to current levels.” A one percent increase is like a 33% increase if the tax goes from a flat tax of 3% to one of 4%.

In his speech (beginning on page 10) Quinn addresses the education budget. Sadly, Quinn’s proposal does nothing to address why the problem has arisen in the first place.

Quinn asks for no necessary cuts, he asks for no union concessions, he makes no effort to tighten our education belt in Illinois. Quinn should be slashing the unnecessarily lavish benefits that teachers unions force out of the state, hundreds of useless administrators should be fired and their positions eliminated. The whole education establishment needs to be assessed for it excess. Those imagining that the “fix” is just to pump more money into these failing schools are fooling themselves.

But Quinn is doing nothing but treading water with the state’s education establishment when he should be demanding a bottom to top review of the waste of public education in Illinois.
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How will Bean Vote for The American Death Panel?

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Chicago, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, House of Representatives, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Joe Walsh, Melissa Bean, Republicans, State Government, Taxes, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

From the Palatine Tea Party…

(Palatine, Illinois) March 10, 2010 - We the People reject this government takeover of 1/6th of our United States economy to government run healthcare which Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are proposing. The government can not run anything successfully without running deficits. Saying the healthcare bill is deficit neutral is nonsense and the American people know it. Does Bean know the will of the people which live in her district and knows what is best for our families? If so, how was it measured and by whom?
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A Vote for Melissa Bean Will Cost You $3,900

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Joe Walsh, Liberals, Melissa Bean, Republicans, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

From the Walsh for Congress campaign…

(LAKE ZURICH, IL)– Rep. Melissa Bean’s stubborn refusal to reject the federal government takeover of our health care system will cost the average 8th district resident $3,900, so says a study on the proposed Obamacare legislation by the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI). IPI Study
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Walmart’s Barbie Price is Raaaacist

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, Government, Liberals, Race, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Race hustlers, hate peddlers and “critics” strike again with their wolf-crying about raaaacism. This time it’s that eeevil Walmart (again) that is raaaacist because one of its stores marked down the black Barbie doll to $3.00 while the white Barbie doll was still being sold at $5.95. See? It’s raaaacist!

ABC claims it found some “critics” that charge Walmart for not being “sensitive” in its pricing strategies. For its part Walmart says that the store in question was trying to thin out inventory for the upcoming Spring restocking.

But… can’t you see that it’s raaaacist, asks ABC and its carefully sought out “critics”? Here is the race hustler and agitation pimp that ABC dredged up to point fingers at that eeeevil raaaacist Walmart.
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Liebau on Unions: ‘The System is Unsustainable’

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, California, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Jobs, Liberals, Media, Pensions, Public Employees Unions, Socialism, State Government, Taxes, Teachers Unions, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Carol Platt Liebau posted a piece on RealCleaPolitics.com that also clangs the warning bells over the unsustainable situation that the various states find themselves in between their public employees unions and the states’ fiscal obligations. She focuses on California, but nearly every state in the union is quickly approaching the mess California is in.

Liebau writes of the effort that the teachers union in California led to get kids as young as five-years-old out of school so that they could be bussed to the state capitol in Sacramento in order to protest school budget cuts. Me, I think she races by this outrage too quickly.
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150 Convicted County Officials in Obama’s Chicagoland Area

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Chicago, Crime, Economy/Finances, Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Better Government Association (www.bettergov.org/), a beleaguered Chicago-based watchdog group that has its work cut out for it, recently released its “Hall of Shame” report that details the nearly 150 county officials that have gone to jail for corruption in Barack Obama’s home county of Cook. And that doesn’t even include the over 100 Chicago officials, a city also situated in Cook County, that has also gone to jail over the last few decades.

Because of the high amount of corruption and the large and ever growing roster of jailed county officials, in its press release, the BGA bitingly asks, “[I]s it any surprise this multi-billion dollar labyrinth of governmental entities is referred to disparagingly as ‘Crook County?’”

