This Is What A Vote For Obama Gets You
By Frank Salvato
October 31, 2008
I live in Illinois, just outside of Chicago. I live in the state that incubated the political career of Barack Obama and for that, as a resident of the State of Illinois and a conservative, I apologize. But this puts me in a unique position to afford you a glimpse of things to come for our nation should Barack Obama attain the Oval Office, and especially if Democrats maintain or increase their control in Congress. I present to the citizens of the United States the State of Illinois; a working model that illustrates the consequences of a government run by the Progressive-Left.
In 2003, five short years ago, the State of Illinois went blue; not light blue or royal blue but Daley Machine, Chicago Democrat, Progressive-Left cobalt blue. For decades our state existed in a symbiotic political state; the Daley Machine Chicago Democrats controlling Cook County and most of the lesser "urban areas" and the Illinois GOP holding sway in the collar counties and rural areas. But the failure (and I believe cowardice) of Republican Governor George Ryan to take one for the party by stepping down before he was convicted of corruption, ushered in a dark era of Progressive-Left, Democrat political control in Illinois. Democrats now hold all statewide offices and control both houses of the legislature. This being said, everything that has happened since 2003 is attributable to Democrat and Progressive-Left action and leadership.
The governor of the State of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, (web site) has an approval rating of 4 percent. Rasmussen Reports ranks Blagojevich as the country's least popular governor. He is embroiled in the Tony Rezko/Stuart Levine (web site) corruption probe. Levine pled guilty and Rezko was convicted for scheming to obtain kickbacks from investment firms seeking business from two state boards. The governor's wife, Patricia, was a business partner of Rezko. Of course, we know the name Tony Rezko from his shady relationship with Barack Obama.
Under Blagojevich, the state's unfunded pension debt is the largest in the United States. In 2005 that amounted to $35 billion. But that didn't stop Blagojevich from raiding the State University Pension System (web site) to the tune of $1.2 billion in order to "balance the budget," something that still eludes the governor. Additionally, Blagojevich raised licensing fees on auto dealers almost 20-fold, required small businesses to print all of their own forms when filing state paperwork and proposed raising the fee (web site) for the Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card from $50 to $500. He said the increased FOID fee, "...was necessary so people would think twice about wanting to own a gun." Of course, it also put the ability to purchase a gun -- to defend oneself with a legally purchased firearm -- out of range for many middle and lower-middle income families, the Second Amendment be damned.
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