The Venezuela of the midwest!

John Kass offers a suggestion for solving Illinois's financial problems. Let friendly neighboring states carve out the pieces they want to annex.

A few excerpts from the Kass Chicago Tribune Column:

Wisconsin can have Chicago and begin calling it "South Milwaukee."

Naturally, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will fight this. He needs a job. And he'll most likely beg his friends at The New York Times and the Washington Post to write angry editorials to save him. And these will be full of concern for the republic and those dispossessed Midwestern salt-of-the-earth taxpaying Americans, as if.

Sadly, Wisconsin probably won't want Rahm, either. So to spare hurt feelings, I propose carving out 40 acres around the mayor's home so Rahm might be prince of his own country:

Rahmonia.

Read the whole thing here.

Eye-popping salaries of public employees in California and Illinois

Austin Yack writes at National Review,

In 2015, 220,000 public employees earned six-figure salaries, costing taxpayers $35 billion. Some of these employees earned salaries north of $400,000.

...in Illinois, 50,000 public employees earned six-figure salaries, costing taxpayers $8 billion. Republican Illinois governor Bruce Rauner has said that the state is “broke” — this level of largesse could be one reason why that’s the case. But that didn’t stop Rauner from hiring a personal assistant for his wife at a salary of $100,000.

Read more here.