Focus on term limits hides real issues

Gov. Rauner wasted precious time writing and submitting an editorial page column expressing his concern over term limits, while, due to his failure to get a comprehensive budget done, state universities are threatening to shut down curricula, programs for the mentally ill are closing their doors and substance abuse clinics are disappearing.

Please, governor, worry less about the time in which you have to do your job and just do your job already.

You hold out on a comprehensive budget because you are on an insidious quest to crush labor unions and collective bargaining, something to which the Democratic-controlled General Assembly will never agree. By doing so, you are playing “Mr. Potter” to our “George Bailey,” stepping on the needy to provide cheap labor for the elite corporate world from which you hail.

Term limits mean nothing without the elimination of “gerrymandering,” without which incumbents may be subject to term limits. But the parties they represent will have a stranglehold in strategically chosen voting districts.

Imposing term limits invades the sole province of the voters and tries to turn the tables on those (dare I say, Democratic) incumbents who have earned long stays in office, not because of “gerrymandering” but because of problems solved and progress made.

I suppose it's fortuitous that a “do-nothing” governor is at least trying to save us from more of nothing by imposing term limits on yourself, though you and your “Scott Walker” charade don't have a remote chance of serving a second term.

If need be, the people of Illinois will protest on the pristine lawns of the governor's mansion to prevent such a travesty.

Mike Fanella

Arlington Heights