“In times of crisis,” Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wrote in today’s Chicago Tribune, “citizens should demand leadership.”
Well, some of us—to be specific—this website as well as RepublicanNewsWatch.com, have been demanding leadership from Illinois Republican candidates and party and elected officials for about a decade. Evidently many GOPers in Illinois are hard of hearing.
So instead of my reading the words of an Illinois Republican “leader” in the Tribune this morning I have to settle for those of the Wisconsin Governor. Where the heck is the Illinois GOP plan?
Folks, if you like what your Illinois Republican Party is doing here, then just keep on pretending that you can change the party only from outside the party (i.e., from the so-called “tea party”). Good luck with that strategy. Oh, by the way, the Republicans just nominated Mitt Romney, almost the furthest you can get from someone who has a record of supporting the expressed goals of the tea party movement.
Here’s the opening of Scott Walker’s article in today’s Trib:
All too often political leaders have been afraid to tell the truth about the costs associated with pension, health care and other entitlement obligations. It is time for politicians to own up to these fiscal challenges.
As is the case in Illinois, the truth is often sobering. I know the feeling. When I became governor in Wisconsin, the state faced a $3.6 billion deficit, was hemorrhaging jobs and had high unemployment.
While I’m not an expert on the fiscal challenges facing Illinois, based on media reports I’ve read and stories I’ve heard from visiting your state, there are major budgetary issues that need to be resolved. Illinois faces a fiscal and economic crisis.
