Thread by @WillGuzzardi

Let's have this conversation.

"It's okay that the Fair Tax failed, just cut waste": A thread

Wanna cut that bloated public sector? Oops, IL is 44th in the nation in public sector employees per capita, and 30th in state government spending per capita.

usatoday.com/story/money/ec…

https://twitter.com/jjl_ice_yard/status/1324357596829143046

But let's go through that $40B state budget! Surely we can find a few billion in cuts to make.

OK, we've got $9B in K-12 education. But oops, IL is 38th in the country in state funding of public schools.

nea.org/sites/default/…

PS. That's why property taxes are so high!

Up next: $2B in higher ed funding. Might be some room to trim there (Lovie Smith's salary, anyone?). But oops: IL has lost 17% of its enrollment since 2013, 3rd-worst in the country. Probably not the time to invest *less* in our universities...

sheeomain.wpengine.com/wp-content/upl…

Here's a big one: $15B in human services. Oopsie daisies: most of that spending is Medicaid, which gets federal matching dollars. If we cut that, then we lose money! The rest is like, child care and elder care and care for people with DDs. Don't think anyone's excited to cut that

How about $2B in public safety? Well I'm very down to reduce the $1.5B that goes to Corrections, but we're gonna need to pass some major criminal justice reforms to do that.

And then $2B in government operations, we covered that up top. 44th out of 50.

Last: $9B in pensions. Some reminders:

• They can't be cut, per the Constitution
• Retirees ALREADY PAID THEIR SHARE FOR THEM
• Many don't get Social Security
• If we want to make our pension system solvent long-term, we should actually be paying in *more* today, not less

So... the Fair Tax would have generated $4B. Would have closed our operating deficits, gotten ahead on our pension payments, and maybe even freed up a surplus to, like, help people during COVID and stuff.

If you think cuts are gonna fill the gap... show me where!