Washington Post photo
SPRINGFIELD – Four Democrat women in the Illinois House proposed a resolution this week calling on the Trump Administration to cut military spending and instead provide clean drinking water, schools, medicine and solar panels to other countries.
Democrats State Rep. Laura Fine, candidate for lieutenant governor with Senator Daniel Biss State Rep. Latisa Wallace, former Planned Parenthood director State Rep. Robyn Gabels and State Rep. Camille Lily all agreed that the president, the top four U.S. Congressional leaders and the Illinois congressional delegation should stop an effort to move $54 billion from "human and environmental spending" to reinvigorate the nation's military.
While the women's proposal passed the Human Service Committee along party lines, when HB 544 got to the House floor, one House member – a military mom and a former West Point graduate herself – stood up to defend her sons and the military as a whole.
State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) didn't mince words. The Democrat women chose to hold their resolution from being voted on, perhaps because Rep. Ives demanded a roll call vote that could be used to undermine Democrat incumbents that would have supported the efforts.
On her Facebook page, Rep Ives wrote:
Because Illinois has its fiscal house in order and should give financial advice to other units of government (sarcasm), a Democrat legislator presented a resolution on the IL House floor yesterday urging the federal government to decrease military spending and divert the money to green energy, foreign assistance, and the poor. – Your tax dollars at work. The video is my response to such nonsense. In the end, she pulled the bill knowing it would fail miserably.
Just this week Matt called me from Alaska where freezing temps have already arrived. He said they went to the field and only one Stryker vehicle in his platoon had a working heater. The military personnel and equipment has been utilized to the max over the past decade with budgets insufficient to sustain the replenishment of equipment or training required. And personnel count has dropped, meaning more repeated deployments for the troops.
On the House floor, she said:
