Tag: budget cuts

Cruel governor, irresponsible Democrats

Two views of autism program budget cuts:

To Democrats, it was the “Good Friday Massacre;” a double-cross by the Republican governor after securing their votes on emergency budget bills. They voted for those bills at Rauner’s behest because, they believed, they contained assurances that programs like The Autism Project would be protected.

To Republicans, it was a painful yet necessary act by an administration that, for the first time in 12 years, will not play numbers games or push this year’s expenses into next year. It was the Democrats’ fault for passing a budget last year knowing that it did not have enough money to get the state through the year. Filling the $1.6 billion hole they created meant hard choices.

The second makes more sense. That phony budget of last year, very bad. Why do they do us like they do, do, do?

Day care threatened: why?

Chi Trib’s Vikki Ortiz Healy comes up with featurization of real problems, a tear-jerker well done. But something’s missing as it is in many, I’d say most, such stories, namely any nod towards the fiscal insanity that has led to this situation and the need to cut the budget before worse things happen, far worse than this loss to young apparently unwed parents in Cicero.

Parents and child at Morton East (Trib pic)

Thank heaven for little girls, sang boulevardier Maurice Chevalier, and thank it for a culture and perhaps religious motivation that leads them to have their babies in the first place. But is it hard-hearted to ask for a little balance in such stories?