Crain's is reporting that a special election bill has been set for a committee hearing next week, in the event the General Assembly convenes.
Crain's stated:
A bill to hold a special election to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat may be getting another life in Springfield.
The measure, which had been shelved by House Speaker Michael Madigan, on Wednesday was quietly posted for a committee hearing next Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 7.
So, does this mean Madigan and the Illinois Democrats have basically been shamed into turning back to the special election as the only way to rehabilitate their party in the eyes of the public, after Blago has made them (and, sadly, the state) the political laughingstock of the nation?
Does this mean that Mark Kirk, Peter Roskam and any other GOP contenders might be back in business?
What we've been reminded in the last few days is that in Illinois politics, ANYTHING can happen. So, keep those seat belts fastened, kids, this ride is a long way from being over.
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Kirk and Roskam held an ad-hoc economic recovery hearing in late November to discuss actions to address the nation's financial crisis.
Before hearing testimony, the Congressmen laid out 10 ideas to double the size of the U.S. economy to help those residing in Illinois and neighboring states:
* Stop new automatic taxpayer spending
* Enforce the budget
* Double the research and development tax credit
* Introduce reforms to reduce lawsuits
* Set the top income tax rate at 24 percent
* Set the long-term capital gains tax at 10 percent
* Boost the capital loss deduction to $20,000
* Secure America's home export markets
* Dramatically lower obesity and smoking
* Strengthen the dollar's importance by encouraging other countries to adopt the U.S. dollar as their currency
With that laundry list of nonsense if Kirk and Roskam are the best the GOP has to offer there's no point in spending $40 million on a special election. Democrats could run Blago and even he'd beat either of these guys.
Anon 3:15
You crack me up! We all know the Dems in control of the US Congress have all the answers to the economic crisis. So - no need to criticize our Republican legislators. Why don't you run for the office - since you're the genius? Happy New Year.
1. Peter Roskam is thisclose to being an ex-congressman. Redistricting is coming in 2011 and he'll be at the whim of Democrats. As a Republican he's a big time dissapointment and the sooner the party gets rid of his lower middle class populist christian conservatism the better. Disco is dead and so is his brand of politics which came from that era.
2. The least powerful people in D.C. are the opposition party in the House so Mark can say whatever he wants but he has a better shot at helping the cubs get jake peavy than he does with any of these ideas.
3. The real meaning for Republicans right now is building a road back to power. The sooner we start drawing up blueprints and puttingshovels in the ground on new ideas the better we'll be.
4.As a sign of just how bad things are for our team right now you need to look at the respect this blog gets from the party and the respect the democrats give to moveon. This blog is a great grassroots engine for getting people involved and yet gets no attention.
Let's go through the Kirk/Roskam proposals one by one shall we?
* Stop new automatic taxpayer spending - What's that mean? No tax cut? Halt cost of living adjustments? Scuttle a few aircraft carriers?
* Enforce the budget - Again, very vague but the gist is restrict government spending.
* Double the research and development tax credit - For who? Defense contractors? They already get 57% of all discretionary spending. They're the only businesses who can turn R&D into production right now because they're federally funded.
* Introduce reforms to reduce lawsuits - Does Roskam still have a half page ad in the Yellow Pages trolling for slip and fall injury victims?
* Set the top income tax rate at 24 percent - Because the Bush tax cuts have worked so well. Aren't you tired of being trickled on?
* Set the long-term capital gains tax at 10 percent - What capital gains?
* Boost the capital loss deduction to $20,000 - Starting to get it yet? If we just bail out the rich (again) they'll save the economy.
* Secure America's home export markets - Sell F-22s to the Red Chinese? Invade South Korea and demand they buy American beef?
* Dramatically lower obesity and smoking - Mandatory morning calisthenics? Have the FDA outlaw Marlboros & Cheetohs?
* Strengthen the dollar's importance by encouraging other countries to adopt the U.S. dollar as their currency - Because everybody will want to adopt the currency of the country that sent the world's financial market into freefall.
