Dan Proft: Time to Stand Up to the Bullies

Urquhart Media, LLC ^ | May 7, 2009 | Dan Proft

[illinoisgop438]

I understand the hypocrisy. Most of our politicians in Illinois are amoral people-pleasers. They want to be endorsed by the Chicago Tribune and to be treated with deference by everyone else.

While detestable, their hypocrisy is a distant second to the most repugnant characteristic of our politics which is the way people who live by the rules in this state are bullied by those with political power.

Everywhere you look, the politically connected use the power of the state to poke the productive class in the chest and demand their lunch money.

You do not comply. You get a beat down.

You point out the unfairness. You get a beat down.

You complain to those in charge. They are the bullies. You get a beat down.

Some examples:

It takes a simple majority to raise the sales tax in Cook County but an undemocratic 80% super-majority to lower it.

No one in power wants to defend the performance of the Chicago Public School system and yet no one wants to change it.

The teacher's unions stopped just short of self-immolation in the public square to protest the idea of paying one penny more from their paychecks for their guaranteed pensions. The fact that your retirement income may be gone sounds like your personal problem, not theirs. Pony up.

With his proposed personal and corporate tax increases, the governor aims to finance big government by fleecing small businesses. Illinois lost 175,000 private sector jobs last year alone. Public sector headcount is status quo.

The former governor improperly expanded Medicaid to persons for whom the benefit was never intended, so say the state legislators who impeached him. That governor is gone but the benefit remains. Illinois ranks 42nd in the nation in what the state pays doctors under Medicaid. Another principle of Illinois' brand of governance-by-bullying is elucidated: Pay for expanding the benefit by not paying the service provider.

We all learned in grade school how to stop a bully when reasoning fails.

The people who live by the rules in Illinois will have their opportunity to throw the proverbial punch in the nose at the ballot box next year. And they better. ________________________________________

Dan Proft is a Principal of Urquhart Media LLC, a Chicago-based public affairs firm and political commentator for the Don Wade & Roma Morning Show (5-9am) on Chicago's number one news talk radio station, WLS-AM 890. He can be reached at dan@urqmedia.com.

For other Dan Proft commentaries (radio & print), please visit: http://www.urqmedia.com/proft/

For other recent Don Wade & Roma interviews, commentary, and discussions visit: http://www.wlsam.com/sectional.asp?id=16410

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[murdoog]

It takes a simple majority to raise the sales tax in Cook County but an undemocratic 80% super-majority to lower it.

Holy mackerel. 80% is more like a super-duper-majority.

[Emile]

That insures that sales tax in that jurisdiction will never be lowered, since probably over 20% of voters are government employees, and thus benefit from high sales taxes.