Illinois Review

LaHood: "McCarthy is the Right Person"

DC - Illinois lost two Republican Congress members last week, but one of the five remaining members of the GOP US House caucus - the 18th District's Darin LaHood - says California Congressman Kevin McCarthy is the "right person" to lead the minority in the upcoming session. 

McCarthy was elected Wednesday by the incoming Republican caucus to replace outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan. LaHood said there are several issues he hopes the Democrats and Republicans can work on together in the next two years.

“Kevin McCarthy has worked tirelessly over the past two years as our Majority Leader and we have seen tangible results from our common-sense, conservative agenda. We passed comprehensive tax reform for the first time in 30 years leading to record economic successes, we accomplished landmark legislation to combat the opioid crisis, and have rebuilt our military and eliminated ISIS. Although we have accomplished many goals over the past two years, there is still work to be done as we move forward into the next Congress,” stated Rep. LaHood.

Burr Ridge mayor resigns

BURR RIDGE - Burr Ridge Mayor Mickey Straub's name became familiar to Illinois Review readers in 2012, when he took on the adventure of visiting all 50 state capitals and finding words referring to God and the Bible in each one.

Since that time, Straub sought and won the office of Burr Ridge mayor. 

With the help of Liberty Principles PAC, Straub tried to oust Republican House Leader Jim Durkin in the March 2018 primary. The battle was bloody - and Durkin fought back furiously. Durkin ultimately won re-election, only to lead an even smaller GOP House caucus than last session's. 

Straub didn't refer to what would have been an exhausting race for anyone in his resignation letter written this week. Instead he said he would be returning to building his company and working on writing a long-delayed book about his 2012 trip. The time spent for a $6000 per year stipend no longer made sense to Straub.

He wrote in his resignation letter how much he enjoyed being mayor of Burr Ridge, and explains: 

Di Leo: A Seat at the Table, and CNN's Embarrassing Presumption

By John F. Di Leo - 

As tempers flare in Washington this November, with the dust settling on late-night midterm results and vote fraud occurs in broad daylight… we see an unusual dispute in the news.  This kerfuffle is between a major news source – CNN – and the White House. CNN’s reporter, Jim Acosta, refused to shut his mouth when his time was expired, and even shoved an intern out of the way for just doing her job.  The White House had it with him, and revoked his press credentials - not CNN’s, just his.

The reporter made more of the story than it was, which is perhaps unsurprising, but his employer also made more of it than it was, which should be shocking.  An employer should have a better handle on how to deal with an employee who goes over the line, embarrassing his employer and his profession on international television. CNN even filed a lawsuit against the administration, claiming that it was a violation of the First Amendment for the administration to kick a reporter out of a press conference.

The First Amendment?   Really, folks?

Illinois gun rights referendum results surprise even 2nd Amendment leadership

CHICAGO - Illinois voters outside of Cook County made clear last Tuesday that gun rights are important to preserve. While Cook County voters almost unanimously backed stricter laws on gun shops, voters in the 18 counties that had gun rights referendum on their ballots overwhelmingly agreed downstate lawmakers should not pass tougher gun laws. 

In Chicago/Cook County, 90.43% of the voters agreed with this referendum, "Should the State of Illinois strengthen penalties for the illegal trafficking of firearms and require all gun dealers to be certified by the State?"

"The Chicago/Cook County referendum was obviously written as a trick question," the Gun Rights Watch blog reports. "Of course, everyone is going to be in favor of strengthening penalties for illegal firearm trafficking — but not for unnecessarily requiring all gun dealers to be certified by the state when they are already certified under federal law. By combining the two concepts into one question, lawmakers played the guilt card in an attempt to shame voters into voting for the second part simply because they were in favor of the first." 

Thorner: Dangers Lurk Behind Government's Electronic Health Record Requirement

By Nancy Thorner - 

Twila Brase, RN, PHN, president and co-founder of the Citizens' Council for Health Freedom (CCHF), was featured at Heartland Institute November 7th.  Twila was voted #75 on Modern Healthcare's 2009 list of the "100 most Powerful People in Healthcare."  Brase's commentaries have appeared in CNS-news.org, the Star Tribune, The Hill, Townhall, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times. Her article "Blame Congress for HMOs" has been reprinted in the Congressional Record of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Introduced by Jim Lakely, Communications Director at The Heartland Institute, Twila Brase addressed the very important topic of healthcare as set forth in her book, Big Brother in the Exam Room (The Dangerous Truth about Electronic Heath Records). Twila's remarks were striking in content and elicited a cause for concern among attendees.  

