Breaking Through the Illinois Budget Reality Distortion Field

House Speaker Michael Madigan won't budge on opposing Gov. Bruce Rauner's reforms and also won't acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, some of the actions by ruling Democrats from 2003-2015 might have contributed the fiscal disaster and economic malaise now gripping Illinois.

Rauner insists that he won't engage in substantial budget talks until Madigan passes some of his reforms, which generally start with some form of gutting collective bargaining. Rauner won't acknowledge that he governs a state that elected super-majorities of Democrats in its Legislature and that voted in far greater numbers for a tax on millionaires than for him.

Until Madigan and Rauner recognize these stark realities, Illinois is going to continue on the disastrous fiscal path that today finds it carrying a $7.7 billion backlog of unpaid bills. That's on top of the unaddressed pension crisis that also will require cooperation between the governor and Democratic lawmakers to address.

The truly frustrating thing about the budget standoff is that there are many compromises on issues like workers' compensation that aren't being addressed by those in power. Rich Miller, publisher of the Capitol Fax blog and newsletter, describes on in detail on this week's "Only in Illinois."

To understand the depth of the philosophical difference driving the Madigan-Rauner divide, we offer an excerpt from Madigan's Dec. 9 speech at the City Club of Chicago in which he traces his political roots to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In his authorized biography "Steve Jobs," author Walter Isaacson described the late Apple founder as employing a "reality distortion field" to view things as he wanted them to be rather than as they were. It worked for Steve Jobs. It's not working for Madigan or Rauner.

That's our topic on "Only in Illinois."