RepubliCrats Attack Illinois Public Workers

Dec 7, 2015

Republican Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner wants public workers to pay for the state’s fake budget crisis. He’s made it clear he wants to ban public worker unions from bargaining over salary, pensions, and healthcare. And he wants to impose at least two BILLION dollars in cuts to pensions alone.

The Democrats make a show of blocking Rauner from carrying out these attacks. But the reality is that the Democrats and Republicans are two faces of the same policy.

Rauner and Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel are famous good buddies. Before either was elected, Rauner sent millions of dollars of business Emanuel’s way. Emanuel was a frequent guest at Rauner’s Montana ranch. And now they’re working together again. As Rauner attacks state workers, Emanuel attacks teachers and other city workers.

And Rahm Emanuel is not the only former Obama chief of staff to have close ties to Rauner. William Daley, brother to the former Democratic Mayor Richard M. Daley, served on Rauner’s transition team after he was elected governor.

The President of the Illinois Senate, Democrat John Cullerton, poses as a friend of workers and pretends he is working to block Rauner’s attacks. But a reporter recently asked him if he was open to a law outlawing public worker unions from negotiating over pensions and salary with local governments, in order to make a budget deal with Rauner. Cullerton said, “if there are ways in which we could help local governments and school districts save money, we are open to that.” In other words, this “friend” of the unions is “open” to destroying them.

Rauner, Emanuel, Cullerton, and Daley may not be in the same party. But they serve the same class–the wealthy. At our expense.