The USA's response to the financial crisis should be massive federal government spending, not Herbert Hoover's dumb restrictions. It won't crowd out private investment because there is no private investment right now. That spending will benefit the nation two ways. First it will create jobs, well paying construction jobs, a lot of them union ones with real benefits. Those workers will spend their money on all kinds of consumer goods and education for their kids instead of blowing it on the next bubble Wall St. manages to gin up. Secondly there are thousands of infrastructure projects that are desperately needed like upgrading the electrical grid, broadband build out, water, sewers, transportation, alternative energy, that have been shunned by Republicans in favor of the dumb war in Iraq and useless weapon systems. Investing in the country's infrastructure will pay dividends for decades to come.
We also have to completely overhaul our healthcare system. The hodgepodge, Medicare, Medicaid, employer provider system is a huge burden on our businesses (not to mention taxpayers) and makes them not only uncompetitive abroad but here at home and it doesn't even cover 47 million people. We spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare while most other countries spend 8% to 11% and get much better medical outcomes than we do.
There will be huge cost savings once we get the insurance and pharma companies off the federal dole but it will also cause massive dislocations in the job market. There's about 3 million jobs that will be lost in the health insurance business so there will have to be a huge upfront investment as these people find productive work.
And don't tell me we can't do it, that government doesn't work, it isn't the answer. That's only true when Republicans run it. Never put people in charge of government who hate government. They don't study it, they have no interest in making it more efficient or effective because they just want to dismantle and auction off as much of it's duties to their cronies as they can. The reconstruction of Iraq is just one example of how well that works.
There's not gonna be any quick fix. The world is slipping into a massive economic depression which even Obama's best efforts may only mitigate somewhat. It's going to take a long time to come back from the disastrous experiment Republicans conducted on this country over the last three decades. And unless you guys have more constructive proposals instead of the same worn out discredited theories Kirk and Roskam are peddling nobody is going to take you seriously.
Did EBG's website get too boring that her trolls had to come over to this website? It's kind of funny that under the Bush Administration, the size of government actually tripled, yet they couldn't prevent 9-11, the government was a joke during Katrina, our borders are not secure and the criminals on Wall Street left us in a near depression. Government sure works great when its nice and big doesn't it?
Let's invest in our infrastructure. That will work. What will happen to all those jobs when all the road and rail work is completed?
Sure let's nationalize healthcare and put 3 million health insurance workers out of work. Oh but our healthcare will be better because the government is running it. If I only have a small heart attack, I'll only need to wait a year for an angioplasty because the guy who had a bigger heart attack gets to go in line in front of me.
Government does not solve the problem. Government is the problem. If the frickin rules and regulations we currently had in place were enforced and the SEC didn't fall asleep at the switch, we would not be in this mess.
So if you ask me, the first step in coming out of this crisis is to bring criminal charges against Chris Cox (yes a Republican), Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Then, we can prosecute Franklin Raines (The Anointed One's Housing Advisor), who made the wise decision to let Fannie Mae follow Wall St.'s lead. If the Wall St. criminals realize there are repercussions to their actions, maybe it won't happen again.
Heavily investing in green technology is the only way to create permanent jobs right now. However, we should drill, drill, drill until that green technology is up and running to wean us off oil. Speaking of oil, opening up ANWR, Colorado Shale and the Oil Sands in South Dakota is also another way to create jobs for a long time coming.
Anon 5:56 I came to this site via a google alert I have set up for Roskam. Don't know who this EBG is.
It's kind of funny that under the Bush Administration, the size of government actually tripled, yet they couldn't prevent 9-11, the government was a joke during Katrina, our borders are not secure and the criminals on Wall Street left us in a near depression. Government sure works great when its nice and big doesn't it?
