Illinois Review

The high hidden price of paid-family-leave laws

They want to rob Peter to pay for Paul’s parenting. Betsy McCaughey writes:

Every Democrat vying for the White House backs federal legislation that would guarantee workers nearly three months of paid family medical leave every year.

Sounds wonderful. We all favor caring for newborns and sick relatives. And working nine months while getting paid for 12 will appeal to many voters. The issue is who foots the bill for paid leave. These pols want to force you to pay with a hefty federal payroll tax.

That’s bad news for single guys who are unlikely to take leave but will be taxed anyway. Ditto for older people who have already raised their kids and don’t want their paycheck shrunk to fund someone else’s parenting. It’s also a raw deal for employees who already get paid leave on their job. They’ll have their paychecks shaved anyway. [...]

IL GOP apologizes for County Chairman Facebook post. Would these Varvel comics pass?

CHICAGO - Indy Star cartoonist Gary Varvel's work is shared on Facebook and re-Tweeted thousands of times every day. He's well-known for mocking the Radical Left and bringing smiles to conservatives voters nationwide. In July alone, Varvel took on the Left, the Iranian tyrant Ali Khamenei, and yes, even the four Democrat Congresswomen that have slammed the USA, the Jewish nation, the US Border Patrol, Homeland Security - just to name a few. 

Facebook labels St Augustine quote as ‘hate speech’

A quote from St Augustine has apparently been banned from Facebook.

Domenico Bettinelli, a pro-life activist from Massachusetts, said in a blog post that a passage by St Augustine from the Divine Office was taken down because it violated Facebook’s “Community Standards on hate speech."

The quote says:

Is it Now Time for #NEAexit?

When a bunch of teachers gather for a yearly convention, you might think that education matters would be front and center. But when the National Education Association convenes for its yearly wingding, politics is the centerpiece. And this year’s event, which wrapped up last week, certainly maintained that hallowed tradition.

NEA chief Lily Eskelsen García’s opening comments laid the groundwork. After some obligatory kvetching about large classes and low teacher pay, she launched into a diatribe against the Koch brothers whose agenda she claims is “profoundly un-democratic; and un-American.” (She never explains why, but I can only assume it’s because the Kochs believe in educational choice.)

More HERE

Gas Taxes Not the Solution for Transportation

The Problem

Gasoline taxes are an unreliable funding source for state transportation projects, road construction, and maintenance due to declining gasoline prices and more fuel-efficient vehicles. In 2015, Daniel Vock, writing for Governing, analyzed state gas tax data reported to the U.S. Census Bureau and found two-thirds of state fuel taxes failed to keep up with inflation.

U.S. Military eyes 16-year-olds as ranks and candidates dwindle

The best way to fix the U.S. armed forces’ recruiting challenges may involve dipping further into the nation’s high schools.

As the Army, Navy and other services contend with a thriving economy and a directive to expand their ranks, there is a growing debate over whether the military should consider lowering the minimum enlistment age from 17 to 16. More than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, already have adopted the policy.

Ives enters 6th CD GOP primary; Casten and DCCC react

WHEATON - Thursday, former state representative and gubernatorial challenger Jeanne Ives filed with the Federal Election Commission her intentions to be the IL GOP's 6th CD nominee in the March 2020 primary.

As news of her filing leaked to the media before she had a chance to make a formal announcement, Sean Casten - the Democrat that "Blue-waved" Republican Peter Roskam in the November 2018 general - hit his supporters up for donations.

The Casten camp's first words about Ives reflected just how down and dirty an Ives vs Casten race will be.

Nevins: Come on, we don't need or want "polite" primaries

Who wants Downton Abbey-esque primaries? 

By Jennifer Nevins - 

Primary season is upon us and that means one thing: the candidates, their boosters, and the grand masters of the IL GOP will put their efforts into admonishing us peons to behave.

The way in which they go about this varies of course, but social media is where the hall monitors patrol. Many of these individuals that normally consider themselves too refined to mix it up with the commoners descend on Facebook in the hopes of tamping down any pointed evaluations of specific candidates.

Township boards join growing movement to protect Second Amendment rights

ST. CLAIR COUNTY - One by one, Illinois counties outside Chicago and Cook County continue to express their devotion to the Second Amendment by passing a Firearms Sanctuary Resolution. When unsuccessful in passing the resolution in a county where officials lean towards gun control over gun rights, firearm defense proponents are finding alternative ways to promote their cause.

The Illinois movement has grown so much that the number of counties declaring their intention to protect Second Amendment rights against state mandates now by far outnumbers the counties that refuse to commit to protecting the right to keep and bear arms.

This week, St. Clair Township's governing board in St. Clair County passed the resolution with a 3 to 1 (abstained) vote. St. Clair Township joins O'Fallon Township of the same county.

Illinois delegation votes along party lines on federal "Raise the Wage" Act

WASHINGTON DC - Democrats from Illinois locked arms Thursday to compel businesses nationwide to pay new employees a minimum of $15 per hour - a measure the state of Illinois is now implementing.  All Republicans in the U.S. House from Illinois opposed the measure. 

