Illinois' top political leaders remain divided. There are only eight days left for them to reach a budget deal.
It's crunch time for the General Assembly. "It is critically important that we complete this task within the next eight days or it becomes much more difficult," Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno said Monday.
More difficult, because it takes a supermajority -- rather than a simple one -- to pass a budget after the end of this month.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has gone out of his way to strike an optimistic tone that it can happen.
"We've got eight days. That's one of the reasons I'm ringing the bell right now. Eight days is plenty of time if we focus," he said.
But while he spoke of compromise, Rauner refused to back away from his agenda -- an agenda Democrats don't like, and which is at the heart of the nearly year long stalemate.