LaSalle Insider

There’s no doubt the cemetery uprooting at 24th Street is the top story locally. People are very divided on whether this is proper or not and who is responsible. Having had this issue to deal with as an alderman I am familiar with the property.  Several years ago a group of doctors purchased the property to build a medical building.  They went as far as asking the city to build a drainage ditch to the east end of the property.  We did so in anticipation of the building being built.  Unfortunately the parties had a falling out and the structure was never built.  At that time it was discovered that several bodies were buried there.  The city got permission from the necessary parties to exhume the bodies and have them re interred in St Vincents cemetery.  This was supposedly the end of the story and all parties we were told were satisfied.

Flash forward to today and the property was in new hands and then sold to  Ancare to be the site of their new facility. Much fanfare by our Economic Director followed in that his efforts got Ancare to fore go building in Webster Park and come to LaSalle.

Here are the questions that have to be asked….

Was it explained to Ancare  by anyone what had transpired at that site with regard to moving bodies a short time ago?

Did the City have any legal documents clearing the property for commercial zoning after the earlier discoveries?

Who at the State level signed off on this property after the first discoveries?

Was there not a need to disclose this information prior to closing on the most recent sale?

Who ultimately has the final say after this travesty is ended?  State? County? Local?????

It’s unfortunate but several parties did not do their due diligence on this transaction before it took place and I have to believe at some point we will see some form of legal action taking place.

And finally will this discovery lead to a larger and larger exploration of the surrounding land?   How about across the road to the west?  Just asking…..

So our  boys and girls in Washington passed a bill to stave off financial ruin for America and President Obama signed it.  Crisis over…move on…have a nice vacation….wait a minute, the markets are dropping like a stone and Moody’s says a credit rating drop is coming.  I thought those people told us it was about the debt ceiling not how much they are spending…WRONG!!!!

Reality check…after seeing what was in the bill it was shown that any cuts in spending were offset by increases in spending due to baseline budgeting (see previous article for explanation).  The truth was we gave Mr Obama another couple of trillion to spend while the actual spending without this debt ceiling increase will rise by another 6 trillion over the next ten years.  Without massive changes in mindset our President(whomever he or she is after November 2012) will be back for more debt ceiling increases to come!

There were no winners in this “compromise” of a bill just passed.  Obama got more money but he will be hung with an economy that he helped create that will certainly escort him from the White House in 2012.  The Democrats did not get their tax increases they want on the “rich” and “greedy” Americans that aren’t sharing the burden (in their minds) and the Republicans got no real spending cuts only the illusion of some!

Biggest losers by far are we taxpayers across America.  The Dems are already talking tax increases to offset the cuts to programs (there are no cuts!!!!)  Republicans already in office (with the exception of those who voted against this bill) say we have changed the dialogue and are now talking cuts which is a great start in their opinion.  The truth is we may not last long enough as a Country to see the real changes necessary in D.C.

But President Obama turns 50 so lets take a moment and have a Chicago fundraiser (top ticket $35K) this week and celebrate.

Anybody else see the lunacy in all of this?  Those in power think we are so economically stupid in this Country that we will ignore this and believe anything they tell us.  Meanwhile we are headed for a longer term recession than previously thought (contrary to the main stream media and CNN we did not come out of the first recession yet).

Your homes will continue to lose value in the short term….gas prices will rise as the dollar weakens due to more printing of them by the Fed…that will push food prices up do to transportation cost increases..and more layoffs will come due to lack of demand by consumers in an uncertain economy.

Depressed yet?   Ready to pay closer attention to those elected officials?

Or maybe the answer is turn off the news and quit reading the papers and just watch movies until someone else “fixes” this.   I honestly don’t know…but there is hope.

The people of this Country are not stupid…and they are getting fed up with the status quo…that was proven in last Fall’s elections.  We need to continue the fight  and persevere until November of 2012 when the average person can again make a difference.  Those of you in your 20′s and 30′s pay very close attention because your lives will be impacted the most going forward. Get involved and get others with you.  Your Future is in your hands and if changes are not made soon we will become a shadow of the Country you were told about growing up. Government must not continue to be all things to all people.  I think the quote below sums it up better than I can…

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth! ”
Ronald Reagan

If your like me you have grown tired of the debt ceiling controversy and the amount of misinformation being put out by our “main stream media”. The Tea party people should be thanked for bringing this discussion to the Public but I do wish the Media circus would stop.  The real issue(s) put before us are as follows;

1. Should taxes be raised?

2. Should more severe cuts to spending be enacted?

3.Should the debt ceiling be raised?

Let’s look at these independently because they have been in the past. First taxes should not be raised in this poor economy. Even President Obama admitted ending the Bush Tax cuts would have been the worst thing to do last year. The economy hasn’t gotten better and a good argument could be made that its gotten worse.The debt ceiling will have to be raised but not without major cuts to spending.  The plan being voted on today (as I write this) does not go far enough and should be voted down.  The country will not default on Tuesday if we hold off on passing a bill till we get more cuts. Seniors will get their social security checks and the military will be paid.  The idea that anyone in Washington D.C. believes otherwise is another political crisis not based in reality.  The big problem with cuts as proposed is that they are spread out over too long of a period and most won’t come to pass.  Very few in Washington D.C. do not want to talk about base line budgeting.  It’s only done in government accounting and simply put it allows for politicians to increase spending in every department and not call it an increase.  It’s factored in every year and it requires no vote to increase every year.  Generally the increase is between 3-10% in all areas. The bottom line is we can cut this annual increase and leave spending levels where they are today and we would realize a savings of NINE TRILLION DOLLARS over the next decade.  This number comes from the CBO (congressional budget office) and is non political.  If you believe like I do you would agree that no one this past year did not get their social security or military checks.  Food stamps were available as were  Pell grants and medicare/medicaid checks.  The dirty little not so secret secret is that money is power to elected officials and they don’t want to give any up.

The small amount of cuts that are included in the current bill being discussed is between 1.2 and 2 trillion dollars and are based on War savings and cleaning up waste and fraud.  I’m sorry, shouldn’t waste and fraud always be looked at  not just at times of peril?

Sadly this will not take place.  The cuts I suggest will not happen at this time.  The good news is that we are turning towards that direction and if we continue to move out the old boys and replace them with those that have our backs we may see fiscal responsibility in the near future.

If you are one that believes that all money problems could be solved with “taxing the rich and those evil corporations” I feel sorry for you.  First off corporations do not pay taxes, people do.  That’s what a corporation is…people!  Secondly if we confiscated all the assets of the millionaires and the billionaires in this Country it would not come close to covering are debt. Once done we could not do it again because their assets would be gone. That leaves government coming after anyone with a wallet to feed their addiction for spending!  It’s the SPENDING not the REVENUES!!!!

Have a nice evening….