Friday Letters: Obama birthday holiday push 'frivolous'

Our state is in financial ruin, our state leaders are bickering about anything and everything, and we still don ‘t have a budget. But some lawmakers have time to propose a bill to make Obama’s birthday a state holiday, citing his Nobel Peace Prize and his African-American heritage. He wowed the country with his oratory skills, then failed to live up to his lofty campaign lies. To half of the country, his presidency was an abject failure. To waste our time on such frivolous pursuits while real Illinoisans are suffering just shows how out of touch these senators and representatives are with their constituents.

Scot Sinclair, Gurnee

Rauner Stuck on Rauner’s Way

Gov. Bruce Rauner has no intention or willingness to “compromise” or work with the legislature. He still has NOT presented a balanced budget and, for all his grand speeches, has offered no details on the 2016 budget and even less for 2017. Rauner is still stuck on his “my-way-or-no-way” negative stance.

Ann Gutierrez, Tinley Park

No free lunch for Catholic Charities

In his column “Catholic Charities leader raises distress signal”, Mark Brown reports his interview with Monsignor Michael Boland, head of the Chicago archdiocese’s Catholic Charities. Boland says the state budget mess has severely impacted Catholic Charities’ social programs. The state owes Catholic Charities $26 million and the debt is growing by $2 million a month. To Brown’s and my surprise, “75 percent of [Catholic Charities’] $200 million annual budget comes from government funding.”

This illustrates an important point. Private charities that depend upon government funding — rather than private, voluntary contributions — run the risk of governmental vagaries in accepting public monies. A few popular phrases come to mind: there are no free lunches; no good deed goes unpunished; the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Dennis Dohm, Oak Lawn