The Art of the Deal?

The Art of The Deal – Rauner and Trump?

If you’re an Illinoisan, you should be well aware of what happens when an executive in the leader’s office decides not to allow spending for the state to proceed by blocking a budget.

Ex-governor Rauner’s position, combined with his inability to find consensus and refusals to seek collaboration, left the state’s finances in greater shambles than the desperate balance sheet used by the ersatz Carhart office-seeker to lure a concerned citizenry into considering him for Governor.

His money and blanketing commercials did the rest.  (After Quinn’s using the public sector workers as chum, there was no way he would regain his seat.) 

Back to Rauner:

1.    736 days without a budget.

2.    $14.71 billion in the backlog of bills owed to vendors (with interest).

3.    Services for multitudes of medically needy and other services were unpaid, and unlikely to re-open after being left dry.

4.    People and families in need of state services based upon budgetary amount were left without.

5.    “…some Medicaid providers, human services grant recipients, the Community Care Program and other programs administered by the Illinois Department on Aging.For example, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless found that 90 percent of homeless service providers were forced to limit their intake of new clients, reduce services for current clients, lay off staff, eliminate programs, and/or close work sites due to the impasse.” 

6.    Many non-profits and medical/health service centers closed without funding.

Back to now:

The current occupant of the White House (45) is cut from the same cloth that gave Illinois Rauner, although even Rauner was awkwardly fearful of complimenting Trump.  Rauner tried desperately to appear as “one of the many” in his motorcycle gear and folksy speakin’.   

As of this writing, the shutdown has become a record-breaker.  Day 24. 

As for the ultimate costs? Those too could become a record-breaker.

According to Fortune Magazine, keeping the government running will be cheaper than shutting it down.  “The partial government shutdown comes with a high price: in the billions, maybe tens of billions of dollars so far, and increasing in scale daily. It costs more to shutter the government than to keep it open, so long as accumulated bills and deferred salaries are eventually paid as they have following all previous temporary closures. And the lack of spending drags down the country’s economy, especially in communities with government workers or those near national parks.”

“In 2017, a government shutdown cost the U.S. economy about $6.5 billion per week.  The Office of Management and Budget estimated a 16 day shutdown in 2013 cost the government $2 billion in lost productivity or about 6.6 million workdays lost.”  

In fact, analysts expect that in another ten days, the cost to the economy will have exceeded the $5.7 billion Trump wanted for his border wall/fence, sleeping policeman, moat, etc. 

And, my friends, watch the markets as the shutdown “could shave off approximately $1.2 billion of real GDP in the quarter for each week that part of the government is closed.

If there is a commonality between Trump and Rauner, it is their uncanny resistance to compassion and unwillingness to use victimization as a part of deal-making.  They thrive on it.  It’s never about the art of a deal; it’s only about making you submit.

According to Indivisible Chicago, switchboards in the offices if the senators of the US Senate are being flooded with calls to support Trump's vanity project of a wall.  We can depend upon our Senators in Illinois, but they might appreciate a call in support of their refusal to submit.

Senator Dick Durbin: 202-244-2152
Senator Tammy Duckworth: 202-224-2854

Please remember to thank the staff who take calls all day long.