Rauner's Refusal To Release Devastating Budget Details Dominates Weekend

Out-of-touch billionaire Bruce Rauner’s disastrous press conference last week, during which he laughed at questions about his failure to release a budget plan, dominated news coverage this weekend. Rauner won’t release the details of his plan because the only way to pay for his tax cuts that disproportionately benefit him and his wealthy pals would be to gut investments in education, public safety, veterans care, retirement security, and programs middle-class families rely on. It makes sense that he’s trying to keep that a secret – for his entire career, Bruce Rauner has maximized profits for himself at the expense of working people – and that’s exactly what he’d do as governor.
The Chicago Tribune’s Eric Zorn said Rauner was quacking “like a duck” when he repeatedly said, in between “dismissive chuckling” and “rank evasions,” that he would release his budget, “in due time.”
Zorn included another transcript of the embarrassing exchange in his post.
WMAQ’s Erin Carlson dug down even deeper into Rauner’s shady secrecy when she wrote her Ward Room blog that, even as he paid for political robo-call attacking the budget, he remained “frustratingly vague” about his own:
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently accused his old friend Bruce Rauner of acting like a ‘career politician’ even before stepping into office. The Democratic boss got fired-up in April after Rauner, the GOP nominee for Illinois governor, unleashed a set of robo-calls urging voters not to support Emanuel’s plan to shore up city pensions by raising property taxes. Emanuel’s PR person barked: ‘Bruce Rauner hasn’t even gotten to Springfield, and he’s already acting like a career politician who plays politics with people’s pensions and livelihood.’
Rauner, undaunted by the public shaming, issued more robo-calls last week slamming Gov. Pat Quinn’s pitch to make the state income tax permanent while remaining frustratingly vague on his own plans to rescue Illinois from financial ruin. In a news conference Thursday, the private-equity businessman and multi-millionaire dodged ‘What is your plan?’ questions from exasperated journalists with the unflappable ease of Bill Clinton on his worst day.”
“How ‘career politician’ is that? No plan, no names, just canned laughter and talking points. Hizzoner’s right: Rauner might be a political rookie, but he’s already a pro.”

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