The measure is unlikely to be heard in the Republican-led U.S. Senate. According to Skopos Labs, there is a 24% chance of the measure being enacted.

Pritzker rejects federal funds tied to limiting abortion access

CHICAGO - Governor JB Pritzker announced Thursday Illinois will ignore the Trump Administration's newly-enacted policy to withhold federal funding from abortion providers. Pritzker said they will go around Trump's poicy by providing state taxpayer funds, his office said Thursday.

Referring to President Trump's policy to provide federal funds to clinics that provide health care for women, but do not offer abortion services as a "gag rule," Pritzker's office condemned the action.

Thorner/Boese: Revolutionary approach needed to survive, counter growing cyber threats

By Nancy Thorner & Al Boese - 

If you were around the business world in the mid 70’s, you undoubtedly collided with the “Quality” mania that was beginning to captivate industrial corporations, financial institutions and even government. At the time, Japan Inc. was trouncing us in important manufacturing segments; automotive, photography, business and office equipment, and electronics. We were being overwhelmed by the Quality revolution in Japan, long pioneered by W. Edwards Deming.

Democrat doctor swings Republican to challenge Durbin in 2020

Dr. Marshall (far right) with 2018 Democrat IL gubernatorial candidates

BURR RIDGE - Will Democrat Dick Durbin have a GOP challenger in 2020?

The IL GOP has been hushed on the topic thus far this cycle - leading all concerned to believe the Republican hierarchy hasn't been successful in wooing a credible candidate into the race. That inactivity has emboldened Dick Durbin to become more and more radical in his Leftist stands as the US Senate Minority Whip - second only to New York's Chuck Schumer in Senate Democrat political power.

So, the apparent inactivity of the IL GOP to begin a buzz about a viable Durbin challenger is leaving the door wide open for unknowns and perennial political gadflies to step into the limelight - such as Dr. Robert Marshall from Burr Ridge, Illinois.

Civilizational Suicide: Qatar’s Vision Shapes American Classrooms

Qatar’s vision for America is now being peddled through our children’s classrooms, targeting a pliable population and one with a long shelf life.

Beyond its media empires and bought-off D.C. influencers and think tanks, Qatar has set its sight on the next generation of Americans.

Will Trump Reward Amazon's Killer Cronyism?

An ironic thing about government cronyism.  Only the hugest companies who need the government help the least – can afford to bribe and buy it.

(This is NOT a call for Little Guy cronyism.  We’d like everyone treated equally by the government and the law – per the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.)

Why Does the Left Loathe the Free-Market System?

People respond to incentives. This is the case regardless of how the politico-economic system in which we live and work is structured. In an important sense, then, we are never outside of the market, because we can never successfully abstract human social and economic dynamics from this fundamental truth that people are sensitive to incentives. Thus, if we propose increased government involvement in the economy or in a particular sector of it, we should consider that government actors are, no more or less than non-government actors, bound to respond to incentives.

Accordingly, we should ask whether we have improved the overall organization and structure of the incentives at play by increasing the state’s role. To answer this question requires an understanding of the qualities that define the state, that make it different from other human institutions. Fundamentally, the state is a behavior, and that behavior is predicated upon violence.

More HERE

Switzerland Has a Budget Surplus

Switzerland has a budget surplus. Here’s how, and what the U.S. could learn.

The Revolving Door Didn’t Start at Pfizer

The Heartland Institute wouldn’t normally applaud Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, but she deserves credit for calling out the crass cronyism among some of the highest level employees of the federal government. Unfortunately, Warren barely scratched the surface on the audacity of unelected and unaccountable executive agency officials who blatantly abuse their positions of power for their own gain.

In a letter, Warren urged former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb to remove himself from the board of directors of Pfizer, a large pharmaceutical firm and a position Gottlieb joined not even three months after leaving his post atop FDA. Warren implored Gottlieb to resign from his swanky position, calling his hiring a “kind of revolving door influence-peddling (that) smacks of corruption, and makes the American people rightfully cynical and distrustful.”

More HERE

Illinois manufacturer stands against federal minimum wage proposal

WAUCONDA - A Chicago suburban manufacturer says the Democrat proposal in Congress requiring a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour would reverse the progress her company and her employees have made in the past couple of years. 

HM Manufacturing President Nicole Wolter says in an op-ed published in the Daily Herald Wednesday that "as a small business owner, I have to point out the truth -- this bill will bring ruin, not prosperity, to the country."

Illinois conservatives to meet up August 24 in Bolingbrook

BOLINGBROOK - It's that time of year when Illinois conservatives meet up to exchange ideas and hear from conservative powerhouses fighting the battle against Leftism throughout the US. 

The Illinois Conservative Union's 4th Annual ICU Grassroots Activist Conference "Illinois: IN PLAY" will be held Saturday, August 24, 2019, 8 am until 4 pm at the Bolingbrook Golf Club.