Illinois is the perfect illustration of Margaret Thatcher's statement that “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

I think Trump's video was brilliant and doubt he spent any time on it at all but assigned it to a staffer. Liberal heads and the main stream media take the sucker bait hook, line and sinker!
Medicaid and all the other entitlement programs are for those who can't work for real reasons but far too many states hand out money to those who simply won't work and make it a lucrative scam. The State slogan for Illinois should be "It pays to be ignorant".

Let's not confuse the magnesium with the magnesia. Illinois is a stew simmering for a while, of it's own creation and recipe. Even if Trump steps in, which he doesn't have a right to do unless some sort of assistance requested, what exactly could he offer that both parties would agree? Nothing. Same with California, a broke state, yet the Governor and legislature is hell bent on raising taxes in order to maintain benefits to illegal aliens and other neglected projects.
The tweets. The media is furious at Trump, mainly, because they can't pigeonhole him as they do every other politician. He controls the news cycle with a simple tweet. What most people don't realize is that with most of his tweets, Trump is talking directly to the people that elected him bypassing the media which wants to control the daily narrative. The media generally ignores those. Would I use some of the wording in his tweets? My imagination is not that good to manipulate a restricted number of characters into such an impact. I try, but have not mastered it. When Trump wants to rattle someone's chain, he does it very effectively. While they're running around in circles, including GOP deep state non-Trump supporter that reveal themselves like an air bubble breaking the surface, what happened in the background that he accomplished while he distracted their attention in a different direction?
Also remember the many times in the past that he would say or tweet something that would rattle their cages and after the outrage and dust settles down, we uncover something new and in fact, turns out he was right, again.
Right now, we have a former president halfway around the world talking trash about America, to non-Americans. If not mistaken, that's the first time ever, a president or former president is not in America celebrating Independence Day. The timing of the trip couldn't have been more telling. However, I don't see anyone writing any articles about that today. And they won't, because the narrative has been written by the media handlers to distribute amongst the media faces and mouths so they look and sound unified.
Covfefe, Mika, psycho Joe, WWE video, it's all catnip in a toy hanging from the end of a rope. Or a knockout blonde sitting crossed leg at the opposite end of a pool table distracting your eyes from where the 8 ball is.
So, horrific or catastrophic, if both parties agreed to ask Trump for help in Illinois, their problems would be resolved. He's all business not politics when it comes to resolving issues. That's the easy part. The hard part is them getting over themselves and resolving to work together, take the medicine and ask for assistance.

This line jumped out at me: "Also, without a budget that includes borrowing to pay down the bill backlog, Illinois by August will run out of money for key expenses for the first time since the stalemate ."

They need to borrow money to pay for things they're behind in paying. Isn't that robbing Peter to pay Paul? Isn't that just kicking the can down the road?

Does it solve even one small problem that OBummer's former state is facing?

As to "making crazy videos or tweets;" I like it. Besides, I don't think he personally makes the videos.That hairdo identifies without revealing. As long as he stays on the road he is currently traveling, he can tweet until the birds fall from the trees as far as I'm concerned.

Talk to California, furlough in public employees for 20% of their salary and cutting their workday to 4 days a week did the trick here several years ago. They got so used to 3 day weekends, they kind of complained about going back to 5.

Changes to Medicaid under Obamacare is largely responsible for the crushing payments. When people with up to 400% of poverty level income are granted Medicaid (perceived as "free" medical care) we're talking about middle class families with incomes of $60,000 a year. Dropping eligibility back to three times poverty level would definitely help.

The biggest issue facing many states is pensions. Most states recklessly offer fixed percentage outlays with no contribution by their employees. That means the burden of payment falls squarely on the taxpayers. Other problems come from early retirement age (sometimes as low as 50), and crazy pension calculations that sometimes result in retirement income that exceeds the highest employment income.

Now is the time for triage, and letting the states that refuse to face reality sink. While some states' voters will see the light and elect more enlightened political figures, there will be some that collapse to third world state and cry out for the federal government to bail them out. Hopefully the federal government will resist the temptation to play Santa Claus for these wastrels.

maybe if they delay long enough the creditors will walk and take a write off. no telling how these "law makers" brain functions that is if they have one.

From the article, "Tom Yates, one of the lawyers who represented the Medicaid recipients. said the judge’s ruling is a “fair result” that will help them have access to care. “Medicaid is an incredibly important program for 25 percent of the state’s population,” Yates said."

My question: Why is 25% of the state's population dependent on Medicaid? One in four people I see in Illinois is dependent on Medicaid? That seems wrong. Maybe Illinois should not make it so easy to be on Medicaid. 25% on Medicaid +15% employed by government = at least 40% dependent on the government ... not counting a lot of other types of government-dependents.

I think Trump's recent crazy video on Twitter is from 2007 ... right? The crazy part is tweeting it.

And so it begins. Illinois has now entered full melt-down status. I wonder how long it will be before California joins them and what the fall-out will be.

Trump is all alone on his quest to whatever it is, as he is not a politician. EVERY politician hates him for succeeding in winning the Presidency. He is upsetting the 'old boys network'. They managed to hold off Ross Perot, but Trump broke through.

Lets add another part of the government dysfunctional puzzle:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chris-chri...

For those who think Trump is a loon, Christie would have been no better, arrogant ass.