Barack Obama

Gridlock is good for spending restraint

By Chris Andriesen
11/05/2010
by Ashley Muchow Mercatus Center Research Fellow, Matthew Mitchell, has charted the impact united U.S. governments have had on spending under political combinations dating back to 1953. Over the past two years, a united U.S. government has reached average annual spending levels beyond any that of any administration in the history of the United States. Since the Obama administration...

What It Means – Elections

By John Tillman
11/03/2010
All across the country, from federal races to local races, the national mood and resulting election wave dominated and largely prevailed.  In Illinois, that same wave only flowed for the federal races, not the General Assembly or governor’s race. Mark Kirk won President Obama’s Senate seat, and there were four GOP pickups in the House...

My Nominee for Pay Czar: David Stern

By Chris Andriesen
11/02/2010
by Dan Proft I do not think government functionaries should set private sector salaries or that U.S. policymakers should be adorned with the appellation properly reserved for Russian autocrats. But, if I did not believe in free markets and free minds, NBA Commissioner David Stern would be my choice for “Pay Czar.” Stern is in the...

Charter Schools in the UK?

11/01/2010
by Collin Hitt The UK is considering a new policy modeled after charter schools in America.  Called “free schools,” the proposal has been endorsed by Arne Duncan in advance of his visit to the country this week.  A story in today’s London Telegraph framed the issue well, and quoted yours truly: For Mr Gove, the...

High Cost for Mandated College Polling Stations

10/29/2010
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Earlier this year, SB 3012 was signed into law and created a pilot project mandating that election authorities provide early voting sites on public university campuses in their jurisdiction. The project is only for the 2010 general election, but some county clerks have voiced their opposition to the mandate citing the high costs for small...

Great Depression…I Mean, Recession.

10/20/2010
by Ashley Muchow Depression. Great Recession. Trough. We’ve heard it all in reference to the struggling state of the U.S. economy. President Barack Obama has insisted his policy moves and $787 billion-plus spending initiatives staved off a second Great Depression. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared late last month that the recession ended in June of 2009, after less...

The President’s Misleading Tax Math

10/05/2010
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson As the debate over whether or not to extend the Bush tax cuts continues, Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center adds some much needed perspective by comparing the size of the tax cuts to the amount of spending over the next decade. In The American, the journal of the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. de...

TIF District Policy Becomes Issue in Chicago Mayoral Race

10/04/2010
With the Chicago Mayoral race heating up, so too is talk about the City’s $500M annual Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenues.  Former Chief of Staff to President Obama, Rham Emanuel recently gave a call to former Alderman and now U.S. Congressman Mike Quigley in regards to Chicago’s TIF districts. Recently, two Cook County Board President candidates,...

Gov. Quinn to Schools: Hire! Spend! Now!

09/29/2010
by Collin Hitt Last Monday, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to Illinois school districts urging them to frantically spend newly available federal stimulus funds totaling more than $400 million, before the end of November. Highly unusual, however, was that the letter and the governor’s instructions were apparently written and circulated...

U.S. corporate tax rate pushes jobs overseas

09/27/2010
by Ashley Muchow Our current administration has another plan to bring jobs back the U.S.  Though the end goal is merited, the plan of action is grounded in poor economic reasoning. President Obama claimed last week that “for years, our tax code has actually given billions of dollars in tax breaks that encourage companies to...
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Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016