If it’s billionaire vs. billionaire, I’m sitting election out
If next year’s election comes down to Bruce Rauner against J. B. Pritzker, I’mnot voting. I have not missed voting in 35 years, but I will not cast a vote for either man.
Why? I blame everybody. I blame the newspapers for reporting on the candidates’ wealth and declaring it news. How about giving equal coverage to the candidates running who don’t have silver spoons in their mouths?
I blame Springfield for allowing our campaigns to be financed with ridiculous sums ofmoney. Billionaires give unlimited funds to their own campaigns, and precious dollars are thrown away every four years, even as state agencies that are broke fight to stay alive. How do you look a welfare recipient in the eye and tell them a TV commercial is more important than putting food on the table?
I blame the parties and the unions who have already endorsed Pritzker for one reason only: his money. It’s no secret that money leads, integrity follows.
And I blame the voters for not caring enough to research the candidates and decide on their own who gets their vote. We have already lost. If Rauner wins again, it’s four more years of gridlock. If Pritzker wins, it’s four more years of theMikeMadigan show. We are not a democracy if we allow the fate of 12.6 million people to be decided by a wealthy and influential few.
‘ Decent health care’ is not enough
In the face of attacks on Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act by President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, all of us must demand andwork not for the lowstandard of “decent health care in Illinois”— to quote your Tuesday editorial— but a truly universal high quality health care system. We need national improved Medicare for all.
Our nation has the ability to provide all necessary health care to every person for less money than the current total of health care spending. Get rid of insurance company middle men who add zero value to health care while making our system themost inefficient and expensive in the world.