That's what happens when you staff it with fundraisers, lobbyists, and former employees of the very industries the regulatory agencies are supposed to be regulating. Bush took Reagan one step further. St. Ronnie just wanted to do away with whole agencies of government. The American people wouldn't stand for it so Bush decided to subvert them from within. Destroying their ability to function (SEC,EPA,FEMA) while farming out as much of their duties as he could to cronies (FDA, FEMA, IRAQ reconstruction) was intended to make the Republican party mantra "Government does not solve the problem. Government is the problem"
a self fulfilled prophecy. It's not, it only applies to Republican party governance.
Let's invest in our infrastructure. That will work. What will happen to all those jobs when all the road and rail work is completed?
It's going to take at least a decade to turn this country around. Rebuilding infrastructure, bringing our communications, education, energy, and healthcare sectors into the 21st century are all long term projects. Once we prove we believe in ourselves enough to invest in our country's future private investment will follow.
Sure let's nationalize healthcare and put 3 million health insurance workers out of work.
The healthcare insurance business eats up 30% of our healthcare dollars in overhead. All those actuaries deciding what care you receive have to get productive work. Your doctor will no longer require 2 clerks to navigate the maze of insurance forms to get paid. We're going to stop subsidizing Big Pharma's recreational sex drugs and treatment for nonexistent maladies like restless leg syndrome. If Viagre has to cost more and have you take a walk every now and then so be it.
Oh but our healthcare will be better because the government is running it.
The VA system is a government run healthcare program. It's computer records system (instituted under Clinton) is light years beyond what any private hospital corp has.
If I only have a small heart attack, I'll only need to wait a year for an angioplasty because the guy who had a bigger heart attack gets to go in line in front of me.
That's BS and if you don't know it you should. But one thing I hope you won't see is a Ronald McDonald play area outside the emergency room when you go in to get treated. If Sneaky Pete Roskam wants to get obesity down he can start by demanding they remove that alter to poor eating habits at the hospital in Downers Grove.
If the frickin rules and regulations we currently had in place were enforced and the SEC didn't fall asleep at the switch, we would not be in this mess.
You don't get it do you? No doubt Chris Cox will be scapegoated but he never would have gotten the job in the first place if the Republicans who gave it to him thought he'd actually run a functioning regulatory agency. Chris Cox was hired to look the other way and let Wall St. police itself. He didn't let them down.
Whenever Bill Clinton's chair of the SEC Arthur Levitt tried to do his job Phil Gramm the head of the senate Banking Committee told him he'd slash his budget. Getting the government off the back of business has been one of the major clarion calls of the Republican party since at least Barry Goldwater's time.
So if you ask me, the first step in coming out of this crisis is to bring criminal charges against Chris Cox (yes a Republican), Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. Then, we can prosecute Franklin Raines (The Anointed One's Housing Advisor), who made the wise decision to let Fannie Mae follow Wall St.'s lead. If the Wall St. criminals realize there are repercussions to their actions, maybe it won't happen again.
Barney Frank and Chris Dodd aren't the problem, if I had to pick two Dems more complicit in this mess I'd go with Rubin and Schumer. Raines spoke with Obama for all of 5 minutes one day on the campaign trail. That hardly makes him Obama's "housing adviser". Fannie and Freddie had a choice in the early 2000s as put to them so eloquently by Countrywide Mortgage Chairman Anthony Mozilo. They either bought up liar loans and other shaky mortgages or he and his unregulated ilk would give all their business to Lehman Bros. and the other 4 now defunct Wall St. investment banks.
Heavily investing in green technology is the only way to create permanent jobs right now.
I agree to a point but once the windmills and solar panels are up they're just like roads and railroads tracks: in place. Those jobs are no "permanent" than any other construction jobs.
However, we should drill, drill, drill until that green technology is up and running to wean us off oil. Speaking of oil, opening up ANWR, Colorado Shale and the Oil Sands in South Dakota is also another way to create jobs for a long time coming.
That's more shortsighted partisan nonsense. Colorado Shale and the Oil Sands in South Dakota require more water than exists out west. Even if there was enough water they'd be environmental catastrophes to dig up and refine. Anybody trying to tell you otherwise is just selling you a bill of goods.
