I work third shift some nights for my job, and one thing I do to make the time pass is listen to the radio. Overnights on Sundays from 11 pm to 2 am on WGN radio in my area a stand-up comic, Patti Vasquez, has a show. It's good to hear a woman in media, still sadly a rare thing in our country, and it's even better because she's a proponent of good government.
As a proponent of good government, Ms. Vasquez regularly has a state senator on who's at least nominally a member of the Democratic Party, Dan Kotowski. He's been fairly entertaining, too. Well, until he voted to gut pensions in Illinois, which is both against the state Constitution and a complete betrayal of working people here.
And that's when I got really, really angry.
He was on last Sunday, December 8, and Ms. Vasquez basically asked him to justify his vote based on some questions on Facebook (including mine, yay!). And of course, he lied.
Well, I see it as a lie. And a cowardly attack on Ms. Vasquez, to boot.
As I recall, he worked to give the impression that the Illinois state budget was written in stone. It's not. He said that if they actually paid the teachers what they owe them, they'd have to cut other state programs, rather than working to raise revenue to pay for everything by raising taxes and cutting corporate subsidies. I don't know if that means he's ignorant of the legislature's power to tax or if it was a cold, calculating decision to lie about his powers, but either way, that's not true. He also, in my opinion, took a potshot at the host of the show, who has a child with special needs, by giving the impression that if she didn't support his stabbing teachers in the back, he'd cut programs for kids like hers instead.
So, my impression of this alleged Democrat (who, as I understand, allegedly "represents" Schaumberg) is that he'd rather hurt teachers and special needs kids than raise taxes on the Pritzkers and other wealthy people and corporations in our state to make sure everyone has what they need.
Oh, and did I mention he said his own father is a teacher? He'd rather, apparently, cut his own father's benefits than ask the rich to pay more.
Is there anyone in that area willing to give this DINO a primary challenge?
I sure hope so.