Illinois - the model of FUBAR

This is going to be a little more localized that my previous posts and concern the state I live in. First the set up.

Our Governor, G-Rod, Rod, Blow-a-Dick, whatever you may want to call him I’m sure it won’t be original to a native of Illinois. HE was re-elected in 2006, god only knows how, he had popularity numbers that made Bush look like a rock star, corruption investigations out the ass, and ultimately got less than 50% of the vote. Well the governor’s relationship with our state legislature has never been a pleasant one since G-Rod was elected in 2002, now things have reached a point on utter chaos. For 2007 G-Rod introduced a massive plan to provide health care to all people in Illinois who needed it, good sound bites such as “Do you know 1.4 million people in Illinois don’t have health care”. Well while this looks good on paper, just like anything, it costs money, and to spend that money there has to be money there to spend. Why is spending money an issue in Illinois? Well to balance his budgets ever year he has been in office G-Rod has raided the pension fund creating an unfunded pension liability in the billions of dollars, our bond rating has been lower, we have raided ever fund imaginable including retirement systems, education, and little old ladies purses who are not paying attention. Additionly the State of Illinois is already almost 12 months behind in medical payments as it is, to which G-Rod responds to stop paying the old payments so we can pay the current ones, at this point several medical providers have stopped seeing patients who have state insurance because they are not getting paid, most notable Barnes Jewish in Missouri no longer takes Illinois insurance patients, and if they do they are put at the bottom of every waiting list. So how does our industrious perfectly hair governor plan to pay for his new health insurance plan you might ask? Well he won t expand gaming by allowing a casino in Chicago, he wont raise the income tax to cover it, he has already raised every fee related to doing business in, around, or in association with the state of Illinois, so he proposes the GRT (Gross Receipt Tax). No w like anything, the GRT went before the State General Assembly (Legislature) and was voted down almost unanimously by members of both parties, when asked by his own party members where he would be willing to compromise all he would say is “do you know there are 1.4 million people without healthcare in Illinois”. Well after loosing that fight, he proceeded to threaten to veto any budget bill that did not include his healthcare plan, and would only pass it if it was paid for with his GRT plan, a plan that failed to gain support in the legislature.
Now you have the lenthy background of this, a budget was supposed to be passed by June 1 in Illinois, it is now august 24, and after the longest legislative session in Illinois history costing Illinois taxpayers over $1,000,000 the governor signed the budget but not before vetoing $500,000,000 in “pork spending”, what he vetoed by the way was only from the house democrats, the treasures office, the comptrollers office, and the Attorney Generals office. It should be noted that those 4 groups have something in common they are all from G-Rod’s on party, and all have opposed him in this budget fiasco.
But here is my real point let me point out some of the things he vetoed, while claiming to want to help people in Illinois get the care they need;
For Healthy Kids/Healthy Minds/ Expanded Vision……… 3,000,000Community college Student Success Grants….. 3,000,000Grants to the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center…… 500,000$6,620,000… to the Department of Human Services, for all costs associated with a 3% cost of doing business adjustment for community based addiction treatment providers.For grants for School Based Health Center expansions… 3,000,000 (This was strongly supported in both chambers.)for the Rural Medical Education (RMED) program at the University of Illinois-Rockford………….700,000For expenses associated with newborn hearing programs…. 150,000For Expenses associated with Pandemic Flu Preparedness…. 1,183,000ILLINOIS VETERANS’ HOME AT LASALLE… For the addition of 80 beds…. 2,225,600FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE UNDER THE ILLINOIS PUBLIC AID CODE, THE CHILDREN’S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM ACT, AND THE COVERING ALL KIDS HEALTH INSURANCE ACT… For Hospital In-Patient, Disproportionate Share and Ambulatory Care….. 2,705,811,200 2,665,811,200 (That’s more than $100 mil cut for hospitals)For Grants to Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County………. 12,000,000 2,000,000For a grant to the Autism Program for an Autism Diagnosis Education Program For Young Children… 10,000,000 5,000,000For Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded and Alternative Community Programs including prior year costs…. 356,856,200 351,856,200 ($5 mil)For Expenses of AIDS/HIV Education, Drugs, Services, Counseling, Testing, Referral and Partner Notification (CTRPN), and Patient and Worker Notification ……… 18,001,200 17,501,200
That almost $140,000,000 in cuts to health and human services, just who the hell does this guy think he is trying to help in Illinois. All because the representatives of the people told him no.

All numbers from capitol fax blog, check it out for more.