Sandy Rios at a Family PAC Cruise
Sponsored by the Illinois Citizens for Life PAC, former Chicago radio talk show host Sandy Rios called Tuesday night.
It was a scratchy recording on my answering machine.
Rios talked about how Bruce Rauner was “pro-abortion” and how his family had made contributions to the pro-abortion Political Action Committee Emily’s List.
She said Rauner was “trying to hide these facts from you,” then made a pitch for Kirk Dillard for Govenror.
Seriously, Sandy?
I’ll go with Jill Stanek’s recommendation.
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2014/02/stanek-dillard-not-the-guy-for-pro-lifers-to-get-behind.html
Well maybe Dillard is more anti-abortion than Rauner, not sure but wouldn’t be surprised.
However abortions are legal in Illinois and it doesn’t seem there is any legislative way to reverse that problem in the near future, one must pick their battles.
If one were to choose, which type of legislation is more likely to succeed in Springfield, pension or abortion reform, answer is probably pensions.
Dillard has been part of the pension problem which began escalating since 1971 after the one sentence pension hiking clause was added to the State Constitution at the 1970 Constitutional Convention.
“Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of
which shall not be diminished or impaired.”
The most devastating sentence in the history of Illinois.
The problem being State legislators passed public sector pension hiking legislation in the very same years
pensions were being underfunded.
Dysfunctional.
Dillard had his chance to at least expose the problem and instead through his votes perpetuated the public sector pension underfunding problem.
The State legislative system in Springfield is legally corrupt and no one down there is doing enough to expose the problem, much less solve the problem, although a few are taking a few stabs at it.
Dillard is not one of the few.
Dillard taking money from the Illinois Education Association (IEA) teacher union is sure not going to help reverse 40 years of pension hikes, as IEA lobbyists in Springfield proposed pension hikes.
Vote Rauner and pray.
Here’s a bit of pension education for those whom have no clue how it works.
Basic pension formula.
(Years Worked x Accrual Rate) x Final Pay.
That’s an oversimplification.
That formula was tinkered with and manipulated through state legislation.
That’s the problem.
Here’s some quotes from Rauner about abortion.
While he’s not proposing to reverse in its entirety the practice in Illinois he has some suggested reforms.
Crain’s Chicago Business
Greg Hinz
June 6, 2013
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130606/BLOGS02/130609882/rauners-views-on-guns-gays-abortion-taxes-and-more
Start quote from article.
On abortion, “I support a woman’s ability to decide early in a pregnancy,” in consultation with her physician, family and others.
“I also am an advocate for finding common ground to make abortion rare,” he said.
And, “I support parental notification and some restrictions on late-term pregnancy.”
We didn’t have the time to go into some of the nuances in those statements.
End quote from article.
Maybe Rauner’s thoughts on the subject have changed since the date of the article, not sure.
Obviously a controversial topic.
These former and current politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, have really boxed us into a corner.
To get out of the corner will require heavy swinging and getting hit.
Brady might arguably be better than Dillard on abortion, but he’s part of the pension problem too.
What did they think no one would ever unravel their pension votes?
They thought they had to play the Springfield game and horse trade rather than exposing the insanity.
NO POLITICIAN has adequately exposed the pension insanity.
NONE.
Get some new blood in there.
Even after real reform public sector workers will have very good return on their pension investment.