Apparently, if you’re an Illinois Republican, some local news media will just run your entire press release, no questions asked or answered. They won’t even ask his opponent in the open seat he hopes to fill for a comment. #Lazy.
Is State Representative Bailey going to introduce and help pass a bill to fund the audit AND more importantly to reform and fix any problems within the Illinois Department or Employment Security?
Oh, wait, his Republican General Assembly colleagues already did and he wasn’t one of the 17 co-sponsors of HR860. And, let me tell you, Darren Bailey is a co-sponsor of so many bills. I forgot to mention that the last IDES audit was completed only 2 years ago.
So, is this just political grandstanding today that would have been better suited for a real debate during the special session that Bailey made certain to get kicked out of earlier this year instead of co-sponsoring this bill?
I would say Bailey is trying to move away from his dangerous for both public health and the economy anti-face-mask position, but don’t hold your breath and make sure to wash your hands after contact.
Bailey either didn’t bother to check if there were any bills he could have co-sponsored or didn’t care and thought both the media and his supporters wouldn’t care as well. Isn’t that the foundation of the anti-face-mask movement . . . not caring?
SE Illinois News quoted Bailey in late May where he mentioned the unemployed, but only as an aside about a misleading and inaccurate claim he has been spreading about state legislative pay increases, which are not happening.
He also complains about not being able to have any input, yet this news article on News Channel 20 is all Bailey’s own words and not one idea about solving problems.
I think the Illinois and national unemployment system is a train wreck. I don’t need an audit to tell me that, nor do I need an audit to tell me what would need to be done to help begin fixing our unemployment system problems in Illinois. And, many of those problems are being tackled by Governor Pritzker’s office.
Let’s be clear of the gravity of what has taken place.
- 1.3 million Illinoisans had fully processed unemployment claims from 1 Mar 2020 to 31 May 2020
- That’s almost 11.5 times the normal number of claims.
I think anyone could understand a good system being overwhelmed. However, IDES has been so consistently underfunded and under-resourced for so many years, like most state and federal agencies, that the technology systems are stunningly outdated and there aren’t enough people to handle the flood of calls and online activity.
Pritkzer’s office should be commended for not hiding from the problem, but should be criticized for not tackling this sooner, with more resources and for not getting this across the finish line yet.
They doubled call center staff. The website is a disaster, but has anyone tried to use any public sector website or online tool? It’s brutal. The internet is struggling to communicate with the large rocks that the government informs state employees are computers. It almost sounds like a sad Tom Hanks movie.
- What real understanding does Bailey have of unemployment? What real understanding does he have of IDES?
- Does he have any solutions?
- Or is it really just easier to tell people what they want to hear, that they don’t have to wear face-masks, they don’t have to abide by the Governor’s rules, but the Governor has to magically make everything work in a way it was never intended to work and magically balance the budget during a pandemic and do so on the backs of workers and small businesses and not the wealthiest in Illinois?
That was the entire point behind the flat income tax to begin with . . . to starve government of revenue, forcing local governments to rely more heavily on property taxes.
Here we are, 50 years after the flat income tax became law in Illinois and people are shocked that agencies aren’t able to absorb a 10-fold increase in people needing their services on technology from the 80s.
That’s why most candidates and elected officials don’t offer any tangible policies of any kind because why bother when they have a philosophy that doesn’t involve making the system better and their bank accounts are just fine, pandemic or not.
Will Bailey get called out for not cosponsoring his colleagues IDES audit bill less than 2 months ago?
No.
Will Bailey get called out for wanting to waste more taxpayer money on an audit 2 years after the last one?
No.
Will Bailey offer any solutions for the unemployment system in Illinois? Will he demand action and then allow Governor Pritzker to take action without going to court and saying he doesn’t have the authority?
Oh, there’s that unfortunate issue.
How do you criticize someone for doing too much and then criticize them for not doing enough during a crisis?
Leave a ReplyCancel reply