Neither Illinois Senate President John Cullerton nor House Speaker Mike Madigan will have a Republican boogeyman to point to when they speak to interest groups or members of their own caucuses.
With a second term now secure for President Barack Obama, states will need to decide whether they should opt-in to ObamaCare’s massive expansion of Medicaid. A Supreme Court decision earlier this year gave states the choice of whether to opt-in or not. So far, just nine states have committed to implementing the expansion. Leaders from most states,...
After yesterday’s election, Democrats will have a supermajority in both the Illinois House and Senate after inauguration on Jan. 8, 2013. Senate Democrats picked up five seats and will have 40 seats in January – Senate Republicans will control only 19 seats. Illinois House Republicans lost seven seats yesterday, and House Speaker Michael Madigan will...
Illinois knows first-hand how well-intentioned Medicaid expansions bust budgets and worsen care for the very people Medicaid was meant to protect. Ballooning enrollment has forced the state to turn to low reimbursement rates and long payment delays to make ends meet. It’s no surprise that more and more doctors are being forced to turn away...
The problem In an interview with Huffington Post, Gov. Pat Quinn said that Illinois needs a progressive income tax.1 “That’s one of my goals before I stop breathing and I sure hope we can get that done in Illinois. Sooner rather than later,” he told the interviewer. The same forces that helped Quinn land the...
Concern over underfunding of both public and corporate pension plans has Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his party and other conservatives making a pre-emptive strike against the idea of federal government bailouts.
Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is getting hit with a nationwide backlash over his suggestion that the federal government bail out the state employees
A new report by the Joint Economic Committee, or JEC, provides even more evidence that the federal government should never bail out state pension debt. Here are just a few of their findings.