Sam Yingling and others like him chose not to honor their
oath of office in December, 2013 when they voted “Yes” to break a
constitutional contract (SB 1) with public employees. Breaking a promise is a theft
of “trust.”
Regarding
the importance of keeping the income tax rate at 5% for maintaining the State’s
fiscal health, Yingling was quoted:
“…We owe it to taxpayers and
employers to not only give them the relief and the certainty they have been
counting on, but to help renew their trust and let them know that government means
what it says…” (Madigan: votes not there to keep 5% tax rate).
I
have often reminded Illinois politicians that we might assume the government of
Illinois would not want to prove its contracts are worthless, especially when
the “most basic purposes of the impairment [of the contract] clause [Article
XIII, Section 5] as well as notions of fairness that transcend the clause
itself, point to a simple constitutional principle: government must keep its
word” (Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law); furthermore, I have
often reminded them that to possess a right to a promised deferred compensation, such as a
pension, is to assert a legitimate claim with all Illinois legislators to
protect that right. There are no rights without obligations. They are mutually
dependent. Fulfilling a contract is a legal and moral obligation justified by
trust among elected officials and their constituents.
What do you think? Send Yingling a message or call
his office (I did):
District Office:
20 W. North Street
Hainesville, IL 60030
847-231-6262
repsamyingling@gmail.com
Glen, please mark your calendar for June 29th for a speaking engagement with Progressive Democrats. It was through the efforts of PDA and the growing Coalition to Restore Democracy and other groups that we were able in a few days to get the State Senate to pass the ERA. Now to the House for a vote on Wednesday. It's that kind of growing coalition that is needed to do the same for our pensions, workers rights, exposure of charter school abuse, and a state government that answers to us and not big money. I put the request for phone calls to state senators on 40 Facebook pages,and that's what we'll do again today and Tuesday for House Reps. The vote will come on Wednesday. If it passes, we'll need only two more states to get it to Congress after all these years. The same thing needs to be done with all our other issues, although we know the Kochs/ALEC will be out in full force to stop it, but we need to use the internet broadly to get the message out. 73% of corporations don't pay any taxes, the state underfunded our promised pensions, but we can't ask anything of corporations because they might leave. I say, let them leave, which they won't and give our support to small businesses. I'm tired of hearing that same argument over and over. It's a lame excuse as corporations are given endless tax loopholes to hide their massive profits overseas while we suffer. I'm tired of the corporate media lying to us. And yesterday, Clear Channel and a few other massive media corporations that control the airwaves, closed down more progressive radio statons. Point being: we better make use of the internet as much as possible before they block us completely.
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