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Obviously, all reasonable people were pleased in 2014 that the United States credit rating was not harmed by those that were against raising the debt ceiling to pay for debts already incurred (like the Canadian, Ted Cruz).
Yes, pay the bills on your debt by the method of...taking on more debt. Sure, that inspires confidence in the solvency of your country . Besides, there's more than enough revenue coming in through taxes to pay the interest on the debt without incurring more debt - Obama just threatened to not use that revenue and only to use new debt to pay it, in an attempt to blackmail the state's victims into accepting the abuse heaped upon them through Obamacare et alia.
A reasonable person would have said that the interest on the debt and the country's credit rating will be paid first out of the revenue coming in in the event of Congress forcing an instant contraction of the budget to levels balanced with revenue (which would mean by any reasonable legal standard that cutting spending is the will of Congress). Rand Paul and the Tea Party have proposed bills that would explicitly allow the President to pay the debt first in this event, as well as guaranteeing that federal workers and the like would be paid in the event of a shutdown, but the Democrats and Obama blocked all those bills - gee, I wonder why that is...perhaps because it would deprive them of the leverage they use to blackmail the public.
In short, if the Tea Party had had their way there would be no default in the event of no debt ceiling hike and no problems for the federal employees in the event of a shutdown; the only reason the scenarios you outline are even possibilities at all today is the intransigence of the Democrats and various pro-government scum.
Rauner is the good guy in this. He was elected to put a stop to the crazy overspending, not to work with Madigan, who is the bad guy. The Republicans have offered a fiscal compromise but Madigan refuses to compromise, mostly because the Republicans are demanding term limits which will mean the end of Madigan's career.
I'm sorry he's not the "boss". Illinois is not his fiefdom.
While I agree politically, the rating agencies and bond buyers don't really give a drat if spending goes down or taxes go up, as long as one and/or the other happens.
Illinois has a spending problem, giant pension hole, and low state income tax. That doesn't work together, something will snap.
The Budget Deadline was Friday and they still don't have a Budget. Lawmakers privately huddled late into the night Friday, but when they returned to the Capitol on Saturday, Madigan quickly announced that no votes would be taken over the weekend as talks continued.
Meanwhile, negotiations continued on a budget and related legislation sought by Rauner and Madigan as both sides try to work out long-standing differences on key issues. Republicans want Democrats to approve legislation freezing property taxes and cutting workers' compensation costs for businesses. Democrats want Republicans to join them in approving a multibillion-dollar tax hike to balance the state's books.
That all sounds bad - Madigan went to the bond holders and begged them to give him more time - according to Bloomberg.
Illinois Blows Budget Deadline, Pushing It Closer to Junk |Bloomberg - July 1, 2017 Without a spending plan, the state has effectively been on autopilot, leaving it with a record $15 billion of unpaid bills as it spent over $6 billion more than it brought in over the past year. The impasse has devastated social-service providers, shuttering services for the homeless, disabled and poor. The lack of state aid has wrecked havoc on universities, putting their accreditation at risk.
If the standoff isn’t resolved, Illinois officials have said they won’t be able to pay contractors and road construction will shut down, putting thousands out of work. The yields on the state’s bonds have risen as investors anticipate a downgrade.
And all that is not even the Worst of it - Horrific went to Catastrophic Friday evening
Federal Judge Joan Lefkow in Chicago ordered Illinois to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars it owes in Medicaid payments that state officials say the government doesn’t have, the Chicago Tribune reported. Judge Lefkow ordered the state to make $586 million in monthly payments as well as another $2 billion toward a $3 billion backlog of payments - a $167 million increase in monthly outlays - the state owes to managed care organizations that process payments to providers.
While it is no secret that as part of its collapse into the financial abyss, Illinois has accumulated $15 billion in unpaid bills, the state's Medicaid recipients had had enough, and went to court asking a judge to order the state to speed up its payments. On Friday, the court ruled in their favor. The problem, of course, is that Illinois can no more afford to pay the outstanding Medicaid bills, than it can to pay any of its $14,711,351,943.90 in overdue bills as of June 30.
No Budget, no money, $15 Billion in unpaid bills (that they have been ignoring for years) and now a Federal Judge has dropped a Monthly Payment of $586 Million (did I mention every single month & that's just for the new charges) as well as a $2 Billion payment plan over the coming Fiscal Year.
It boggles the mind that these Fools kept kicking the can down the road like they were NEVER going to have to pay the money they owe. The Ramifications will be extreme. Mendoza said Friday's ruling would cause her to likely have to cut payments to the state's pension funds, state payroll or payments to local governments. Payments to bond holders won't be interrupted, she said.
Anyone want to guess who gets their payment "cut" ? It won't be the CongressCritter payroll or the Union payroll ..... it will be payments to local governments. None of it will matter - at this point, there is really no way for them to climb out of the hole they have been digging as fast as the can.
Illinois has just run out of Other People's Money and now some of those "Other People" (i.e. poor people on Medicaid, the homeless, the poor) have begun to fight back. The stupid Taxpayers just continue taking it in the posterior and never bother to "fight back" - they keep electing these crooks.
Whatever happens, the federal government needs to keep their hands off of Illinois' junk.
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. Besides, there's more than enough revenue coming in through taxes to pay the interest on the debt without incurring more debt - Obama just threatened to not use that revenue and only to use new debt to pay it, in an attempt to blackmail the state's victims into accepting the abuse heaped upon them through Obamacare et alia.
