Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, already the most unpopular governor in the nation, has his work cut out for him at his annual "state of the state" speech on Wednesday
The fiscal crisis caused by pension underfunding in Illinois is so bad that some hospitals wait a year to be paid by the state for insurance claims.
Illinois' pension systems are in the worst financial shape of any state at 39 percent funded when no less than 80 percent is considered healthy. State pensions are in the hole by the staggering amount of nearly $97 billion, or $20,000 per Illinois household and nearly four times the annual state revenue.
There might be some movement afoot. Majority Democrats, who have relied for decades on labor unions for political and financial support, are showing signs of a willingness to confront organized labor.
"To date, we have received no cooperation from the labor unions representing state employees on addressing these challenges," powerful state House Speaker Michael Madigan wrote in a January 30 letter to the head of a labor coalition.
The legislature will discuss this week proposed laws to boost worker contributions to pensions, raise retirement ages, eliminate the cost-of-living adjustment for retirees for several years, and end some abuses. http://news.yahoo.com/illinois-governor-bear-grim-news-over-pension-crisis-204320138.html
The state that I am living in has been controlled by the democrats as long as I have lived here. They have made IL the most bankrupt state in the nation.
The Ways and Means, Education and the Workforce, and Energy and Commerce Committees today unveiled the ObamaCare Burden Tracker (#ObamaCareBurden). The Burden Tracker is a real-time online resource to help the public keep track of all of the new government mandates, rules, and red tape as a result of ObamaCare.
The burden of ObamaCare is already being felt, even though many provisions of the law, including the requirement for most Americans to buy government-approved health insurance or pay a tax, are not set to take effect until 2014. According to the Obama Administration’s own estimates, ObamaCare will require American job creators, families, and health care providers to spend over 127 million hours per year on compliance.* That burden is growing with every new regulation published, and the Burden Tracker will be updated as those new regulations are issued throughout the year.
Every hour and dollar spent complying with the Democrats’ health care law are time and resources being taken from spending time with family, growing a business and creating jobs, or caring for patients. Since many small businesses do not employ in-house lawyers and accountants, compliance costs are especially expensive and burdensome. Given the new demands of complying with the law, it is not surprising that over 70 percent of small businesses cite the health care law as a major obstacle to job creation.
What could be done in 127,602,371 hours?
Mount Rushmore, which took 14 years to build, could be constructed 1,040 times.
Halley’s comet, seen from Earth once every 76 years, could be spotted 191 times.
The Empire State building, which took 7 million hours to build, could be constructed 18 times.
The Obama administration has been publicly upbeat about the coming rollout of its health care law. But a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office suggests that at least one set of influential observers anticipates some turbulence in the law’s first years.
On several important measures of the law’s success, CBO’s numbers are pessimistic compared with earlier estimates: Fewer uninsured people will get coverage, insurance options will be more limited, and more employers will stop covering their workers. Perhaps most noteworthy, the report suggests that the new health insurance marketplaces set to launch later this year are unlikely to be completely ready in time.
That negativity came cloaked in the careful language of the budget office—what former Bush health official Tevi Troy called “heavy bureaucratese”—but the report signaled CBO officials are worried that key provisions of the law are not going to work as intended.
The costs are higher than "promised" by P.O., it is unlikely that you can keep your old coverage (as promised by P.O.).
In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year.
Under Obamacare, Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the IRS.
The IRS’s assumption that the cheapest plan for a family will cost $20,000 per year is found in examples the IRS gives to help people understand how to calculate the penalty they will need to pay the government if they do not buy a mandated health plan.
The examples point to families of four and families of five, both of which the IRS expects in its assumptions to pay a minimum of $20,000 per year for a bronze plan.
"In a democracy, we get the government we deserve." We (not me) reelected P.O. and this is a result. Many want others to pay not to work hard and earn.
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