Letter: Follow the money of political support

Rep. Allen Skillicorn held a town hall meeting in Algonquin on June 20 regarding Illinois' "Pension Crisis." His solution, outlined by two presenters from "Wirepoints," was the worn-out trope of replacing public pensions with 401(k) plans.

With his proposal to move public workers to 401s, Rep. Skillicorn is furthering the failed radical libertarian agenda that is poisoning our economic system.

Who were the "Wirepoints" presenters? Ted Dabrowski served as vice president for the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank with ties to the Koch brothers. Mark Glennon managed a venture capital investment company. It is no surprise that they are looking to strip teachers, police, firefighters and EMTs of retirement security.

Coincidently, on June 22 in the Daily Herald, there was an Op-Ed by Dan McCaleb who also talked about the terrible level of pension funding in Illinois and repeated many of the same ideas that were mentioned in Skillicorn's town hall meeting. McCaleb mentioned that the statistics used in his article came from Wirepoints, which, according to McCaleb, "has been examining Illinois pension problems and offering solutions for years."

Mr. McCaleb is news director of Illinois News Network, a project of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a journalism group that has been accused, much like the Sinclair Broadcasting group and Fox News, with blurring the distinctions between journalism and political advocacy. The Franklin Center also has ties to the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation.

The Kochs' mantra of extreme libertarian, small government, free market and no regulations plays out on the backs of people who have earned their pensions.

Don't listen to what they say. Look to where they get their funds.

Paul McDonough

Algonquin