Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, August 6,2009

Clayborne would be a different sort of candidate for governor

While fellow Democrats Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes were hurling insults about the state budget at each other several days ago, I picked up the phone and called Illinois Senate Majority

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 30,2009

Drowning in red ink

Erasing five years of preschool progress, and other travesties

By Rich Miller

Moments after members of the Illinois State Board of Education voted to cut the board’s budget by a net $180 million last week, an activist group called Voices for Illinois Children sent out a

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 23,2009

You call this a budget?

By Rich Miller

The budget — if you can call it that — which passed the General Assembly last week has as much as a $5 billion hole in it, borrows over $7 billion from Wall Street and state ve

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 16,2009

Mike Madigan’s agenda revealed

By Rich Miller

“You guys are going to have to come up with a new conspiracy theory,” Attorney General Lisa Madigan told Rockford Register-Star columnist Wally Haas last week about her decision to go for

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 9,2009

Quinn learns to play the blame game

By Rich Miller

As with any state legislative overtime session and possible government shutdown, “Job One” right now is making sure somebody else gets the blame. Last week, Gov. Pat Qu

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 2,2009

When will Lisa Madigan come out of hiding on tax hike?

Meanwhile, Republican governor hopefuls posture and pontificate

By Rich Miller

Every Republican governor this state has had for the past 40 years has raised taxes. Republican legislators and most of their leaders have always been involved with those tax hikes.

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, June 25,2009

If voters ran government, mess would be worse

By Rich Miller

Usually when polls are taken about tax hikes, the respondents are “informed” about the benefits of raising more government money, whether it’s for education, public servic

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, June 18,2009

Pat Quinn’s three undesirable alternatives

By Rich Miller

It’s tough to find people who truly believe that Gov. Pat Quinn will ultimately pull the trigger and give the go-ahead to draconian budget cuts in the coming fiscal year in order to

Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, June 11,2009

Illinois can’t cut its way out of this mess

By Rich Miller

Almost every reporter who covered the unveiling of new budget-cutting recommendations by the governor’s Taxpayer Action Board last week claimed the “TAB” had found a half

Politics - Rich Miller | Wednesday, June 3,2009

Democrats to blame for legislative debacle

By Rich Miller

The Democratic Party was given a clear mandate in the past two election cycles, but they completely blew it last week. The Senate has more than a three-fifths majority, the House i