Obama's Illinois Downgrade Makes It America's Greece

State Budgets: Inability or unwillingness to fix the state's hemorrhaging pension system and curb union power has led a major credit rating service to downgrade the Land of Lincoln's rating to the lowest in the nation.

On Friday, the bond rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the state's credit level again, to A-, putting Illinois' on par with California. No, actually below California, for S&P gives California a positive outlook.

Illinois' fragile overall financial status netted it a negative outlook, putting it behind California overall. The ratings came out now because Illinois plans to issue $500 million in bonds within days.

Moody's already ranks Illinois 50th among the states, and Fitch ranks the state 49th but warns of a negative watch.

Moody's A2 ranking places it even with Botswana, a southern African nation that is 70% desert, in what is the latest fallout over the $96.8 billion unfunded debt to five state pension systems.

The news comes after failed attempts at even modest pension reform failed in a lame duck state legislative session.

A recent release by the Illinois Policy Institute shows this is only the tip of the iceberg and when you add in other liabilities such as $54 billion in unfunded liabilities for retiree health insurance and $15 billion in pension bonds that Gov. Pat Quinn and his immediate predecessor, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, issued to avoid pension reform, Illinois' total unfunded liabilities amount to $275 billion, or $58,000 in debt for each and every household in the state.

While neighbors like Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan have either challenged the unions on pension reform or embraced right-to-work to encourage the economic growth to fund them, Illinois remains in thrall to big labor.

WHY ILLINOIS IS ON THE BOTTOM...

WARNINGS AGAINST SIN: ISAIAH 59
Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you,
nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.
2 It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.
Because of your sins, he has turned away
and will not listen anymore.
3 Your hands are the hands of murderers,
and your fingers are filthy with sin.
Your lips are full of lies,
and your mouth spews corruption.

4 No one cares about being fair and honest.
The people’s lawsuits are based on lies.
They conceive evil deeds
and then give birth to sin.
5 They hatch deadly snakes
and weave spiders’ webs.
Whoever falls into their webs will die,
and there’s danger even in getting near them.
6 Their webs can’t be made into clothing,
and nothing they do is productive.
All their activity is filled with sin,
and violence is their trademark.
7 Their feet run to do evil,
and they rush to commit murder.
They think only about sinning.
Misery and destruction always follow them.
8 They don’t know where to find peace
or what it means to be just and good.
They have mapped out crooked roads,
and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.

9 So there is no justice among us,
and we know nothing about right living.
We look for light but find only darkness.
We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.
10 We grope like the blind along a wall,
feeling our way like people without eyes.
Even at brightest noontime,
we stumble as though it were dark.
Among the living,
we are like the dead.
11 We growl like hungry bears;
we moan like mournful doves.
We look for justice, but it never comes.
We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.
12 For our sins are piled up before God
and testify against us.
Yes, we know what sinners we are.
13 We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord.
We have turned our backs on our God.
We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
carefully planning our deceitful lies.
14 Our courts oppose the righteous,
and justice is nowhere to be found.
Truth stumbles in the streets,
and honesty has been outlawed.
15 Yes, truth is gone,
and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.

The Lord looked and was displeased
to find there was no justice.
16 He was amazed to see that no one intervened
to help the oppressed.
So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,
and his justice sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as his body armor
and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance
and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.
18 He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.
His fury will fall on his foes.
He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
19 In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord;
in the east, they will glorify him.
For he will come like a raging flood tide
driven by the breath of the Lord.

20 “The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem
to buy back those in Israel
who have turned from their sins,”
says the Lord.

21 “And this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever. I, the Lord, have spoken!

A lot of Americans do care but the point of no return seems to have been reached. I have said for decades that without an about face in the general trend there would be no hope for this country long term. I am shocked and dismayed by what is happening but not surprised in the least.

In the writings of Carlos Casteneda there is a page where Don Juan tells Carlos that a man must choose his path carefully because if he takes the wrong path then by the time he realizes he is on the wrong path that path is ready to kill him! Regardless of one’s opinion of Casteneda who would not agree that the statement is correct and it applies to the USA as well as it does to any one person?

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