Soxbadger

Thats your opinion. And again, all I am asking is what is your suggestion for balancing the budget. No new taxes isnt a policy. So lets take away (R) and (D) how do you plan to fix the IL budget.

Republicans had power in IL. From 1976-1998 every governor was Republican. In the last 20 years, there have been: Ryan- 1999-2003 - Republican Blago/Quinn - 2003-2015 Dem Rauner- 2015-2019 That is 8 years of Republicans, 12 years of Democrats. So if you go back to 1976: There have only been 12 years of Democrats as governor. How is that no precedent?

And financially run states is subjective statement, not objective. Not to mention, some of IL's problems date back to when there were Republican governors. Part of the crisis started in 1994 under Jim Edgar, who was a Republican: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/the-edgar-ramp-the-reform-that-unleashed-illinois-pension-crisis/

Republicans have done nothing in my lifetime to show that they are capable at any level of balancing a budget. Bush blew up the federal defecit. Trump is doing the same. You can keep blaming Democrats, but what exactly is the Republican position to make the budget better? You keep saying "dont raise taxes" well thats like me saying, I want more stuff, but I dont want to have to make more money. There are 2 options in life when it comes to balancing your finances: 1) lower expenses or 2) increase your revenue. There is no mythical option 3 where I decrease revenue and increase spending. Its tiring hearing how that magical unicorn is going to ride in. If Republicans want my vote, then come up with a plan. Maybe I dont like that Pritzker will raise my taxes, but at least its a plan.

The only option would be to cut down from 2 guaranteed house, to 1. The problem keeps getting exacerbated because the majority of the population has less of a say in the House and Senate. That problem then becomes even worse in elections such as the last one where the President doesnt win the popular vote. It results in a situation where the minority has control of all 3 branches of govt. That just isnt a fair system. So at some point there has to be consideration given to 1) increasing number of house and 2) having President being popular vote. Even 1 of those changes would help end the tyranny of the minority.

There is no evidence to the claim at all. California has a surplus as well, and its arguably the most blue state. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/27/californias-fiscal-risks-despite-largest-surplus-in-more-than-decade.html

How did Rauner not have the ability to try new ways to raise revenue? Refusing to pay bills isnt a policy option. If Republicans want to actually try and balance budgets, a lot of people would listen to them. But the fiscal conservatives are gone. Republicans (at least at the federal level) slash revenues while increasing spending, how does that improve debt at all?

Illinois needs to balance the budget. Im pretty sure that no one wants to pay higher taxes, or bills or any expenses. But that is life. https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/budget/Documents/Budget Book/FY 2019/Fiscal-Year-2019-Operating-Budget-Book.pdf Projected budget for 2018 TOTAL RESOURCES 37,964 TOTAL EXPENDITURES 37,613 So slightly balanced, which is a good thing. But IL needs to start making a major dent in debt. The only way to do this is to 1) lower expenses or 2) increase revenue. They tried things with pensions, but that seems to have lost at the judicial level. So the easiest option is more revenue. Yes it may be painful short term, but hopefully balancing your budget today, makes it better in the future. Debt servicing and backlog are almost 10% of the expenditures. Would be amazing if we could even half that.

I agree tax returns are a waste. I think they should look into his business dealings after becoming President, his hotels, etc. Also look into his cabinet and other people who may be attempting to profiteer from the office of President. What happened before he took office is the least of my concerns.

There seems to be no going back on federal power.

Trump isnt going to change his tune. He is just going to keep saying he won and everything else is false. Im not a Dr., but I think that he borders on being a sociopath and therefore expecting any sort of reasonable response is completely out of the question.

If DC and PR get 2 Senators each and they increase the amount of Reps, it would go a long way to fixing some of the issues.

Voting is defined by state of mind. If I own a house in Florida and a house in IL, I can vote in Florida even if I live there 0 days a year if in my mind I reside there. The reason I single out students is because you usually dont have tens of thousands of people who have the ability to pick where they "reside" on a single day of the year.

I dont think itll be that bad. They are inheriting a debt that is crazy, but I think they can hopefully start to make a little dent in it. First IL credit rating is going to improve, which means we can get better interest rates. Second I think that they will likely raise taxes some, because there is just no way to pay the debt off without increasing revenue. Third, I think they will bring in new money with potential legalization of marijuana and possibly betting. Its not going to be easy, but Rauner really killed himself by not even considering marijuana or betting. Those things should have been on the table immediately when you need new revenue streams.

There is a difference between where you live and where you reside. In order to reside somewhere you have to have a future intent to live there. I never intended on living in Madison, which is why my DL was IL, my taxes were paid with an IL address, etc. But as "reside" depends on your state of mind, you could legally reside in Wisconsin one day, and legally reside in IL the next day. Hence why on election day, I resided in Wisconsin and could legally vote there.

Madison voting is shady as hell. UW students can turn up huge.

The problem isnt really the senate, its the house. They need to increase the amount of reps. Otherwise small state voters have more power in senate, house and president. Which also means more power in SC approval/nomination.

Yeah agreed on tax returns. But I think some fun could be had looking into Trump Hotel in DC and some other areas where maybe Trump has been making soft money.

Rauner was really bad. But what also hurt him is how disliked Trump is in the Chicago area. Rauner was a dead man walking to send a point.

They can try and spin it however they like, but losing the House is a really really bad case scenario for Trump.

That would be the thread I remember.

Was going to say beato was my upset pick, but now wont look as cool. Hell still probably lose but id love to see cruz sweat.

I think he specifically referenced heart attack, but im going entirely off of memory.

Ptatc has talked a lot about marijuana and heart disease. But generally smoking likely bad for health compared to not smoking. Different argunent would be if smoking replaced alcohol and opiates.

Its a joke. Indianas deep red are the first to report so the whole map is red.