Alexi Giannoulias's Hypocrisy on Debt

Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias doesn’t have many accomplishments he can run on. His family bank, where he worked as a vice president and a senior loan officer, was taken over by the FDIC in April, costing the government $394.3 million. The Bright Start College Savings Program, which Giannoulias oversees as Illinois’s state treasurer, lost $150 million in 2008 and investors were only able to recover half.  So Giannoulias has resorted to perhaps what he does best—attacking his Republican opponent Mark Kirk.

So recently Giannoulias tried to go on offense on the issue of deficits and the national debt. Specifically, Giannoulias hopes to tie his Republican opponent Kirk to the nation's current economic troubles.

While many believe the midterm elections for Congress will be a referendum on the Democrats—President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid—Giannoulias is trying to keep the focus on a series of Kirk tax cut and budget votes, which were supported by the prior Republican administration.

“It is a simple truth that under President George W. Bush, the national debt doubled," Giannoulias said in remarks prepared for his appearance before the Rotary Club of Chicago. "That's right. The entire debt run up from George Washington to Bill Clinton doubled in just eight years, and Congressman Kirk voted for every one of those debt-doubling budgets.”

Notice how Giannoulias somehow forgets to mention the 2009 and 2010 federal deficits, which clock in at $1.4 trillion (!) and $1.3 trillion (!), respectively, possibly because they were racked up by a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president. 

Giannoulias also neglects to mention that Kirk voted against the stimulus bill, while the Democratic Senate candidate has previously maintained:  “it should have been even bigger.” 

Also curiously absent from Giannoulias’s spiel is that he supports the trillion dollar health care bill; Kirk voted against it.

But wait, it gets better.

Whenever the governor of Illinois wants to borrow money short-term, he has to get the approval of Illinois’s treasurer and comptroller. That means, Alexi Giannoulias has personally approved short-term borrowing five times in his capacity as treasurer for a total amount of $5.75 billion.

Pat Quinn, the current governor, wanted to borrow another $500 million in late 2009. His plan was stymied when Dan Hynes, Illinois's comptroller, refused to sign off, citing Illinois’s record levels of debt.  Below is an excerpt of a letter that Hynes sent to Quinn explaining his opposition:

That is a historic amount of short term debt and the state will risk default if that money is not repaid by June 10, 2010. Any additional short-term borrowing such as you now propose would further strain a state budget that can barely accommodate the currently scheduled debt service and critical on-going payments our office must make, especially given the $900 million revenue failure you office has now projected.

The expected ‘federal and state revenues in excess of $600 milliion’ you refer to has already been incorporated in the existing cash managment plan. My office must prepare this month to reserve funds for the first installment of the $2.25 billion to be repaid beginning in March. Absent an additional revenue source dedicated to the repayment of any new notes, there is insufficient flexibility in the latter half of the year for additional debt service payments. In essence, the proceeds from the short-term borrowing you request would need to be set aside immediately in order to pay it back. For this reason alone, I would have problems supporting your plan as presented.