The United States Needs A Fiscal Stress Test

Ever since the financial crisis, elected officials have debated the efficacy of financial market stress tests. Consequently, Dodd-Frank is more controversial than ever.

More HERE

Regulation and Poverty: The Relationship

More regulation makes more people poor. Dustin Chambers, Patrick McLaughlin, and Laura Stanley describe their new study:

We estimate the impact of federal regulations on poverty rates in the 50 US states using the recently created Federal Regulation and State Enterprise (FRASE) index, which is an industry-weighted measure of the burden of federal regulations at the state level. Controlling for many other factors known to influence poverty rates, we find a robust, positive and statistically significant relationship between the FRASE index and poverty rates across states. Specifically, we find that a 10% increase in the effective federal regulatory burden on a state is associated with an approximate 2.5% increase in the poverty rate. This paper fills an important gap in both the poverty and the regulation literatures because it is the first one to estimate the relationship between the two variables. 

The Dangerously Unified States of America

A plea for more federalism. David French writes:

It is absolutely clear from recent American history that the public likes a divided federal government. One party is able to enjoy dominance only for brief periods of time. But it’s also clear that the public is choosing unified state government, and that those unified states are not scattered willy-nilly across the nation. Instead, they tend to be geographically contiguous with like-minded states and culturally distinct from competing regions. [...]

Pritzker campaign boasts new voter records set last Tuesday

In a mass email Monday, the Pritzker campaign says they've drilled down into the voting stats from last Tuesday's gubernatorial bid - and despite Bruce Rauner giving over $57 M to his own campaign, the Pritzker people report embarrassing numbers for Rauner:

• We saw the highest voter turnout in an Illinois election since 1990 
• This year was the first time Peoria County went blue in a gubernatorial election since 1968, Champaign County since 1936, DuPage County since 1932, and Kane County, since 1912!
• This was the lowest vote share for any incumbent Illinois governor in the last century

And it cost Pritzker a mere $147 Million of his own funds (Forbes says more like $171M) in the past year. Chump change for an investor worth an approximate $3.2 B. 

Per VoteSmart . 

As compared to incumbent Bruce Rauner spending over $57M to defend himself.

Per VoteSmart 

Gun rights group sounds alarm on Dems' proposal to tax ammo

From the Illinois State Rifle Association - the first of an array of gun rights alerts sure to be pushed in the Illinois General Assembly over the next couple of years. This alert focuses on the upcoming session dealing with bills Governor Rauner vetoed over the past few months.

While the effort may not be successful before the end of this legislative session, there is no question this and other stricter gun control measures will make their way next session to Democrat J.B. Pritzker's welcoming desk through a super majority Democrat-controlled Illinois House and Senate:

Brinkman Review: Grant's humanity, decency shines in Ron Chernow's tome

Grant By Ron Chernow

Penguin - 2017 - 1104p

Reviewed by Daniel Brinkman - 

At a rally in Ohio a month ago, President Trump called upon the memory of Ulysses S. Grant to make a point about how the unlikeliest of people are sometimes called upon to change the course of history. Paraphrasing Lincoln, Trump said, “They said to Lincoln, you can’t use him anymore, he’s an alcoholic.’ and Lincoln said, ‘I don’t care if he’s an alcoholic, frankly give me six or seven more just like him.’ And he went in and knocked the hell out of everyone… and he’s finally being recognized as a great general.’”

That’s the Cliffs Notes version of Grant’s life. For the fuller and richer tale, you can do no better than Ron Chernow’s thick tome. There are maybe only one or two authors of American History that have so thoroughly and justifiably dominated the scene as has Chernow over the last two decades. From the financial titans of the gilded age to the founders of the American Republic, Chernow has cast an exacting lens over the lives of those whose names evoke legend: Rockefeller, Morgan, Washington, Hamilton, and now Grant.

Thorner: Mid-term election turmoil ferments anger nationwide

Environmentalist Tom Steyer gave Dems $100M

By Nancy Thorner - 

As stated by filmmaker, Andrew Marcus, “What big tech has done to conservative and other undesirable publishers is nothing short of a digital Kristallnacht."  As such, Facebook delivered for Democrats in the midterms by erasing two billion GOP page views, thereby eliminating conservative content to suburban females.  While in 2016 suburban voters and women would check Facebook pages and get conservative news, it’s no longer true.  These same voters went Democrat in the midterms.  Here's more on the Silicon Valley totalitarians.

About the only good news is that Silicon Valley liberals like Tom Steyer have political tin ears.  Because Steyer gave the Democrats $100 million plus, he now demands they impeach Trump. 

