Tag Archives: Joe Sosnowski
What if you knew a simple way to quickly cut the national debt by entire trillions of dollars?
By Special Guest Writer: Zach Thanasilangkul
Intern for 69th District Representative Joe Sosnowski
What if, in turn, that same idea lowered the prices of everything from taxes to gasoline to designer clothes to fast food?
Wouldn’t you tell somebody? Of course, you might be thinking that there is no such thing as “a simple way” to accomplish all of this. After all, politicians in Washington have been arguing over money for a few hundred years; wouldn’t they have thought of something by now? Wouldn’t somebody have already stood up and raised their voice? That’s exactly the problem—nobody is standing up …
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Posted in Economy
Tagged Joe Sosnowski
Tough Calls Will Yield the Best Results
The financial crisis plaguing Illinois is no small matter to all state legislators, regardless of party affiliation. In addition to cutting spending and costs wherever we can to balance out our budget and eliminate debt, it is crucial that we identify ways we can prevent it from occurring again in the future. The biggest items draining our state’s checkbook and the first that must be addressed are pensions, health care and other public sector benefits.
Stephen Moore, a senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, published a story this past January on a United States governor who successfully turned …
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Posted in Economy, Jobs, Politics
Tagged Joe Sosnowski
Limiting Collective Bargaining Could Put Money Back Into Local Pockets
Illinois legislators are working hard this legislative session to clear off debts and bills that have been draining the state’s budget. Yet one thing that we should begin to look at as we eliminate our debt are ways to prevent it from occurring again, and there’s nothing wrong with learning a thing or two from our neighbors.
The Washington Examiner reported last year on how the Hartland-Lakeside School District in Wisconsin was able to cut costs by scaling back the crippling costs of health care collective bargaining. The district was in contract to purchase health insurance from Wisconsin Education Association …
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Posted in Education, Politics
Tagged Joe Sosnowski
Campaign finance reform is a must for Illinois
Imagine actually having “real time” information on contributions to political candidates where all funds were disclosed immediately and had to be registered for or against a particular candidate or cause. There has been a lot of debate about changes to campaign finance laws over the years, but these changes seem to make things harder to understand. As we see with the influence of Super PACs nationally, it seems that the systems which have been created to help citizens access information actually result in less transparency.
Illinois legislators are preparing for the start of the upcoming legislative session on January 31st, …
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Posted in Politics
Tagged Joe Sosnowski
Special Veto Session Moves Illinois in a Positive Direction
In a special veto session on November 29, I joined my Springfield colleagues in debating two important issues: pension reform and the Sears/CME tax package.
Small Pension Reform Passes
I was pleased to have voted for House Bill 3813 as it passed both the House and Senate and now waits the Governor’s signature to be put in effect. After various investigations uncovered the greed of union leaders who were reaping millions of dollars from a draining pension fund, we worked together to stop the abuse of the pension system, and put money back into the underfunded pension plans and into …
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Posted in Politics
Tagged Joe Sosnowski