The scams took place over the past four decades in the courts; the offices of the Assessor, Sheriff and Treasurer; and the President’s Office of Employment and Training. They involve bribes, payoffs, rip-offs, padded contracts, ghost payrollers and the wholesale subversion of the judicial system. The perpetrators include elected officials at the highest and lowest levels of city, county and state government; judges, lawyers and lobbyists.

Sadly, the BGA finds that the corruption in Cook County government is widespread and “not confined to a single unit of government.” This corruption was found in such departments as the Cook County Board President’s office, the employment offices, the highway department, the sheriff’s offices, the assessor and the treasurer’s offices as well as the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In fact, the BGA found that corruption is endemic throughout the government and no one ever seems to be held accountable.
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8th District, Joe Walsh to Bean: Learn from Lipinski and vote NO

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Campaign Finance, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Joe Walsh, Liberals, Melissa Bean, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

From the Walsh for congress campaign…

(LAKE ZURICH, IL)– Today, Republican Congressional nominee Joe Walsh called on his opponent, three-term incumbent Melissa Bean, to learn from her Illinois Democrat colleague Dan Lipinski and vote “NO” on Obamacare.

Illinois U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, a Democrat who represents the 3rd district, has joined the ranks of other Congressional Democrats displaying the courage to vote with their conscience– not their party.
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How Quick the Message Fades

March 10, 2010 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Frank Salvato

It is stunning to find out that there are still some elected officials in Washington DC – especially on the Right side of the aisle – who don’t fully understand the message being sent by the American citizenry regarding their grotesque spending addiction. No, I’m not talking about earmarks or pork barrel spending, which in and of themselves should be egregious enough to warrant defeat in the next election. I am referring to how US Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) was thrown under the bus when he demanded that his fellow Senators actually allocate existing funds for a program they wanted to implement.

As reported by Fox News:

“Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning had been holding up action for days but conceded after pressure intensified with Monday’s cutoff of road funding and extended unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless.

“Bunning wanted to force Democrats to find ways to finance the bill so that it wouldn’t add to the deficit, but his move sparked a political tempest that subjected Republicans to withering media coverage and cost the party politically. Bunning’s support among Republicans was dwindling, while Democrats used to being on the defensive over healthcare and the deficit seemed to relish the battle.”

In other words, Bunning was trying to do what the American people are demanding – that government be fiscally responsible; that government stop adding to the deficit; that Congress stop spending borrowed money – and the Congressional Republicans threw him under the bus, frightened of how supporting his effort would “appear.”

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Dear America, Admit That You’re Stupid! Love, Nancy

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Communism, Congress, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Liberals, Nancy Pelosi, President, Senate, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The founding fathers debated bills for weeks. They then wrote them, referred them to committee’s of style and prose, brought them back to the floor, debated them again, wrote newspaper articles about them, went home to their districts to discuss them, and finally passed them — or not — after much deliberation.

Today’s Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wants us to just pass a bill so that later we can “find out what is in it.”

Here’s what the zombie from San Francisco said about Obamacare today:

“You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention–it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

Why can’t we know what’s in the bill before you pass it, Nancy? Or are you afraid that once people find out the horrors contained in this abortion of a bill they might not want it passed? In fact by nearly every accounting the American people don’t want this communist take over of one-sixth of the economy to proceed.

Of course, communists and socialists don’t care what the people have to say about anything. They, after all, know best, right? That’s why Nancy and her coven in D.C. just want us to shut up and let them pass this witch’s brew.

So let this Congress lumber forward like the living dead to pass a bill that will materially alter the relationship that citizen has to government in these great United States. Let Nancy “Fright Night” Pelosi destroy the United States as we know it…

On second thought, let’s not. Call your Congressman and Senator today and tell them you do not want this destructive bill passed in your name.
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‘Restoring’ Unions ‘Right’ to Bargain Collectively

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, EFCA, Economy/Finances, Free Trade, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Lobbyists, President, Senate, Socialism, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago union advocate Stewart Acuff penned a piece for the Huffington website that was filled with soaring rhetoric about unions “creating the middle class” and pleading for voters to pressure Congress to pass the absurdly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). He claimed that this piece of… legislation would “restore the right to form unions and bargain collectively.”