Illinois-based Heartland Institute Reacts to the Midterm Elections

The Illinois-based Heartland Institute fellows and policy advisors weigh in on what the midterm elections mean for education policy, health care, energy, climate policy, and more.

More HERE

Divided We Stumble: Working-Class Actions & Educated Screw-Ups

By James M. Kushiner, Executive Director, The Fellowship of St. James -

David Brooks comments on what we might call a great divide in the American body politic, between the "educated" classes and "high-school-educated, working-class Republicans." Our educated class has been running the country, largely, and that includes politicians who are "conservatives."

52 years ago, 71% of Congress's House Members held bachelor's degrees. 40 years ago, 77% did. 30 years ago, 84%. 9 years ago, 94%. 3 years ago, 96% of House Members held bachelor's degrees.

Has this education helped our country? Brooks writes about Oren Cass's "absolutely brilliant" new book, "The Once and Future Worker."

Teachers Unions Oppose Paying Teachers More Because It Would Introduce Too Much Competition Into Public Schools

Ladies and gentleman, unions: “Education should not be a competitive endeavor,” California Federation of Teachers president Joshua Pechthalt told the Sacramento Bee. He was responding to a GOP gubernatorial candidate’s suggestion that better performing teachers be paid higher salaries.

The candidate lost, but there is one reason to think public policies that promote competition—and thus better services in government—have a chance in the future, as Steven Greenhut notes:

The Lessons of the Failed Armistice of 1918

On Veterans Day, thank a veteran. And remember the cost of bad decisions made in 1918-1919. Victor Davis Hanson writes:

Keeping the peace is sometimes even more difficult than winning a war.

For an enemy to accept defeat, it must be forced to understand why it lost, suffer the consequences of its aggressions—and only then be shown magnanimity and given help to rebuild.

Losers of a war cannot pick and choose when to quit fighting in enemy territory.

The Creepy Line' Movie Screening and Discussion

The Creepy Line is a title taken from the words of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when during a 2010 interview he explained Google’s code of conduct: “The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.

However, as Dr. Robert Epstein explains in the film, “Google crosses the creepy line every day.” Containing interviews with Jordan B. Peterson, Peter Schweizer, and others, The Creepy Line offers an explosive look at the meddling and intervening done by Google and Facebook on their supposedly “neutral platforms.”

The Creepy Line takes the conversation about data privacy and control further than ever before by examining what Google and Facebook do once they control a user’s data. Offering first-hand accounts, scientific experiments and detailed analysis, The Creepy Line examines what is at risk when these two tech titans have free reign to utilize the public’s most private and personal data.

Special Screening - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 | 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
The Heartland Institute | 3939 North Wilke Road | Arlington Heights

Register HERE

Here's where the Illinois Democrats will take us all in the days ahead

Since in a democratic republic the majority rules, all Illinoisans need to understand exactly where the Democratic Party of Illinois will be taking the state in the days ahead.

After all, Illinois Democrats now hold a super majority in both chambers, the governor's seat and the majority in the judicial system. It's only fair that Illinois conservatives all be aware of the ride that's ahead.

From the Democratic Party of Illinois' website: 

Progressive efforts likely to accelerate through more Democrat-controlled states

CHICAGO - Illinois isn't the only state that was hit by a Democrat deep blue wave this week. State legislatures swung back to blue from red throughout the nation. 

From Associated Press - the "progressive" agenda will move quicker than most imagined through state legislatures now: 

The Democratic power surge in statehouses and governors’ offices will boost a host of progressive priorities, including health care, school spending, gun control, environmental protection and voting rights — even as divided government causes gridlock in Washington. 

In at least seven states, Democratic governors succeed Republicans. And the party flipped at least 350 state legislative seats from red to blue. During the eight-year Obama administration, the Democrats lost nearly 900 state legislative seats, allowing Republicans in many states to cut taxes, restrict access to abortion and stiffen voter ID laws with little Democratic resistance.

Will the huge egos of JB Pritzker and Mike Madigan blend or balk at each other? Illinois Policy considers ...

CHICAGO - Illinois Policy Institute raises a relevant question for the state's political observers: Would JB Pritzker ever dare to challenge House Speaker Mike Madigan's power by offering campaign dollars to those that defy the Speaker?

Could be wishful thinking, or it could happen. Neither Blagojevich or Quinn had their own resources to test this theory. But it's very different with JB Pritzker.

Here's Illinois Policy's theory: 

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan is about to see two things he’s never seen before. And given he’s been in the Statehouse since 1971, that’s saying something.

The first is the strength of his majority.

Democrats have never held more than 72 seats in the 118-member Illinois House, with the high water mark coming in 1991. The magic number required to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot and override the governor’s veto is 71 votes.