EPC Football Appreciates Community Support

A big thank you to the communities of Lanark, Shannon, Lake Carroll and Pearl City for supporting EPC football this season. The homecoming activities were great. The parade, floats, window decorations … everything was great! Everyone works so hard, players and cheerleaders and band and many others.

The booster clubs provide great food and help us with monies for things we need. So join us in the post-season. We look to our fans for support to cheer us on!

EPC Football

The New McCarthyism

A well-organized, well-funded coalition has formed in Illinois. It includes many of the key players who helped Quinn land the governorship in 2010 and pass the largest tax hike in state history in 2011.

Their mission: fund big government on the backs of taxpayers and continue to consolidate power among government unions and their chosen leadership in Springfield.

Rather than enacting desperately needed spending reforms, lawmakers are working in conjunction with Big Labor and union-funded organizations to promote a progressive income tax. They want to make the “temporary” income tax hike permanent and tax certain individuals at ever-higher marginal rates.

Their plan is neatly wrapped in typical euphemisms such as “fairness” and “modernization.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. For government to take more of a dollar just because another dollar is earned is unfair, predatory and punitive. (For more on this subject, see John Tillman’s op-ed at Forbes.com)

Anyone following the current narrative can see how this will play out. Unions have bullied state and local governments into meeting demands for higher wages and benefits. They are dependent upon more taxpayer dollars to feed the system. Those who resist are called “union busters” and political pain is inflicted.

It’s clear that the progressive tax hike parade is forming. Those with power are asking people to fall in line, to take even more from Illinois families and businesses.

But we know that a progressive tax hike would increase rates for 85 percent of filers, destroying tens of thousands of jobs and reducing economic output by the billions.

Our team continues to sound the alarm. Folks on the other side don’t like it, and they’ve stolen a page from Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals (“ridicule is man’s most potent weapon”) and labeled our messaging “the new McCarthyism.”

The stakes are high. The pressure is building.

As we move closer to this fight, the attacks will only increase. But with your help, we can counter their narrative and prevent Illinois from becoming Detroit.

I’d like to personally ask you to do the following before the week is out:

Arm yourself with the facts.

Write a letter to your local newspaper.

Ask the candidates in your area how they’d vote on the issue. State legislators running for office right now will decide if a progressive tax amendment goes on the 2014 ballot. Get them on the record now.

Share this Facebook post and warn your families and friends about the next tax grab.

Will you join our movement? The one that honors hard work and individual responsibility? That understands taxpayers are tapped out and deserve to be treated better?

Thank you,
Kristina Rasmussen
Executive Vice President
Illinois Policy Institute

Guest Commentary

What Should the New Farm Bill Look Like?

By Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Colona
Represents Congress in the 17th District

Last week, I met with a number of farmers at our “Farmers for Bobby” coalition launch at are some of the hardest working people out there, and I’ve worked tirelessly to represent them well in my first term.

I was honored to receive the “Friend of Agriculture” award from the Illinois Farm Bureau for that work, and I will continue to make agriculture a priority going forward.

The 17th District of Illinois truly is an agricultural powerhouse, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with farmers and be their voice in Washington.

This Congress has produced bipartisan victories for the farming community -- repealing the onerous 1099 tax reporting requirement that would have imposed a paperwork nightmare on farmers, beating back bureaucratic overreach, passing a multi-year transportation bill that includes important Hours of Service exemptions for farm input suppliers, and enacting Free Trade Agreements to level the playing field and promote new export opportunities for corn, soybean, beef and pork producers.

Agriculture has been a bright spot in this struggling economy and farm exports support more than one million jobs for men and women in this country. When it comes to crafting a farm bill, we owe it to producers to be specific and get the policy right.

I fought to be named to the House Agriculture Committee so I could help shape agricultural policy for the next five years. We brought one of the few House Agriculture Committee field hearings to Galesburg so that members from both sides of the aisle could listen directly to our area’s farmers.

Agriculture has been a bright spot in this struggling economy so when it comes to crafting a farm bill, we owe it to producers to be very specific.

