The Timeless Beauty of Democrat Governance: Illinois Owes Suppliers $5B, Takes a Mere 250 Business Days to Pay Bills, and the Hole Worsens Every Day

I just love to open the history books and read about Democrat success stories. You know, Social Security, Medicare, "Great Society", Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Amtrak, the FHA... and the list just seems to grow by the day.

Now that the fuse on their EconoPonzi Clusterbomb has burned to a nub, you can't open the newspaper without reading about another example of masterful Democrat governance. Like in Illinois, with emphasis on the "Ill".

Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.

He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion.

“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office... Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”

...“Their pension is the most underfunded in the nation,” said Karen S. Krop, a senior director at Fitch Ratings. “They have not made significant cuts or raised revenues. There’s no state out there like this. They can’t grow their way out of this.” ...

...“We are a fiscal poster child for what not to do,” said Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a liberal-leaning policy group in Illinois. “We make California look as if it’s run by penurious accountants who sit in rooms trying to put together an honest budget all day.”

Perhaps someday the liberals who actually like America (a minority to be sure, if their representatives in Congress are any indication) will figure out the simple acronym many of us learned from our parents: TANSTAAFL.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

That concept, for the moment, appears to be too complex for the party of fiscal destruction to understand. Obama, Pelosi and Reid will be long gone by the time the misery they've helped inflict is fully felt. But one can hope that they will, someday, be held to account. They'll look good in orange jumpsuits.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!