Press Conference Speech 11-28-11

[Introduction remarks………]     

While a record number of candidates have filed petitions this year, we also possess a wide breadth of knowledge, and professional experience  - both in the private sector and public. From:

·         Mike Clemons – Lifelong Grundy County Resident, Instructor with Illinois Valley Community College, Journeyman wireman with the IBEW Local 176 in Joliet, and Commissioner with the Minooka Planning and Zoning Commission.

·         Warren Kronberger –  

·         Tim Macheck – Neighbor of mine,

·         Rudy Martin – 22 year Teamster & Truck driver for Keytone Freight in Minooka, and a formerly licensed insurance agent. He’s also a Village of Minooka trustee for the past 2 ½ years.

·         Yolanda Wilhelm –  Currently employed by the Minooka School District 111. Previous work experience includes working as the Legislative Clerk of Calumet City for 5-years, before moving to Minook, and more recently, she worked for the Illinois Road & Transportation Builders Association.

·         Myself – An 8 year resident of Grundy County, a CPA, and Forensic accountant, I’ve spent the majority of the past 10 years in the banking industry, and have also worked for fortune 100 companies and consulted small and midsized businesses while working in public accounting in Chicago. I’m currently the VP and Chief Internal Auditor for Great Lakes Bank in Matteson IL.

In addition to our professional backgrounds we also have raised, or are currently raising families, as in my case with my twin 5 year-old girls, Yolanda with her 3 children, Warren with 2 children, Rudy with his 3 teenagers, Mike Clemons with his 5 teenagers.       So we also understand the needs, desires, and stresses of families in Grundy County.

While we each bring different ideas and individual reasons for why we chose to run, we also have common threads that run through us all. We each understand the importance of Economic growth, fostering an environment which will allow our citizens and businesses to grow, and create jobs; standing side-by-side with private industry, acting as a public partner in their growth within our county. We believe in holding the line on expenses, especially those expenses that don’t help economic growth, and we believe in providing the services our citizens depend upon, including working toward higher education opportunities, for which there is both demand and need for further economic development to occur.

But aside from these common threads on the substantive issues unique to Grundy County, we also share an overwhelming pride in our country, towns, and our individual neighborhoods, and a strong belief in a government of We the People. And nowhere is that type of government more exemplified than at the local level. Our opponents are running on “limited” “smaller” government. And if they were running on the national level, it’s an arguable point. But this is Grundy County, it doesn’t get more limited. This IS a government of We the People.

In the past couple decades it seems the parties have become far too polarizing, with those in the republican party that don’t believe in government, and some in the democratic party that never believe there is enough government. But make no mistake, Government, especially at the local level IS necessary, essential and fills a vital purpose.

As Americans, the most important part of our social identity is our role as citizens. To be a citizen means to be part of, and defender of, the commons of our nation. The water we drink, the air we breathe, the streets we drive on, the schools that we use, the fire departments and police that protect us, our histories, our religions, and our notions of ourselves

But, there are those on the right who don’t believe in government overseeing the commons. They instead believe in big corporations running the commons of our nation, and they think that the most appropriate role for citizens is that of infantilized consumers, of both commercial products and commercially produced political packaging.

On the other hand, there are those on the left that all too often over reach and over regulate the protection of the commons to the most extreme and absurd conclusions.

We believe that the most important element of citizenship is the commons of government – the creation and servant of We the People. And the main benefit of citizenship is freedom. Not freedom from external or internal dangers that conservatives obsess on, but freedom to think as we want, to pray as we want, to say what we want, and to live as we want provided it doesn’t harm others, all in order to fulfill our true potential as humans.

And we also believe it is time for the bickering and partisanship, existing all too often in our politics at all levels to end. It is time to work together, appealing not to the sum of our fears or misunderstandings, but appealing to the angels of our better nature; working toward solutions to our common problems, while maintaining the values on which our nation was founded, and reflected by our constituents. It is what the citizens of Grundy County deserve, and they should accept nothing less.

The question, ultimately, is whether our nation, beginning with our local politics, will continue to stand for the values on which it was founded. I believe it will. With the election of those who believe in the story of We the People our republican democracy will strengthen and see us through the toughest challenges.

On March 4, 1801, in his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson stated “I know indeed that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough.” But, Jefferson said, our nation was “the world’s best hope” precisely because we put our trust in We the People.

Debt Hysteria

While rumblings about our national debt have occurred on and off over...well, as far as I care to remember, the majority of those rumblings always came from the right during a democratic presidency, after the right ran the debt through the roof in the years prior to that democratic presidency. However, the democrats (and republicans) in Congress can't be let off the hook, as it's they who are responsible for the country's pocketbook. While today is no different, the Tea Party movement who seem to be bent on government destruction at all levels, and European issues have raises the rumblings to a new tempo.

When dealing with our debt, it helps to obtain some historical perspective. What is often stated, for impact effect, is debt as a total dollar amount. But total dollar amounts are misleading if not compared to something else as reference. Debt as a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a better guide to where we are, and where we've been. Post WWII our debt to GDP was 127 percent, due largely to the deficit spending used to help bring us out of the depression and of course the spending on the war. From that high water mark of 127 percent the debt to GDP slowly decreased over the ensuing three and one-half decades to 33 percent by 1981.

What's interesting is that Ronald Reagan ran on the "high debt" in 1980, comparing the "dollar amount" of 1980 to the "dollar amount" of 1965. A bit deceptive to say the least. Then in the eight years of Ronald Reagan the debt as a dollar amount almost tripled and the debt to GDP went up to roughly 55 percent. Aside from a claw back of a few percentage points in the late 90's, that percentage has been going up ever since, to today's 100 percent.

But it seems this 100% is causing more of psychological reaction than a reaction built on reason. While the debt is nothing to just blow off, it shouldn't be our main concern when trying to dig out of the deepest recession since the Republican Great Depression of 1929.

If the market was truly concerned about the debt, we would be seeing the cost of borrowing going through the roof and equity prices heading the opposite direction. But we're seeing the complete opposite of this. In fact we're at record borrowing lows. The 10 year T-bills are at 2 percent, and core inflation is going nowhere. Our real problem is a liquidity trap, as interest rates can't get much lower.

In my view, what we should be concentrating on right now is not austerity measures, which will tend to actually slow the economy and increase debt even more, but we should be focused like a laser on infrastructure building. Concentrating on repairing our roads, bridges, electrical grids, internet grids, etc. will put people to work on engineering projects, not just jobs filing potholes or racking leaves, allowing them to learn while making money. The money they make will be spent in the private market, causing a multiplier effect, and as they roll off these infrastructure repair/building jobs, the private sector will begin to hire due to the increased demand for goods and services caused by people actually having money in their pockets and out spending.

And for those concerned with spending more money, keep in mind that millions of people put back to work, making money and out spending that money back into the private sector will grow the nations GDP, and reduce the deficit over the long haul. Spending as percentage of GDP in this county is at 39 percent. You would be hard pressed to find a country who's spending is below 25% that you would be happy to live in. Burma, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Guatemala comes to mind. Recently the republican icon Grover Norquest said he would like to see spending brought back in line with that of 1900, which was around 8%. That's great, if you don't mind going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground out in your back yard, not having air transportation, or electricity provided to rural areas, among hundreds of other things we enjoy today. I for one like my reliable electricity, my FAA regulated air transportation, and my indoor plumbing among hundreds of other 21st century conveniences.