Posted on 04/20/2014 7:13:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Illinois is broke. Its public pension plans are the most troubled in the nation.
Illinois passed massive "temporary" tax hikes to fix the pension problem, but that did not make a dent in the problem.
Nonetheless, ideas to waste more taxpayer money are always on the table. Here's a recent example.
$100 Million for Barack Obama Library
Today, the Illinois Policy Institute reports by email ...
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An Illinois House Committee wants taxpayers to pay $100 million for a Barack Obama library. Somehow, House Speaker Michael Madigan thinks this is an appropriate use of funds despite the state’s more than $100 billion pension crisis and $6.6 billion in unpaid bills.
In accepting hefty taxpayer dollars for this venture, President Barack Obama is setting himself apart from his recent predecessors, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Clinton’s library, located in Little Rock, Ark., was funded solely through private donations, according to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton’s “$165 million facility was built entirely through private funds. It’s just a fact,” said Jordan Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Clinton Foundation.
Likewise, Bush’s library, located at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, was also funded through private donations.
The Barack Obama Foundation, tasked with planning the development of Obama’s presidential library, has yet to determine the site of the future library. In fact, the foundation’s board of directors is receiving proposals through June 16 and does not intend to announce its final decision until 2015. The Illinois House Committee's $100 million proposal will now go to the full House.
On its website, the Barack Obama Foundation defines its mission as developing a presidential library that “reflects President Obama’s values and priorities throughout his career in public service.” Interestingly enough, the first value listed is “expanding economic opportunity.” But more than 600,000 Illinoisans woke up today and didn’t have a job to go to, and thousands more face underemployment. To them and many others, it’s clear the president has fallen short on accomplishing his goal of “expanding economic opportunity” to the Land of Lincoln, where he launched his political career as a state senator 18 years ago.
Obama’s staff expects the library to cost $500 million or more. And the costs won’t stop there. The day-to-day operations and maintenance of the United States’ 13 presidential libraries cost taxpayers $75 million in fiscal year 2013 alone.
This figure strikes an interesting contrast. Illinois politicians, who are demanding that we extend the 2011 tax hike so that “draconian” spending cuts in public and human services do not go into effect – are attempting to subsidize a monument in dedication to the legacy of the most prolific fundraiser in history – on the backs of poor and middle-class families in Illinois.
Jane McEnaney Manager of Government Affairs Illinois Madness Never Stops
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In March, House Speaker Michael Madigan proposed 3% surcharge on income over $1 million
Also this year, progressive argued for a blank check proposal for more tax hikes. For details, please see Picking-Your-Pocket Numbers: How Much More Will You Pay?
Now the legislature wants to waste $100 million for a Barack Obama Library.
In Illinois, the madness never stops.
If it weren’t for Chicago, Illinois would be a nice state.
I suggest they ask obamatollah’s mooslimb puppetmasters for the money...
Why don’t they just put a pamphlet rack in a Planned Parenthood butcher shop?
Just stick a book of islam in some outhouse and be done with it. His image can float around under it.
It belongs in the village of Nyang’oma Kogelo, Obama’s hometown and where his father is buried & his grandmother still lives. There exists an Obama museum, and the Kenyan government is planning to build a library & cultural center. Perfect. Cost to U.S. taxpayers: $0.
He is demanding state funding because he knows he can get it through the state government. He doesn’t want to depend on donations because nobody is gonna give him crap once he has no more power. He’s about as useless as teats on a bull.
There better not be anything written in cursive in the library.
.
One cost savings.....youf won’t have to furnish it because he did’t do anything. It will be completely empty, like his head.
RE: once he has no more power. He’s about as useless as teats on a bull.
Well, once he has no more power, what power does he have on Illinois taxpayers?
One cost savings.....you won’t have to furnish it because he didn’t do anything. It will be completely empty, like his head.
Sorry for the typos. But if Jayne Pritzker wanted to buy him a house in Hawai’i why do they want to have his library in Chicago? Get it off the mainland!
Yeah. Let them pay for it with a tax on abortions. Filthy pigs.
Give him his own wing in Joliet.
Oh, Obama is not that stupid. He'll do like all politicians - feather their nest before they leave office. Of course, he won't try to tack this on any legislation that specifically stipulates a library for the Muslim because it would be a sitting duck target (especially in the runup to the November elections and as a prelude to 2016 elections), but he has other means.
IOW, he will make damned sure that it passes before he leaves office, even if he has to give Illinois a billion dollars of federal money under comically strained reasoning to do it.
Count on it.
Leni
In Kenya.
Build it where they will, but I’ll bet most documents will be classified as top secret, just like all his other documents. The only way anyone will get to see anything important, like the White House visitors list will be by court order.
What a freakin' grifter.
I used to work in an office which had a secretary with the last name Bull. Let's just say that nature had been very kind to her when it came to certain aspects of her physique. Ever since "useless as teats on a bull" is an expression that I am unable to use.
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