I think we’re about to see rat on rat combat on this one.
We’ll see. The Ruling Party has taken the approach of “Screw You and your Pro-Business Reforms Too!” to Gov. Rauner, figuring they can just run the clock out and get a Rat elected when his term is up. But they may not have that long.
So far the budget crisis has just been a joke for most people living here. Some nonprofits and agencies have been forced to close or do something else, but the schools still run, the roads get built and repaired, etc. Of course the first thing I expect them to do is close state parks and museums and such just to piss people off. But the Democrats have not been able to see the need to back off one inch from the tax and spend policies that have created this unsustainable mess. It is insane, but they have to votes to be insane. What Rauner is asking for is the same thing that is working in Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin - yet the Democrats reject it all and refuse to budge. Because they can. Unless something changes I expect it will take the Grim Reaper to remove some of these blockheads from office. Or maybe they will listen now that it’s one of their own (Rat Comptroller) telling them the same thing they’ve been told for years.