Wednesday, March 29, 2017

SAVING ILLINOIS TAXPAYERS’ MONEY? DIDN’T REPRESENTATIVE MARK BATNICK GET THE MEMO?

3/29/17

I wrote the following letter to the Chicago Sun-Times a few weeks ago, and it is safe to conclude that it will not be published.  Nevertheless, it is worthy of consideration by thinking people and hence I have posted it here for my readers.  

It is almost too challenging to believe that we have people “serving” in Springfield who haven’t figured out the true nature of politics in our once great state and hence go along their ingenuous ways, insisting on things like saving taxpayer money and the like.


3/16/17

In arguing against a proposal by Rep. Silvana Tabares (D.,Chicago) to spend up to $1.5 million to translate portions of the House legislative website and in favor of using Google Translate to do the same thing at no cost, Representative Mark Batinick (R., Plainfield) asked a question that was silly even by the standards of the Illinois House:

“Why are we against a great free bipartisan solution?”

Just how naïve is Mr. Batinick?    Doesn’t he realize that government in Illinois has nothing to do with serving constituents and keeping a vigilant eye on the public fisc?   Is Mr. Batinick such an ingénue that he fails to see that the sole purpose of government in Illinois is to deliver a return on the investment of the people who buy the politicians their offices?   Why would an Illinois pol choose to do something for free when he or she could spend taxpayer money on a contract that would benefit his or her financial backers?   Why pass on an opportunity, any opportunity, to dig into the taxpayers’ pockets?  Do something for free when other people’s money can be spent to solidify one’s position at the public trough?   Has Representative Batinick taken leave of his senses?

Am I being too cynical here?   How can one possibly be too cynical after spending nearly 60 years following the criminal enterprise otherwise known as Illinois politics?      



 See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge, A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics. 

No comments:

Post a Comment