While nationally Republicans did great, Illinois was not so good (except Congress, where Mark Kirk won for Senate and Republicans picked up at least three House seats while keeping Mark Kirk’s old House seat). The Illinois legislature, along with the governor’s race, was disappointing. In the case of the latter the Republican candidate was not that good, but then the Democratic candidate was bad, too – unless you like the concept of Michael Madigan running the state.
But the legislature was most disappointing. The Republicans did not pick up that many seats. I am sure that I would be told this was because of the superior campaign organizations that the Democratic legislative leaders had. And that may be true.
In any case it means that Democrats will continue to control the budget in Illinois, which may be only fair. While Illinois’ budget problems arguably started while George Ryan was governor, Democrats have controlled the whole process for the last eight years. They decided how much to spend and how much to tax. And they put us in the mess we are in.
Now it is up to them to get us out of it – assuming they are willing to do so. They could have done it before, but they didn’t. They apparently decided they would rather spend, borrow, not tax, and not pay the state’s bills than to cut spending and/or raise taxes – because cutting spending and/or raising taxes might have lost them votes, even though it was the responsible thing to do.
Of course, maybe we voters are to blame, too. We keep electing them even though we knew what they were doing. At some point we are all going to pay for this irresponsibility – at least those of us who can’t move.
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