“…In fine, we thought he was
everything/To make us wish that we were in his place./
So on we worked and waited for the light,/And
went without the meat, and cursed the bread;/ And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,/ Went home and put a
bullet through his head. – Edwin Arlington Robinson
Playing to the Gallery (the sinister
appeal of HJRCA 49)
Idiom: In brief, playing to the gallery means to seek popular acclaim.
The expression’s origin is from the theater, and it describes the message or
content of the play as written for the less intelligent or to those who could
not afford the best seats in the house and therefore had to sit in the cheaper gallery. In later years it became a way to describe
the person who cheapens his own abilities while seeking the approval of the uneducated
populace, appealing to base instincts and interests. And
this brings us to Speaker Madigan’s Constitutional Amendment HJRCA 49, passed by
all but two senators in the General Assembly.
Madigan’s HJRCA 49 plays to the gallery by exploiting the very real anger
and envies that can separate all of us, yet the amendment ironically does
nothing to ameliorate any of the fiscal woes that our State and its citizenry face. On the surface, Madigan’s Constitutional Amendment
promises to make it tougher to provide pension benefit increases by requiring a
three-fifths vote by both houses.
In fact, there is no part of the proposed Amendment that
will assist in the paying down of the unfunded liability, which threatens to
strangle the state’s financial budget.
There is nothing that works to relieve the state from the madness of an ill
designed ramp-up developed in 1995 (P.A. 88-0593), one which guarantees a
tsunami of increasing payments into 2035. No attempt is made to alleviate or
address the possibly federally prohibited forced payment of extra compensation
by Tier Two employees. In every sense, HJRCA 49 represents Speaker
Madigan’s utmost cynical political gesture and his complete disdain for the
people on all sides; and thereby, as usual, we all become victims of his intrigues.
HJRCA 49 is crafted to appease the “gallery,” or for
those who sorely seek revenge. Nearly
half a decade into the Great Recession, the toll on the shocked middle class in
this country and state has understandably rendered people permanently economically
injured and justifiably angry.
Some very few examples:
“…the typical
American family lost nearly 40% of its wealth between 2007 and 2010, shaving
the median net worth to (lower) levels not seen since the early 1990’s” (Lee,
Don. Recession cut wealth by 40%. Chicago Tribune. 12 June 2012).
Median home
equity for families owning homes fell nearly 43%, from $95,300 to $55,000. Incomes have likewise fallen nearly 8% (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-06/D9VB5MSG0.htm).
The numbers of
children being born in the State of Illinois into poverty have increased to
nearly 20% - that’s one in five children living in a family of four earning
less than $22,000 per year (http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/stateprofile.aspx?state=IL&loc=15).
One out of
every seven households in Illinois has a zero or negative net worth, and
increases in personal bankruptcy filings in the collar counties have exploded
to an average of over 200% (http://www.heartlandalliance.org/whatwedo/advocacy/reports/2010-report-on-illinois-poverty.html
)
Indeed, this is fertile soil for sowing seeds of hate
and anger; perfect bedding for something like Speaker Madigan’s HJRCA 49.
Add to that the emotionalism and strident catchwords
of the corporate owned media and the local power groups like the Civic
Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Indeed, the Chicago Tribune often highlights its singular role in successfully
assisting Madigan’s proposal for a vote in November.
“ The action (passage of HJRCA 49) comes as the state faces a yawning
gap in public pension funding and follows Tribune reports that have exposed how
public officials and union members have padded pensions with lucrative sweeteners.
The measure also potentially serves as an attempt to channel voter anger over
burgeoning costs of public pensions.” (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-04/news/ct-met-illinois-pension-perks-20120504_1_pension-proposal-pension-overhaul-pension-boards)
It would be inspiring to imagine leadership in Illinois that
makes changes to the fiscal policies of the State of Illinois to revolutionize
and remedy the budget issues, the result of decades of under funding the pensions
needed costs. The Speaker chooses not to
do so. Instead, Madigan chooses to play
a deadly game pitting one group of workers against another, neighbor against
neighbor, and possibly using the amendment to close the door on the state’s
contractual pension obligations for all time.
HJRCA demonstrates the lowest and most vicious form of contemptuous
political expression emerging from an assembly of the supposedly conscientious.
Vote NO on HJRCA 49.
“There is a concept in America that we all strive to live under which is called responsibility, responsibility for our actions. And when one person can spend money and send the bill to somebody else, that’s not responsible; that’s not responsibility; that’s un-American” –Speaker of the House Michael Madigan
ReplyDeleteHow should we respond to Madigan’s “concept in America that we all strive to live under...” when he wants the state’s policymakers to shift the "responsibility" of the state’s debts to public employees and school districts? Should we call that responsible?
Madigan’s new definition of “responsibility” is about sacrificing teachers and other public employees. It is about a disregard for active and retired teachers’ dignity, about betrayal and indifference and not honoring a legal and moral commitment and "responsibility." What really matters for Madigan and other policymakers is the elimination of the state’s pension payments at any cost and not a reform of the state’s inequitable and unbalanced revenue system.
Madigan’s new definition of “responsibility” is about coercing teachers and other public employees to make an unconstitutional choice, or lose the modest state’s health insurance subsidy and creditable earnings in retirement. It entails establishing an inefficient Cash Balance Plan, a scheme that is profitable for pension-consulting companies and employers, contract and pension lawyers and actuaries, but is not as profitable and cost-effective as a traditional defined-benefit plan.
Madigan’s new definition of “responsibility” involves a piece of legislation (a constitutional amendment) that will be a diminishment of Article XIII, Section 5 of the Illinois Constitution, even though there are better and more moderate alternatives that do not violate the constitutional contract, such as the ability to raise taxes through revenue reform so the State of Illinois can pay its debts responsibly.
Madigan’s new definition of “responsibility” maintains the wealthiest people among us who do not pay tax rates commensurate with their incomes, and it supports tax breaks for large corporations. Madigan’s new definition of “responsibility” means sustaining the unethical “winner-take-all” economy for the wealthy egomaniacs among us at the expense of everyone else; thus, it entails scapegoating teachers and other public employees by Democratic and Republican legislators who align their interests with those who want laws passed that will preserve their concentrated economic privilege and power.
“And when one person can spend money and send the bill to somebody else, that’s not responsible; that’s not responsibility; that’s un-American.” And that is precisely what Madigan and all the General Assemblies he has worked for have done throughout the years. It is also called a callous exploitation of power and resources when forcing middle-class workers to pay the state's bills.