ILLINOIS STOPS PAYING ITS BILLS – AT 8:15 P.M. ET:  Illinois, home state to President Obama, we think...well, after Indonesia, Hawaii, Kansas, and maybe downtown Kenya...is on the verge of financial ruin, and has stopped paying its bills.  The New York Times reports:

CHICAGO — 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.”

For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.

COMMENT:  Uh, say guys, right next door is Indiana, run by a governor named Mitch Daniels, and Indiana's state government isn't sinking, and is paying its bills.

You think it has something to do with responsible government and careful planning?   Nah.  Whoever heard of that in the People's Democratic Party Republic of Illinois.

In the meantime, up north in Illinois, the city of Chicago has spent this week writing and adapting the most severe gun-control law in the country.  Why?  Because, as all truly enlightened people know, if you take guns away from law-abiding citizens, the murder rate goes down. 

That's true, isnt it?  It is true, no?  Could you give me some coaching on this?

July 3, 2010