Democrats caused it and now won’t fix it

Taking their lead from the national Democratic legislators, the Democrat-controlled Illinois state legislature passed major tax legislation in the middle of the night during their last day of a lame-duck session. They needed the votes of people who were no longer accountable to the voters to achieve their goal. They had no Republican support.

And what heroic deed did they perform? In the middle of a tepid economic recovery, with food and gas prices rising, they raised personal taxes by 67 percent and corporate taxes by 45 percent. Their hope is to raise $6 billion in state revenue, which means taking $6 billion out of the hands of private citizens and the Illinois economy.

Our national legislators felt a need to extend current tax rates and create a temporary reduction of Social Security contributions by workers to get the economy going again. Democrats in Springfield just canceled out this stimulative action by Washington. Brilliant!

Much like the health care reform and other recent legislation, Democrats used their majority control pass unpopular legislation. Hugo Chavez would be proud of our Democratic Party both in Washington and Springfield. He runs a similar democracy and his country is also sinking rapidly in a sea of social spending.

Gov. Quinn and the legislators position this action as “taking the first step” to getting our financial house in order. Cutting state spending should be the first step. But wait, aren’t these the very same people who have been in charge of Illinois for the last seven years? In the wisdom of the Illinois voters, we bucked the national trend and re-elected the very same group of people to solve the problem that they created. We have the government we deserve! A government of the idiots, by the idiots, and for the idiots of Illinois.

Richard Gylling

Palatine