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A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 6 July 2017
Illinois governor urges House not to undo budget plan veto

the Legislature since taking side of the aisle to begin
office in 2015, said he would healing the wounds of the
do “everything possible” to last several years,” he said
persuade House lawmak- in a statement that pre-
ers, who are poised to take ceded Rauner’s news con-
an override vote Thursday. ference.
That includes 15 House Re- But the House, which had
publicans who broke ranks approved the fiscal blue-
and voted in favor of the print Sunday night with
measure last weekend. veto-proof majorities, has
Rauner, a former venture failed to summon enough
capitalist whose massive members the last two
personal wealth has largely days to take action. Few-
funded the state Republi- er than 60 of the House’s
can Party, would not elab- 118 members answered
orate on his tactics. quorum calls on Tuesday
For two straight weeks, or Wednesday. Deputy
lawmakers have been Majority Leader Lou Lang,
meeting in a special ses- a Skokie Democrat, men-
sion called specifically to tioned some members who
deal with the budget. The were dealing with deaths
session was capped by a of relatives or friends.
flurry of activity on Tuesday, With a $6.2 billion annual
when the Senate sent a deficit and $14.7 billion
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, July 5, 2017, in Chi- $36 billion spending plan to in overdue bills, disaster
cago. Governor Rauner vetoed on Tuesday a package of legislation that raised the income tax the governor funded with a is around the corner. The
by a permanent 32 percent to finance a $36 billion spending plan, which would be Illinois’ first
budget since 2015. Michael Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House has scheduled a vote for permanent 32 percent in- United Way predicts the
Thursday to override the governor’s veto of budget package, ending a budget stalemate that has come tax increase. Rauner demise of 36 percent of all
lasted more than two years. rapidly vetoed it, only to human-services agencies
(AP Photo/G-Jun Yam) have the Democratic-con- in Illinois by year’s end. Bil-
By SOPHIA TAREEN that includes a large in- told reporters at a bar on trolled Senate just as swiftly lions of dollars in road con-
JOHN O’CONNOR come tax increase a “di- Chicago’s far South Side. override him. struction work is shutting
Associated Press saster” that will not solve “This tax hike will solve none House Speaker Michael down. Public universities
CHICAGO (AP) — Gov. the state’s many financial of our problems. In fact, in Madigan, a Chicago have been cut to the bone
Bruce Rauner implored problems. the long run, it will make our Democrat, scheduled his and face a loss of aca-
lawmakers Wednesday “This is not just a slap in the problems worse, not bet- chamber’s override vote demic accreditation.
not to override his veto of face to Illinois taxpayers. ter.” for Thursday afternoon. No other state has come
a proposal to end Illinois’ This is a 2-by-4 smacked The first-term Republican, “House Democrats look close to Illinois when it
unprecedented budget across the foreheads of who has been deadlocked forward to working with our comes to a budget im-
impasse, calling the plan the people of Illinois,” he with Democrats controlling colleagues on the other passe. q

Congressman apologizes to those hurt by gas chamber video

By KEVIN McGILL The video ends with an im-
Associated Press age of the first-term Repub-
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lican lawmaker and former
Louisiana congressman sheriff’s captain that he
apologized Wednesday for used during his campaign
what he called the “unin- last year: With a badge on
tended pain” caused by a his chest, he bows his head
political video he recorded reverentially, his face par-
inside a gas chamber of a tially obscured by the brim
Nazi concentration camp, of his cowboy hat. The im-
an action that Holocaust age is superimposed over
experts called inappropri- images of the U.S. and Is-
ate and disrespectful. raeli flags.
In May, Rep. Clay Higgins The Auschwitz-Birkenau
visited the Auschwitz-Birke- Memorial and Museum
nau concentration and had criticized the video
death camps in Poland, Tuesday in a Twitter post,
where more than a million saying the building where
Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide was commit-
genocide. ted against thousands of
In a five-minute video post- Jews should not be used
ed on YouTube and on his as a stage. On Wednes-
Facebook page Saturday, day, Efraim Zuroff, director
Higgins describes the hor- of the Israel office of the
rors that took place in the Simon Wiesenthal Center,
gas chamber, and adds Republican candidate Clay Higgins, with his wife, Becca, addresses supporters in Lake Charles, said the video contained
that “this is why homeland La. Officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum have criticized Clay Higgins for political rhetoric that was
security must be squared narrating part of a five-minute video from inside a former gas chamber at the Nazi concentration inappropriate, although
camp in Poland. Louisiana news outlets report that Clay Higgins posted the video Saturday, July
away, why our military 1, 2017. he didn’t think Higgins had
must be invincible.” (Lee Celano/The Daily Advertiser via AP bad intentions.q