Ed Rutledge for Lieutenant Governor

By Ed Rutledge

Libertarian for Lt. Governor of Illinois

09/21/2010

Fiscal discipline, to reduce expenses and close the budget gap. Fiscal transparency, so taxpayers can see how and where their money is being used to pay for corruption and bloat. It sure sounds genuine when it comes out of a Republican's mouth, when we hear the GOP candidate talk about restoring integrity and restraint to state spending. He sure talks the talk. Too bad he won't walk the walk. It is too bad that this is just more promises, promises, from yet another career Illinois politician…

Let’s be clear. Status quo politicians have for years done all they could to avoid raising the income tax rate because that would endanger their jobs. But they have been happy enough to raise fees, and to bury hidden taxes into everything you buy or use. They have been eager enough to take money from pensioners, by spending money that should have gone to fund the public retirement system. And they have been overjoyed to tax those who cannot yet vote, our children, by borrowing on their credit. They have done everything they could to keep on spending, except raise the income tax.

Unfortunately for those career politicians, voters (and the bond markets) have figured out their game, in which they borrow and spend and borrow some more. So the music has stopped, and now the status quo politicians are scrambling to find a seat.

You see, both of the major party candidates in this race have spent their careers building the bureaucracies that make up Illinois government, and now they are wondering how to keep their cronies employed and their bureaucracies intact without causing too much damage to their electability. Neither of the major party candidates has come out with a real plan, because they are both at an utter loss. They truly want to have their cake and eat it, too.

But while the status quo politicians live in Dreamland, in which they will promise everything to everyone in exchange for votes, the rest of us live in a stark reality. We live in an insolvent state, we are among the most heavily taxed people in the country, jobs are fleeing, and there is no end in sight. Our career politicians have handed us a state that is both expensive and unpredictable, a very bad combination for economic growth. Unfortunately, the major parties have not been able to put forth fresh candidates that can bring real ideas and courage to the table. Instead, they have only offered us more of the same, career politicians who are completely unprepared to lead Illinois out of the crisis of their own making.

It is still possible to restore Illinois to fiscal health without raising taxes or relying on more long-term borrowing, but it will require politicians to make the budget cuts that the major party candidates have hinted at but have been unwilling to describe.

Only one candidate has been brave enough to outline what needs to be done. The Libertarian candidate, Lex Green, has not only developed a plan to balance Illinois’s budget without increasing taxes or long-term debt – he has posted it, in detail, on his website. Unlike the status quo candidates, Libertarians not only promise fiscal discipline and transparency – they deliver.

I am glad to see that the press has picked up on the incredible lack of details (and reality, and even simple math) surrounding both of the major candidates' plans to restore Illinois to fiscal health. It is important that people know where things stand, and how bad things really are. And it is time for people to see that, when it comes to getting Illinois back on track, there really is only one plan on the table – the Libertarian plan presented by Lex Green.

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