There isn't enough oil left in the US worth drilling for unless the price goes to $200 a barrel. We used up most of the easy to get at light sweet crude - onshore and offshore - in this country over the last hundred years. Why do you think our oil companies are investing billions in dirty tar sands in Alberta and signing one sided contracts that don't favor them with tinhorn dictators and sheiks all over the world? Hell it's not like they couldn't have gotten Bush and the Republican congress to let 'em drill, drill, drill in the US earlier this decade if they thought that was where they'd make better money.
Drilling what up we have left will only leave us without any for the military. F-22s and M1A2s don't run on ethanol and neither do most Navy ships. If you want the Russians and the Saudis dictating where and when our military can fight in 10 years that's an excellent way to do it. Leave it in the ground for now. We're going to be paying down debt in 10 years not building a whole new military that runs on something else.
Did anyone read all of that? My god, when someone writes such a long entry, I'm going to bet they're making up half of what they're writing.
Anon 5:04 you sound like a typical Republican. ADD so bad you can't read a few paragraphs or be bothered with the facts. Google any point I made and see if I made it up.
Markq8:
Sorry to disagree with most of your points but it does appear you going to bat for the Dems here.
Government is the problem, always has been the problem and always will be the problem.
The expansion of government did not occur prior to 9/11 it occurred after 9/11 and it secured your sorry ass as well as those of your loved ones...but no need to be grateful...only a need to complain...
"Google any point I made and see if I made it up."...yes because everything on the internet is true. a few paragraphs, jesus it's a book!
Anon 2:06 I think you'll just have to drop that "government is the problem" slogan and come up with something new. The financial markets have failed and the only entity left that can resuscitate the economy is government.
Anon 5:55 Read it or don't, it should only take 5 minutes. But for cryin out loud quit whining about how hard it is. It doesn't make you look very bright.
Markq8
Financial markets failed in large part because the government decided everyone DESERVED a house whether they could AFFORD it or NOT. Knowing full well, the outcome and burden placed on hard working taxpayers.
What kind of government knowingly and forcefully intimidates banks into providing no money down loans to folks that cannot afford them. Banks do not have any incentive in providing these products because the risk exceeds any possible reward.
Only the rocket scientists in Washington, D.C. came up with this scam. Oh, I'm sure you remember it (CRA) was started under Pres. Jimmy Carter and beefed up under Clinton and the messiah-elect was the lawyer for ACORN as they protested CITI Bank for not complying by providing these bogus instruments...
I've yet to see government fix anything without the assistance of the private sector. If you disagree, then I'm convinced you are a - well I hate to say it - but a GOVERNMENT WORKER!@!!!
lol
Anon 11:04pm You're wrong on all counts. For starters I've had my own business since 1982.
The Community Reinvestment Act didn't drive the financial system off the cliff. Community banks which are regulated and CRA banks which have even more restrictions on them were getting shut out of home loan business this decade. It was the unregulated independent mortgage companies like Countrywide, Ameriquest, and New Century who wrote most of the the liar loans and subprime ARMs with teaser rates and then fed them to the five now defunct Wall St. investment banks. Those clowns repackaged the junk mortgages, sold them, made bets on them and then made bets on anyone who bought them. They killed themselves and crippled the world's financial system in the process. And they did it not because there was some federal regulation forcing them to but because what few regulations were left after Republicans had their way weren't enforced because geniuses like Alan Greeenspan thought Wall St. could police itself.
Federal Reserve Board data show that:
* More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.
* Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year.
* Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the (CRA) housing law that's being lambasted by conservative critics.
Here's the whole article for some more facts:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53802.html
If Republicans ever want to get back in power you're going to have stop making up nonsense to fit your ideology that has no basis in reality. Saddam didn't have weapons of mass destruction. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. There isn't enough easily accessible oil left on US territory to tide us over for the next 10 years and even if there was it'd take 10 years to get it to market. Global warming is real, it's chief cause these days is the burning of fossil fuels. The results very well may be catastrophic for mankind. And no, the Community Reinvestment Act had nothing to do with the collapse of the financial system.
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