Attention Obama Fans: Your Future in Black and Red

Forbes.com recently published an interactive map showing where Americans are moving to and where they are moving from. In this scheme, black lines show people moving into a county; red lines show people leaving the county. If you click on "Chicago," the beneficiary of so much political "genius" and convincing "oratory," this is what you will see:

It doesn't look like the people of Chicago are having a great time there. From Michelle Malkin:

How fitting that the state that produced the profligate corruptocrat-in-chief is now collapsing under the weight of its own fiscal irresponsibility. The same union-coddling, welfare state-expanding, pay-for-play politics that wrought the current misery in Illinois are wreaking havoc for us all.

At present, the State of Illinois owes $5.01 billion in unpaid bills "to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university." According to the state's comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services. That is obscene.” 

The state is defaulting on payments to pharmacies for drugs and on payments to funeral homes for burying the indigent. The University of Illinois is limping along on 55% of what it was promised. Schools are firing teachers and closing kindergartens, and government agencies are shedding employees.

One such agency, the Community Counseling Centers of Chicago, normally would operate on an annual $16 million provided by the state. Not lately, though. From the New York Times (hat tip, Michelle Malkin):

On any given Monday morning, the agency’s chief administrative officer, John J. Troy, 61, has no idea how he is going to keep its doors open until Friday. He said the state had not come through with an expected $2.2 million, which is about six months of arrears. He has laid off and recalled employees three times in the last two years. 

“Two weeks ago, I had days to meet my $420,000 payroll and all I was looking at was a $200,000 line of credit from a bank,” recalled Mr. Troy. “I drove down to Springfield and said, ‘Hey, you owe us $3 million.’ They said: ‘Oh, that’s nothing. We owe another agency $10 million.’ ” 

“The fact of the matter is,” he added, “I don’t sleep much these days.”

He's not the only one losing sleep. Illinois admits to $62.4 billion in unfunded pension liabilities alone, but that debt could be much higher.

What is Illinois going to do about its mess? Not much. Lawmakers will keep passing deficit budgets and continue to ignore the state's balanced budget laws.

That sets an excellent example for the House of Representatives, where, on July 2, Democrats “deemed as passed” a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget just before setting off for their Independence Day barbecues. Now Democrats can "start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget."

You heard that right. Although you've never heard it before, because it's a first. A non-existent budget has been "deemed as passed" by the House of Representatives.

From House Budget Committee Ranking Member, Republican Paul Ryan, comes this explanation (Via Human Events via Nice Deb) :

Facing a record deficit and a tidal wave of debt, House Democrats decided it was politically inconvenient to put forward a budget and account for their fiscal recklessness.  With no priorities and no restraints, the spending, taxing, and borrowing will continue unchecked for the coming fiscal year.

It's like a game of musical chairs, isn't it? When the music stops, somebody is going to be left holding the bag. By that time, I wouldn't be surprised if most powerful Democrats have fled the country, taking their war chests with them. A good number of them have already bailed out of Chicago.
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