C.T.B.A. (or quaere verum)
Latin: The phrase “Quaere
Verum” means literally “to seek the truth.” C.T.B.A. is the abbreviation for the Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability, a bi-partisan not-for-profit research and
advocacy think tank that promotes fair, efficient and progressive tax, spending
and accounting. Led by Mr. Ralph
Martire, the C.T.B.A. has made many presentations and appearances to provide
reasonable and alternative answers to solving the pension debt issues in
Illinois. The C.T.B.A. also provides
research and various white papers on a variety of monetary issues made
available at their website www.ctbaonline.org. More than any other person or organization, Martire and the C.T.B.A have been the force behind the truth: "Illinois faces a revenue problem, not a pension problem."
Last evening on WTTW’s McLaughlin Group, moderator John McLaughlin
tried to convince Eleanor Clift that the results of the national election of Barack
Obama as President proved that the Supreme Court Citizens United decision made no difference
in politics whatsoever. Clift was having
no part of that cynical observation, and she replied that it was indeed having
a major influence by flooding the political scenes on all levels – especially
the states – with obscene amounts of money in order to undermine the democratic
process. She couldn’t have been more
right.
The Koch
brothers and other groups will spend barrels of money to bend the truth or
shift the playing field for millions of the middle-class. Never mind that so many $ billions were lost
trying to defeat Barack Obama. There’s
plenty more where that came from, and if you believe “trickle down” doesn’t
work, think again. What a PAC like
FreedomWorks cannot achieve on the national level is not so important as what
it does on the state level. Multiply that with many more PAC's and... The
influence of money works on the state level quite well, and Illinois is
certainly no exception.
Organizations like the Civic Committee of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, the Civic Federation, the Chamber of Commerce, etc., can and do
pump enormous amounts of money into the political system and media machinery to
provide self-promoting and convenient forms of truth; specious slants on
numbers and outcomes; and a callous disregard for facts, morality or
honesty. Witness their constant mantra
that Article XIII, Section 5, of the Illinois Constitution cannot withstand successive
outrageous proposals to ignore the contractual promises made by the State of
Illinois to those who toiled for the public interest. Remember also, with those vast sums groups like
the Civic Committee can enlist the aid of confederates like Sidley Austin
LLP to construct potential frameworks for ignoring the legal promises made to
public sector workers in our state.
I believe we desperately need groups like the C.T.B.A. to
seek truth and promote an accurate and alternate vision against those who would
purchase the power, influence, and political connections in Springfield. I urge you to make a donation.
Thanks for the reminder, Glen. See you
in Springfield!
In Florida a small business that does not publicly show its updated Chamber of Commerce sticker is basically doomed to failure. Even individual real estate agents who don't bother becoming registered realtors put the Chamber of Commerce membership symbol on their business cards.
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