The world is upside down. Kristen McQueary, Editorial Board member at the Chicago Tribune, one of the country’s oldest Republican newspapers, wrote an editorial Wednesday, 10/23/15, that could have been written by socialist Kashama Sawant.
In it McQueary slammed Illinois’ Democratic leaders for selling out and abusing their middle and working class constituents by failing to take progressive action that she implies would have rescued Illinois from its deep financial morass and saved vital social service programs. Furthermore she says the Party leadership privileges wealthy donors and is corrupted by their own wealth.
Here’s a taste of what McQueary she said:
• Democratic Party leader, Mike Madigan in 2011 attended a private fundraiser for Republican John Boehner. "Madigan was the guest of Terry Duffy, chairman of the CME Group," parent of Chicago’s two powerful financial and commodity exchanges.
• Four months later the Democratic controlled General Assembly in a rare special session, approved tax-legislation that benefited the CME Group “cutting the company’s annual state income tax in half”.
• CME Group was not the only profitable business receiving tax breaks. “From 2010 to 2014, the state [under Democratic control] handed out roughly $4.5 billion to Sears, Mitsubishi, Motorola and others.”
The tax breaks came while the state was wrestling with a big revenue short fall that prompted the same Democratic leaders to approve “shutting down seven state facilities including mental health facilities, and a home for the developmentally disabled”, leaving frantic parents scrambling for help.
[Editor’s note: Also during this period the Democrats also agreed to make “tough decisions” by cutting Illinois’ Medicaid payments substantially.]
McQueary describes the state’s insane handling of the pension crisis. For over 20 years, the state failed to pay its share of payments into the Illinois pension funds, leaving them woefully underfunded. Between 2003 and 2011 when Democrats controlled both houses of the legislature, the “state’s underfunded pension liability skyrocketed from $43 billion to $111 billion”, making Illinois’ pension situation the most precarious in the US.
Since 2011 the Democrats have been debating ways to cut pensions. They finally come up with a plan that labor opposed and that was eventually declared unconstitutional by the state supreme court.
McQueary was not done. She calls out the Democrats for not working to pass a progressive income tax and leaving in place the state’s inadequate flat tax, [which favors the rich and fails to produce sufficient revenue for the state’s needs.] Wow Republican Tribune calling for a progressive tax?
[During the period when the Democratic controlled legislature wrestled with how to cut pensions, it never seriously considered new sources of revenue (Illinois is an undertaxed state.) But it did find time to set up a special charter school commission that has the power to overrule local school boards that oppose charter school applications.]
“What happened to the promise of a statewide minimum wage,” McQueary asks?
Background: All during the run up to the 2014 election, Democrats campaigned on modestly increasing the minimum wage to about $10.65 per hour. When they had the chance to pass it--they held and still have solid majorities in both houses and the governor’s office—speaker Madigan shelved it, according to McQueary because of a dispute with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
[Other progressive leaders tell a different story. They say Madigan shelved minimum wage because of pressure from business donors including the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.]
McQueary also castigates Democrats for leaving in place “unfair school funding formula that burdens property-poor communities with sky-high tax rates”.
Finally, she comes down on House leader Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, for being fat cats themselves. “Madigan and Cullerton both run successful law practices [specializing in getting real estate tax breaks to preferred clients] that Madigan once admitted ‘in a good year’ puts him in millionaire’s bracket.”
“Meanwhile,” McQueary observes “the Terrance Duffys of the world get ushered into the speaker’s office. They get a special legislative session to give them tax breaks. I doubt the parents of the disabled children got the same attention.”
It’s a strange world where conservative Republicans call out corporate Democrats for mistreating working people, not passing progressive legislation and giving the red carpet treatment to the rich while slashing social benefits. It seems as if the Republicans are calling on the Democrats to reform themselves and become a progressive party again.
If only. But it’s probably too late to try to remove corrupt leaders and reform the Party from within. For one thing many Illinois Democratic office holders think and act like Republicans. They wear the mask of liberal Rooseveltian Democrats to distract their constituents while quietly cooperating with Republicans to pass neo-liberal legislation and enriching themselves. No, Illinois Democrats ain’t ready for reform.
But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. As recent elections across the nation show, brand Democrat is losing favor with its base. Except for in Presidential races, the Democrat Party is in a major decline in most states including Illinois. The ideas, values, connections and skills of Illinois Democrats are all fouled by neo-liberal (pro-corporate ideology and corruption. They cannot be repaired.
A bright prosperous future for Illinois requires new progressive leadership and a new Party that will represent the ordinary working and middle class people who vote for it. Even Republicans like McQueary are beginning to see that. We should too.