The new economy: Tax hikes for all, tax relief for the well-connected, campaign contributions for the politicians.
Excerpts:
“New York gave us banks too big to fail. Washington bequeathed us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Still, when it comes to crony capitalism, no one quite matches Chicago.”
” It’s no coincidence that both have been supported by Gov. Pat Quinn and other top leaders of the state’s Democratic Party. In so doing, Chicago is giving America a window into the logic of crony capitalism: Raise taxes on everyone—and then cut side deals with those big enough to lobby for special relief.”
“To be fair, these companies have a case when they complain that Illinois is making them less competitive.”
“Alas, equal treatment is not the Chicago way.”
“For notwithstanding an exodus of job-creators and a public debt that has the state in hock up to its eyeballs, the Illinois GOP has not been able to come up with an alternative message.”
“According to a soon-to-be released study of IRS tax filings from the free-market Illinois Policy Institute, between 1995 and 2008 Illinois lost 345,891 tax filers. All in all, that works out to a $188 billion loss in net income. That loss is remarkable, especially given that one in four of these taxpayers moved to a bordering state.”
“This is the fruit of Chicago politics. That much should be clear from the governor’s election in 2010, when Mr. Quinn won office despite losing 98 of the state’s 102 counties”
“Next door in Indiana, Gov. Mitch Daniels is showing what you can do when your government gets control of spending and allows its businesses to blossom. In sharp contrast, by settling for Chicago rules Illinois provides us with the perfect bad example, a vivid illustration of how high taxes and crony capitalism go hand-in-hand.”
“Our Chicago machine has come up with a deal so rotten it’s uniting Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party,” says the Illinois Policy Institute’s Collin Hitt. “If Illinois Republicans don’t use this opportunity to find their voice on tax cuts, they never will.”
