With just a dozen days until the General Assembly is set to adjourn, there is a crescendo of partisan accusations. Republican and Democratic legislators both continue to publicly say they hope to reach a bipartisan budget solution, even as both sides accuse the other of bargaining in bad faith.
Republican legislators' leaders came out swinging Tuesday; they held a press conference to accuse Democrats of using "gotcha" politics to try to embarrass first-time GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner, and of not taking Rauner's pro-business prescription for Illinois seriously. The Turnaround Rauner has paraded around the state calls for making workers' compensation and civil lawsuits more business friendly, and for instituting legislative term limits. Only then, he's said, will he discuss raising taxes that could stave off some of the cuts he's called for.
"Republicans are more than willing to negotiate and compromise, but it's clear that the Democrats are continuing to just want to play politics rather than clean up the messes that have been created," Radogno said.
"Nothing could be further from the truth but we have a governor who started his administration a la Rod Blagojevich by pitting himself against members of the General Assembly," Democratic Rep. Lou Lang, of Skokie said in response. Lang says much of Rauner's Turnaround Agenda isn't going to happen because Democrats don't agree with it, and Rauner's the one who's unwilling to compromise.
Democratic House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie likewise called Rauner's agenda a "distraction." "I think that many of the suggestions that he's making are not going to be helpful to the longterm health and strength of Illinois," Currie says. "I just don't buy much of the Turnaround Agenda. But even if he were right none of these measures has anything to do with our short-term budgetary problem. That is an issue that we have to address before we go, and it does seem to me that that ought to be his focus." It could leave things at a standstill.
"The Democrats are desperate for revenue ... The problem is we're desperate and there's not going to be revenue before there's reform," Radogno said. "The problem they (Democrats) face in moving and engaging is they risk diminishing their power base. In my view these discussions are not about policy, they're about power and maintaining power." Senate President John Cullerton's spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said he "is disappointed in the tone and approach of the Republican leadership today. It's counterproductive." She says Senate Democrats have "been fully engaged in the process and continue to hope that we can arrive at a balanced and bipartisan budget."
Democrats have enough members to get a budget passed without Republican votes; though that could bring its own set of political problem, there are signs Democrats are looking to go that route.
