Easy for politicians to cut others’ pay

Illinois politicians want it both ways. They cite constitutional protection when their pay and benefits are threatened by Gov. Pat Quinn, but they completely disregard that same legal protection when they want to take away pay and benefits from public employees. When Quinn withheld the pay of Illinois politicians Madigan and Cullerton, among others, until they reformed the public employees’ pension system, both said that withholding their pay is unconstitutional and threatened to sue.

The Illinois politicians, without any regard to the constitutionality of their actions, have underfunded the public employees’ pension for years, subsequently robbing the public employees of future wages. Madigan, Cullerton and the bunch passed a law to further reduce the public employees’ pension benefits in blatant disregard to the Illinois Constitution. As a reward, Gov. Quinn restores the politicians’ salaries with back pay and the unconstitutionally issue becomes mute.

It is a shame the public employee unions have to go to court to prove their constitutional rights are every bit as important and legal as the constitutional rights of the politicians. Meanwhile, the incompetence of certain politicians is destroying our well-established pension fund and, to make up for their incompetence, they are doing anything they can to avoid personal monetary loss — even if this means disregarding the constitutional rights of those who have served the public’s best interest for years.

Dirk Christiansen

Schaumburg