As goes Illinois, so goes Obama

Gov. Pat Quinn in a recent interview said that the Democratic Convention would consist of “truth slinging” to combat the Republican Convention’s “mud slinging” about President Obama’s job performance and economic policies. One needs only to look at Democrat controlled Illinois’ record so see the “truth” of what Obama’s plans for his second term might look like.

In 2010, Gov. Quinn inherited a similar poor economy and budget deficits as the president did in 2009, despite the stimulus package. Unlike the president, however, his predecessor was another Democrat whom he wouldn’t readily blame for his problems. Like the U.S. Congress in Obama’s first two years, the state legislature was controlled by the Democrats as it has been for years and therefore so was the state’s economic agenda. What did they decide to do? Raise taxes on personal income and corporate profits by over 50 percent across the board with promises that it would be coupled with spending cuts to bring down the state’s deficit.

To win support of public union supported Democrats, Quinn promised a no-layoff policy for two years with union contracts that included pay raises in both 2011 and in 2012.

What have Illinois Democrats accomplished? Spending has increased, resulting in a projected $9 billion deficit this year with increased borrowing to fund it. The state’s credit rating has been downgraded twice to just above junk bond status. The Illinois unemployment rate rose in July to 8.9 percent as employers left the state for Wisconsin and Indiana where Republicans have reduced government spending and cut taxes to attract business.

This is hardly the vision of economic recovery used to justify the tax increases.

The Democrats’ big government spending focused economic policies have failed by any reasonable measure to restore jobs and economic growth, and electing President Obama to a second term would produce the same disastrous results seen in Illinois and elsewhere but on a national scale.

David Swanson

Elgin