My Tea Party Comments Still Ring True
As we approach Independence Day, the words I spoke in the below video at the April Tea Party in Lisle still ring truer than ever:
Joe Birkett at the Lisle Tea Party from Joe Birkett on Vimeo.
‘Doomsday’ and the State Payroll
As state legislators head back to Springfield amid Gov. Pat Quinn’s threats of “doomsday” and his ongoing campaign for tax hikes, they should take note of this excerpt from today’s Sun-Times editorial:
Quinn proposes adding 243 workers. His budget would increase payroll expenditures by $85 million to $3.9 billion, according to a federation analysis. In other words, while Illinois businesses are slashing payrolls, Quinn would increase the state’s.
As we’ve said before, Pat Quinn is using the threat of “social service” cuts to push for tax hikes — while doing little or nothing to cut political workers, waste, and pork in the state budget. Six years of Blagojevich mismagement — and Pat Quinn has decided to leave Blago’s budget largely in tact but pass the cost on to the taxpayers.
Legislators need to see through Quinn’s smokescreen, demand real reform, reject his tax hikes and, once and for all, manage a state budget that has grown out of control.
This is How We Make Change Happen
Last week, I had an exchange on Twitter with Pamela J. Harris of Willow Springs (@pam_harris on Twitter).
Pam has a child with developmental disabilities — and her family is in the cross-hairs of the unnecessary “doomsday” cuts that Governor Quinn is threatening in order to win approval for his massive tax increase.
Last Thursday, Pam sent me the following Tweet:
“Tell me what to do. How can I help IL do what is right?”
I suggested to Pam that she write a letter to her legislators, as well as to Governor Quinn.
She not only did that — she also forwarded her letter to the Chicago Sun-Times, which printed the letter in this morning’s edition.
This is exactly how we are going to take our state back: citizens like Pam making their voices heard in the media and directly to our legislators.
I urge you to follow Pam’s example by emailing your state legislators and Governor Quinn today.
Then, write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
Pam is one Illinois citizen who would be the target of Governor Quinn’s cuts. But she’s not buying the rhetoric — because she knows that Governor Quinn could alternatively make the choice to cut political workers, waste and pork instead of cutting services to her family.
The choice is Governor Quinn’s and your state legislators’. It’s up to you to make them do the right thing.
We Can Learn from Iran’s Heroes
As we speak, reformers in Iran are showing us what it means to treasure the right to vote and protest government . In the wake of questionable election results in which Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “re-elected” …. Iranian students and reformers have taken to the streets to protest.
Despite a media blackout, Iranian citizens are risking their lives to use online tools like You
Tube and Twitter to tell their story to the rest of the world. Some of these protesters have been beaten, jailed or killed for their efforts.
It is a stark reminder that we should never take for granted our right to vote – and that we should avoid becoming apathetic amid our distrust of the corruption-plagued government that has inflicted Illinois for the past six years.
It is a reminder that change in Illinois starts with you – not the politicians.
About a month ago, I asked you to submit your ideas for reforming Illinois – and the response was overwhelming. We received hundreds of ideas and thousands of votes.
Today, we ask you again to view this list, add your reform ideas and vote on the ideas you think most important to reforming our state:
We should never become apathetic about sharing our ideas, and we must always remember that the politicians and elected officials work for us — not the other way around.
Thank you for sharing your reform ideas, and for taking time out of your day to read this message.
Together, we can reform Illinois. We just need to keep on fighting the good fight.
Confirming What We Already Know
Newspapers across the state this morning are reporting on an audit of state government by Illinois Auditor General William Holland.
Bottom line, as the Chicago Tribune headline announces: “Audits Slap Ill. Agencies for Waste, Lax Oversight.”
Here are more specifics from that story:
State auditors released reports Thursday that found several cases of government mismanagement, from lax oversight of a $100,000 education grant to 52 missing computers that may contain sensitive information.
The cases are tiny pieces of the state’s nearly $60 billion budget, but they could provide leverage for critics who say government spending cuts are needed before tax hikes proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn are even considered.
This obviously confirms what we already know and what we’ve been saying for weeks: Gov. Quinn needs to cut the waste and bureaucracy in state government before cutting the paychecks of Illinois families with his massive tax cut.
But me saying it and newspapers across the state reporting it are two different things.
Will Governor Quinn be able to ignore this report as he continues his fear mongering campaign to promote his tax hikes?
Or will he succumb to the pressure to actually effectively manage the state budget and take bold steps to reform?
The choice is his — and will largely determine if he truly is a reformer and leader as he has declared since taking office a few months ago … or if he is simply continuing the legacy of his former running mate, Rod Blagojevich.
Shame On You, Governor Quinn
Last night, a friend (who is an early childhood therapist) forwarded me an email that is circulating among other therapists regarding the stopgap budget recently passed in Springfield.
The theme of the email is simple and urgent: to stop the proposed budget cuts for early childhood therapy.
