A Facebook posting from Illinois State Senator Sam McCann:
I am at my desk here on the floor of the IL Senate. We are in the midst of voting on FY2012 Budget Bills. You may ask yourselves how I have time to make this post when I perhaps should be weighing the merits of the facts contained within the individual bills so that I can make thoughtful, educated votes, for you, the taxpayers for whom I work. And you would be wise to ask that question. And I have the answer for you: I have NO BILL LANGUAGE TO READ!!!!! You are reading correctly. The bills we are voting on are AMENDMENTS to previously filed bills (many of which are SHELL Bills to begin with).
The Amendments become the Bills themselves. And it was JUST MINUTES ago that the Chicago Democratic Machine-controlled Democrat Caucus came out of a back room filing these bills AND immediately calling them for votes. Not only has there NOT been a week or three days or 24 hours or even one hour of SUNLIGHT on any of this budget language, there has not even been one minute. NOT ONE MINUTE!!!! They not only have not had time to print it out, it DOES NOT EVEN EXIST IN THE ELECTRONIC RECORD. Not only can I not pull up the language or any analysis on my “special Senate computer”, there is nothing on the IL General Assembly website.
Furthermore, I don’t believe there is anything even on the rank-and-file Democrats’ desks, either. It is all talking points from their leadership. I am not trying to sound partisan. I was elected by the people of the 49th District and I work for ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE 49TH District. I wake up in the morning and am proud to consider myself an American and an Illinoisan before anything else. But I have to tell you something: this is sickening. It is appalling. At a time when the People of the state are demanding balanced budgets and wise stewardship of their tax dollars, the majority party is choosing to continue to engage in bullying and blind-voting instead of conversation and negotiation.
And here is the real kicker: The Chicago Machine would not be able to run rough-shod over the rest of the state without what I see before my very eyes as I sit here. There are at least seven Democratic senators from Downstate who can’t really engage in the conversation because the first day of session they abdicated the possibility of ever being a true voice for Downstate when they voted for a president of the senate from Chicago. They choose Chicago over Downstate every time. If you take the time to do the math, you will find that if you deduct those seven senators from the Dem side and replace them with legislators who will work for and vote for their districts, we would have a majority (with at least a 31:28 ratio).
And then we would not have what is happening right now on the senate floor. Billions of dollars of appropriations being voted on with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN WRITING TO REFERENCE.
I would say that this is very much like the actions of a Banana Republic, but that would be an insult to Banana Republics everywhere. The question isn’t why Illinois is BROKE, but rather, how have we been able to stay afloat over the past decade with such BROKEN leadership. And the same people who got us here, are still in control.
It is imperative to our futures and the futures of our children and their children that we replace what is broken in Springfield if we are to ever cease being broke.
If you want to change the Thinking in Springfield, you will have to change the Thinkers.
I pray that God blesses us all because after what I have witnessed today, we certainly need it.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and to work for you
