Politics - Rich Miller | Thursday, July 9,2009

Quinn learns to play the blame game

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

Politics - Rich Miller | Wednesday, May 27,2009

After the whistle blows, governor rethinks fundraising strategy

By Rich Miller

At the same time that Gov. Pat Quinn is pushing the General Assembly to pass major ethics reforms and solve a horribly complicated $12 billion budget deficit, his campaign committee has been calling

Politics - Rich Miller | Wednesday, May 20,2009

All is well at the General Assembly, except for the $12 billion deficit

By Rich Miller

It’s been clear from the beginning that Gov. Pat Quinn muffed his budget rollout. Instead of stressing the billion dollars or so in cuts he made and the additional cuts he might be open

Politics - Rich Miller | Wednesday, May 13,2009

Other states aren’t great at regulating campaign contributions

By Rich Miller

Editorial writers, crusading columnists and reformers say it all the time: Illinois is one of only a small handful of states which does not regulate campaign contributions. That’s tech

Politics - Rich Miller | Wednesday, May 6,2009

Things aren’t going well for state’s capital plan

But will the “old” Mike Madigan return and save the day?

By Rich Miller

Everybody at the Illinois Statehouse always says they’re for a major, multibillion-dollar public works construction plan. The problem has been that they could never agree on how to spend the mo