This, unfortunately, is the dishonest choice that Governor Quinn has chosen to make in his campaign for massive Illinois tax increases.
Shame on you, Governor Quinn.
Let’s make one thing very clear: Pat Quinn and Illinois Democrats are the only ones making the choice between tax hikes and cuts to vital services.
They refuse to even discuss the possibility of cutting the massive state political bureaucracy created during six years of Rod Blagojevich.
As I wrote in our previous post, they choose to ignore the no-bid contracts, the corruption, the millions in waste, fraud and abuse that pads our huge state budget.
In fact, they are working to protect the special interests at the expense of Illinois workers, families and children.
Are we going to accept this? Or are we going to hold these politicians accountable for their continue failures in 2010?
How About We Force Government to ‘Sacrifice’?
As the Chicago Tribune reports today, Governor Quinn took his tax hike campaign to church today — preaching “the virtues of a balanced budget — and the sacrifices it would require — Sunday morning to a packed congregation at Chicago’s Apostolic Church of God.”
We’ve all seen this before — it’s a tactic out of the Obama-Stroger-Blagojevich playbook. Make the issue of taxes about class warfare. About rich vs. poor.
Ignore the no-bid contracts, the corruption, the millions in waste, fraud and abuse that pads our huge state budget.
Let’s not talk about starving state government and the politicians and special interests in Springfield. Let’s talk about starving the taxpayers.
Is this the “new kind of politics” we were promised last year?
We deserve better.
We deserve a government that takes less of our money and spends it wisely.
We deserve a government that gets out of the way of job creation and lets our employers prosper.
We deserve leadership that says “No” to the special interests so that government serves the taxpayers.
And we deserve a governor who, once and for all, rejects the Blagojevich politics of the last six years in favor of honest, effective leadership that restores integrity to the state of Illinois.
Help me spread the word so that the voters of Illinois are led through this smokescreen of class warfare and cheap political talking points and together, we can make change and real reform a reality at the polling booths next year.
WANTED: Honest and Effective Leadership
In Joe’s meeting with the Elk Grove Township Republican Organization, there was unanimous agreement that honest and effective leadership — not new tax increases and more spending — is the best way to get Illinois’ economy moving again and to restore integrity to Illinois government.
We Need Honest and Effective Leadership from Joe Birkett on Vimeo.
Democrats’ Doomsday Governance
Governor Pat Quinn said the other day that if the General Assembly doesn’t pass his budget, it would be doomsday for the people of Illinois. He got it backwards. Increasing state income taxes 50 percent would further doom the finances of our state’s residents and our ability to keep and increase jobs.
The real doomsday scenario in Springfield is for us to continue handing the keys of governance to Democrats. Under Democrats, we have:
—The most dysfunctional state government in America.
—One of the worst state financial pictures in America.
—Among the highest gas prices in the nation.
—Nearly the worst economic growth in America.
—The worst funded pension in the nation.
—Become the butt of national jokes about our blatant corruption.
And what are Democrats doing to restore trust and honesty to state government?
—Governor Quinn is shaking down interest groups for campaign contributions in order to set up meetings. This is the same alleged reformer who called Rod Blagojevich honest and ethical in 2006 so he use his dirty campaign money to get re-elected.
—Speaker of the House Mike Madigan is bottling up ethics reforms studied carefully by a blue-ribbon committee. This is same person who was Blagojevich’s campaign co-chairman in 2006 while federal investigations were swirling all around the former governor.
—Attorney General Lisa Madigan is a disinterested politician worried mostly about political positioning. She talks about reforming state records laws but has done nothing in 7 years to pass reforms with real teeth—despite having her party control the General Assembly and her father as Speaker of the House.
—Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is more interested in seeking higher office than watching closely over college funds for Illinois families. He allowed a ridiculously risky investment option for the state’s college funds and then did nothing for months while the fund lost millions for Illinois families.
—State comptroller Dan Hynes did little or nothing while our state finances collapsed and former Governor Blagojevich flouted countless state spending guidelines and rules.
The only way we can end this doomsday governance is to elect honest and effective leaders in Springfield to get our state back on track.
The Key to Real Reform: People, Not Laws
As we enter the final week of the legislative session in Springfield, the Democrat power brokers are trying to run out the clock to avoid dealing with the reforms proposed by the Illinois Reform Commission.
How predictable.
I support many of the commission’s recommendations. But it’s important to remember that — whether or not they pass these reforms — the key to real reform in Illinois is people, not reforms.
In other words — unless we start electing principled legislators and constitutional officers with the guts to clean up state government, all the “reform” laws in the world won’t change the culture of corruption in Springfield.
As a career prosecutor and administrator of a 180-person office for the past 12 years, I’ve come to believe that the missing ingredient in the formula to clean up corruption is political courage. Voters who want to end the corruption cycle in Illinois must seek out leaders who are honest and willing to speak out against wrongdoing when they see it, even when it involves political allies.