Despite Acuff’s urgent pleading, however, he misses an elephant in the room. No one has taken anyone’s “right to collectively bargain” away from them. Of course that wasn’t the only thing that Acuff was factually incorrect about.

Why is it that union folks have to lie about everything, anyway?

Acuff starts out with a whopper.
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A Mess of a Column, Cuz News papers are Raaaacist

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Capitalism, Chicago, Illinois, Media, Newspapers, Race, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Laura Washington laments the degraded state of American newspapers. She says that “hard news” has been replaced by “fluff and titillating trash.” Washington also cries that real news is an “endangered species.” But if newspaper writing has been laid low, Laura Washington’s column is an example of that wretched state as opposed to an example of the opposite as this is one of the messiest columns I’ve seen in a while. And naturally it’s all because of raaaacism according to Washington.

Washington starts her piece scolding the news media for missing the Scott Lee Cohen story. Cohen, the winning Democrat Lt. Gov. candidate, had a strange history of violence and prostitution that no media operative seemed to ferret out before Illinois Democrats nominated him in February’s primary. Washington also laments all the many job cuts in the media landscape.

Worse, according to Washington, is that the reporters that are left are “being diverted to cover meaningless fluff and titillating trash.”
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Roskam Calls for Incremental Health Reform Changes

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Chicago, Cook County, DuPage County, GOP, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Illinois, Peter Roskam, Republicans, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

Rep. Roskam participated in a live interview with WGN News’ Mark Suppelsa and discussed President Obama’s health reform proposal. Roskam urged the President to start over and work on a bill that focuses incrementally on cost as a way to increase access to health insurance.

From WGN Chicago, Channel 9

Google-AdMob: An FTC Antitrust Enforcement Watershed — Lessons from Google-DoubleClick & EU

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Free Trade, Google, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Scott Cleland, Technology | No Comments

-By Scott Cleland

Will the FTC strictly enforce antitrust laws in its review of Google’s AdMob acquisition? Google-Admob is a watershed decision for the FTC given that Google recently blew off the DOJ’s serious antitrust objections to the pending Google Book Settlement; The EU opened a preliminary investigation of antitrust complaints against Google from companies in the UK, France and Germany; and The DOJ had to play backstop to the FTC and block the Google-Yahoo Ad Agreement, less than a year after the FTC incorrectly assumed in their 4-1 approval of the Google-DoubleClick deal that Yahoo and others would provide sufficient competition to Google and Google acquiring DoubleClick would not “substantially lessen competition” or tip Google to a monopoly.

A recent New York Post article: “FTC inclined to approve Google’s acquisition of AdMob” states the deal “may just squeak by federal regulators.”

It’s pretty obvious the article’s source came from the Google camp and not the FTC, given the political nature of the source’s views: the FTC “will likely not rule until Obama nominees” are confirmed by the Senate, strongly implying that the:

Administration’s close political ties with Google would trump any career staff law enforcement findings of fact or the law and the lone FTC vote against the 4-1 Google-DoubleClick deal approval, Commissioner Jones-Harbor, will no longer be at the FTC.

Why is this Google spin on the FTC’s inclination likely false?
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Walsh to Bean on Health Care Vote: Vote Your District Not Your Party

March 8, 2010 | Filed Under Budget, Chicago, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Joe Walsh, Liberals, Melissa Bean, Republicans, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

From the Joe Walsh for Congress campaign…

(Lake Zurich, Illinois) - 8th District Republican congressional nominee Joe Walsh today called on his liberal Democrat opponent Rep. Melissa Bean to swallow her pride and vote “No” on the Obamacare federal takeover of health care legislation nearing a vote in the House.

“For the first time in a long time Melissa Bean needs to listen to her constituents and vote her district,” said Walsh. “A government takeover of health care is absolutely the wrong approach to fix what ails with health care in America- and 8th district voters know it. Melissa Bean was not elected to represent public sector unions and march in lockstep with her party. She was elected to represent the interests of 8th district families and support policies that speak to their very real economic insecurities. This legislation will worsen the quality of care we have access to and increase unemployment,” Walsh said.
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