Veto Address

So the Governor just got done with his speech to the Legislature, and all in all, not bad. He started with a very deserved moment of silence for Rosa Parks, who ironically, if she lived in Springfield, would need to be more worried about being thrown under a bus rather than moving to the back of one.

As I noted earlier, the Governor had no Teleprompter, and personally, I think that he does much better without one. So whether it was lack of timing or something else, I think that he should stick with this in the future.

From a substance standpoint, he laid out a summary of past accomplishments, focusing on better health care for seniors and families, which made for a good lead in to the All Kids stuff.

He then made the point that the bill isn't for legislators' kids, rich kids, or poor kids, it's for middle class kids. Good point, but it verged on sounding like he would use a 'no' vote against people by saying that legislators don't think that the middle class should have the same health coverage that legislators do.

He also pointed out that the bill would be good for the economy, noting that healthcare is the second fastest growing industry in the state with wages alone going up by $30mil in first year of program.

He sure isn't waffling on this proposal though as evidenced by the quote "We know it will work". If he's right, he deserves a heck of a lot of credit.

There were some other bold statements as well, including that "healthcare is not a privilege it's a right, as fundamental as civil rights".

All in all, good speech, not sure what it accompished substantively, but a good speech.

Still think that it's problematic that not one legislator I've spoken with has seen a substantive summary let alone the bill.

On a complete aside, there is a Labor Committee hearing Wednesday on ComEd/Exelon retiree health benefits. This whole battle is going to be very interesting.

Off to Committees.