Kirk's 2011 Illinois Debt Report Offers No New Thinking

Last week I received the latest information from Mark Kirk's Web site. One of the items was a video called "The 2011 Debt Report" outlining the miserable state of our state's financial condition.

This video also contained the senators' receipe to solve all our problems. The real problem is that his ideas are not new - they are the same lies that have been spoon-fed to the country for the past 30 years.

I needed to send a response to the senator, and that response follows here;

Sen. Kirk,

It is with great dismay that I view your video concerning your ideas to help the Illinois budget crisis. Everything you highlight has been tried and already failed. Placing new 'spin' by using different words does not fool any thinking Illinoisan.

All these items come straight out of the Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher play book. These same policies have been attempted in Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Russia, South Korea, Poland and other countries in the world. They all suffered the same results; complete and sustaining failure of their governments, elimination of middle-class incomes and the unimaginable wealth brought to the very elite 1 percent of the population.

You speak of "private-public partnerships" when what you mean is selling the "commons" at ridiculously low prices to your friends and business associates, i.e., the Skyway, the parking meters in Chicago, the water system in Bolingbrook - and others that are now a deep regret for those communities and a windfall for the corporations that bought them.

You address the grave financial condition of this state, after a "decade long spending spree." You forgot about Jim Thompson and the ridiculous State of Illinois building in Chicago and George Ryan’s corrupt spending spree and bribery that keeps him still behind bars today.

One good point you have (defending my argument) is the similarities between the sorry state of Illinois and European failing countries. They are in this financial condition SPECIFICALLY DUE TO THE SAME POLICES YOU ARE PROPOSING FOR US.

Respectfully, Mr. Kirk, you need to stop playing politics and think of new, innovative solutions to our problems, not rewinding to the failed policies we have been cursed with for the past 30 years.

Sincerely,

Franklin Marshall

We ALL need to stop playing politics and restore the democracy intended by the founders of this nation. Of, by and for the people - NOT corporations.