IL Governor Rauner's Pal Made $625,000 Per Hour Last Year and Then Gave $10 Million to Rauner Campaign to Attack Unions and Cut Worker Pay | Robert Creamer

Unfortunately for Rauner and Griffin, ordinary Illinois voters are not so stupid. A recent poll published by Public Policy Polling found that:

• Only 33 percent of voters in the state agree with Governor Rauner's agenda on "right to work", compared to 55 percent who think everyone represented by a union should have to pay something toward negotiating and administering its contracts.
• By 81 percent to 15 percent, voters oppose Rauner's attempts to gut the state's Workers' Compensation system.
• 68 percent of voters in the state think that the wage standard should continue to be set locally with a prevailing wage, while only 23 percent think the state should be able to pay below the local prevailing wage.
• Voters just generally disagree with Governor Rauner's philosophy toward unions.
• Only 42 percent think unions have too much power, compared to 56 percent who think they're necessary to fight for the middle class.

There is another big difference between Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Rauner/Griffin team. Walker was an agent of the 1 percent. Rauner and Griffin are the 1 percent. In fact they are the top .01 percent.

It's not so easy for people who make as much every minute and a half as a minimum wage worker takes home all year long to convince voters that it's a good idea to cut the pay of working people. It's not so easy for people like Rauner and Griffin to literally propose taking food from the mouths of hungry children by cutting the Illinois nutrition program in order to allow the state to cut taxes for the wealthy.

Appearances are not so good. And to top it off, Griffin has a massive personal interest in eliminating the rights of workers -- particularly public employees. Griffin's firm owns Service Master, a company that makes part of its money by privatizing public services.

But Rauner's monomaniacal obsession with eliminating the rights of ordinary people to engage in collective bargaining over their wages and working conditions comes from something deeper than simple desire to put even more money into the pockets of people like himself and his friend Griffin.

They believe that the rich should have the right to call the shots in society -- it's as simple as that. In fact, Griffin said he believed that wealthy elites have "insufficient influence" over democratic politics -- and politics in general.

Griffin and Rauner believe that America should be a plutocracy.

And they deeply believe that if they can buy a company, they should have the unfettered right to pay people whatever the "market will bear." In effect, they think people should be treated like soybeans and corn. Whatever the market price, that's what they should have to pay.

Fortunately ordinary people in America disagree. Most Americans believe that we are the point of the economy -- not just some "input of production." The goal of the economy is not to make a few people fabulously wealthy, it is to produce widely-shared prosperity for everyone who is willing to work hard.

And history has shown us that is only possible if everyone has the right to collective bargaining over their wages and working conditions, to demand a fair share of the fruits of their own increasing productivity.

In the last 35 years, Gross Domestic Product per person in America has grown 77 percent. That should have meant that everyone is 77 percent better off, but instead, the wages of most Americans have been stagnant. That's because the rules of the game have been rigged by people like Bruce Rauner and Ken Griffin to assure that virtually all of that increased wealth went to the top 1 percent.

Now they have the audacity to demand that ordinary people who work in public employment and make modest middle class incomes shouldn't be allowed to combine their political contributions to influence the outcome of elections. But they are happy to allow the super-rich like themselves to control politics with more and more $10 million contributions.

Rauner, Griffin, and their whole Koch Brothers-inspired crowd must be stopped now.

America is still the wealthiest country in the world. We have the technology, the natural resources and the hard-working, trained work force to create the most prosperous society in human history where anyone who works hard can have a fulfilling life.

But elections have consequences. And 2016 could be a pivotal, historic year -- a turning point year. Imagine what will happen to America if someone who shares Bruce Rauner's values becomes President and the House and Senate continue to be controlled by Republicans. Imagine what it would mean if people who share Griffin's and Rauner's views completely control the Supreme Court for a generation.

In 2016 we will have a chance to stop the plutocrats like Rauner and Griffin from snatching away that future and returning us to the plutocracy of the Gilded Age. Time for Progressives to saddle up. Failure is simply not an option.

Read the entire article by clicking on the following:  IL Governor Rauner's Pal Made $625,000 Per Hour Last Year and Then Gave $10 Million to Rauner Campaign to Attack Unions and Cut Worker Pay | Robert Creamer