Quinn reneging on ‘temporary’ tax hike cowardly, dishonest

Gov. Pat Quinn began his recent op-ed in the Chicago Tribune with a couple of quotes. In that spirit, I’ll do the same. Cowardly Lion: “What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the ‘ape’ in apricot? What...

Gov. Pat Quinn began his recent op-ed in the Chicago Tribune with a couple of quotes. In that spirit, I’ll do the same.

Cowardly Lion: “What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the ‘ape’ in apricot? What have they got that I ain’t got?”

Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman: “Courage!”

Courage comes pretty cheap these days.

Last week, Quinn gave his budget address in which he proposed making permanent the 2011 income tax increase.

The rave reviews were almost immediate. House Speaker Michael Madigan said, “I commend the governor for his political courage and honesty.”

Senate President John Cullerton said: “”I think the governor made a really bold stand.”

Courage. Honesty. Bold stands.

What about: Cynical. Devastating. Fraudulent.

There’s nothing courageous about telling people that you’ll temporarily raise their taxes and then, a few years after families have adjusted to the “temporary reality,” telling them – surprise! – you’re just going to make it permanent. That’s called lying; not courage.

There’s nothing honest about claiming that you have cut the budget by $5 billion when overall spending has increased every year and you’ve only implemented cuts in order to pay for out-of-control spending in other areas. That’s like buying a house you can’t afford and not being able to pay for electricity and gas, then using your lack of utilities as evidence of your frugality.

There’s nothing bold about claiming that you’re “changing the way we fund education” when the sum total of your reform consists of raising one tax and giving a rebate – not even a cut! – on another. That’s like saying you’re going to fundamentally redesign the internal combustion engine by getting an oil change.

Raising taxes is what passes for “courage” in Springfield. But people outside of that political bubble know better.

Courage is the single working mom who struggles every day to get the kids out the door to school and herself out the door to work, then works all day, and comes home to try to make dinner and get homework done.

Honest is the middle-class couple managing to still save for their dream – a college education for their kids – despite periods of unemployment and a mortgage that’s underwater. They don’t eat at restaurants, don’t go to the movies and get another winter out of an old pair of boots.

Bold is the small business owner who barely managed to keep the doors open and the staff employed over the past few years as the Great Recession cost him customers, savings and sleep.

That’s what courage, honesty and boldness really look like. Courage in a budget would be to take on the entrenched interests of the government-worker unions. Honesty would be to level with the people of Illinois about the corrosive depths of the state’s crises. Boldness would be to propose real reforms and confront your own political base.

Raising taxes? There’s nothing courageous about it.