In Galesburg and at the remaining field hearings throughout the country, farmers reiterated that they value certainty.

They just want to know what cards are on the table so they can make decisions and get to what they do best -- cultivating a crop to help feed and fuel America.

Farmers from around Illinois’ 17th District have told me how vital a risk management tool crop insurance is for their operations, and I listened. While crop insurance was cut by $12 billion back in 2008 and 2009, I concluded that we must not harm this vital program.

The bipartisan farm bill proposal I supported in the Ag Committee contains a revenue program that producers can utilize as part of their business model. Our proposal reflects my support for critical conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Reserve Program that focuses on the most environmentally sensitive land. We also should prioritize beginning farmers, so they will have an easier time getting their operations off the ground.

Finally, we also need to make common-sense reforms and find savings by eliminating direct payments and closing loopholes and abuse within the food stamp program that accounts for 80 percent of farm bill spending.

We need a farm bill now. I have led efforts to get this legislation considered in the House, including a bipartisan letter signed by 79 members of Congress asking for the farm bill to be put up for a vote. This is well short of the 218 votes needed to pass the farm bill, but I remain optimistic and committed to educating other members on the farm bill’s importance.

I voted against adjourning the House because Congress should be in Washington finishing up a five-year farm bill. I am working across the aisle to continue to promote these efforts, and am confident we will get the job done for farmers.

Capitol Report

By Jim Sacia, State Representative, 89th District

Only three more weeks at this writing until the greatest opportunity offered anywhere in the world. Yes many countries offer the ballot box, but nowhere as free and open as in America.

The attack ads from both sides, for all levels of government, grow in intensity and nastiness. Why would any sane person vote for either candidate if they are in fact that evil? We all know they are not and I shudder when someone tells me, and many do, that they aren’t going to vote for the very reasons I’ve stated. (Do go to the polls, inform yourself and take advantage of this amazing privilege.)

One word that is used often this election cycle that, in my opinion, is reaching a new low is LIE. “He lies” – “she lied”. Webster defines the word as “to make a statement that one knows is false, especially with intent to deceive”. Way too many liberties are being taken with that word making its true meaning diluted and the word “liar” even more acceptable. It is a hateful word and should be avoided. Few will take my advice this close to November 6.

Not having an opponent and this being my last run as a State Representative, I can speak quite objectively about that word. Disagreeing with one’s opinion does not make one a liar.

This is the time each election cycle that endorsements are given or not to candidates and incumbents. Yesterday I learned that I had been downgraded by a prominent organization that has always given me the highest endorsement. Of course I inquired – the response “in one of your newspaper columns you lied about us”. I was so dumbfounded I could not respond. Going back to the article, there it was, I had taken issue with them, therefore I “lied”. Perhaps it helps explain why when President Obama was an Illinois State Senator he voted “present”129 times.

On a brighter note, a prominent Galena citizen from the Civil War Era is being honored with a ribbon cutting at his restored home on October 26, 2012 at 3:00 P.M. in Galena. Elihu Washburne, who has more to do with Ulysses S. Grant becoming the Commanding Officer of all U.S. Forces at that time and ultimately becoming President of the United States than any other single person, will be honored as the man of the hour.

Mr. Washburne served as a U.S. Congressman, Secretary of State, and ultimately U.S. Minister to France.

Director of all Illinois Historic Sights, Amy Martin, will join Galena Director Terry Miller and hopefully Mr. Washburne’s great great grandson Ray Washburne for this momentous event. Senator Bivins will join us as well.

The home has so much significance, to include being the location of where Ulysses S. Grant received a teletype at 1:30 A.M. on November 4, 1866 that he was elected the 18th President of the United States. It’s one more reason to visit Galena and tour the Home which is lead by a dedicated group of ladies belonging to the International Order of Questers, Galena Belles, Chapter 1304. These ladies also get much of the credit for the home’s restoration.

As always, you can reach me, Sally or Barb at or e-mail us at You can also visit my website at www.jimsacia.com. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.