Don't count me as very sympathetic to Occupy Chicago.
They aren't a symptom of a problem. They are the problem. Not just for Illinois, but for the nation.
But finally a grown-up has shown up and slapped around the brats at Occupy Chicago. While the union-led protestors march and chant and clap in unison over their own spilled milk, the rest of us are trying to get the country back to work.
Governor Scott Walker chastised union-led Occupy Chicago protestors who interrupted his speech yesterday with chants of “union-busting is disgusting” at Chicago’s Union League Club. The Union League Club is a civic organization in Chicago that came together after the Civil War to promote good citizenship.
Walker, 44, is facing a union-led recall vote in his home state of Wisconsin, after he single-handedly pushed through reforms that brought the state back from the brink of bankruptcy. The state was facing a shortfall in large part because of out-of-control union benefits and perks.
Walker gave the lead to other states to enact similar measures curtailing union benefits, earning the lasting enmity of progressives.
“With all due respect to people of Illinois, I’m going to use Illinois as a good example [of bad economics],” Walker said, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Walker taunted the protestors inviting them to come back to help their union brethren on the recall effort “as tourists.”
Makes you proud to see a governor put his state first.
In contrast to Wisconsin, Illinois raised income taxes and corporate taxes 66 percent and 46 percent respectively this year but still has not closed the state’s budget deficit that started at $15 billion.
The state still faces about an $8 billion shortfall, including $8 billion in unpaid bills. The state also has unfunded pension liabilities of close to $80 billion, the largest deficit in the country. That’s not bankruptcy; it’s much, much worse: It’s Greece.
I’m expecting any moment that Illinois will be announcing that they have opted out of the Eurozone.
Companies headquartered in Illinois including Caterpillar, Motorola, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Jimmy John’s have threatened to quit the state over the tax increase.
