Friday, May 23, 2014

Another Irony: “Trust” and Representative Sam Yingling




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


1 comment:

  1. 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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