Better than Carol Marin w/Martire-Miller: Berkowitz w/ Rep. Mark Beaubien (R) on state deficits, taxes, pensions & education reform; Cable & Streaming
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State Rep. [and House Republican Chief budget negotiator] Mark Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: ...We've had such strong resistance in the state to charter schools. I think THE ONLY WAY to improve education is to have competition. You have competition by creating charter schools. This constant resistance, by the powers that be, to this-- I think really hurts the education system. I think if you had more charter schools in the city [of Chicago], you'd have better education.
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State Rep. Beaubien: You could have more managed care [for Medicaid]. But there are people that are I think scholars, certainly not the majority, but many, who think you really don't save that much money doing it. I don't know.
Jeff Berkowitz: [Senator Bill] Brady says you could save a billion dollars or so, maybe two billion. I think maybe it was [Senator] Kirk Dillard, a colleague of yours, two colleagues of yours, Dillard and Brady [who made that argument]. You agree with them? One billion? Two billion? You don't know?
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Jeff Berkowitz: But you don't favor that change [to defined contributions for state pensions]. It sounds like [Senate President] Cullerton does, [Speaker] Madigan does. But, [Rep.] Beaubien doesn’t.
State Rep. Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: It's fine to verbalize it. But as an economist and budget person, we can't do it. We can't afford to do it. We're relying on the money coming into the old [defined benefit pension] system from the new employees.
**********************************
This week’s Chicago metro suburban edition of Public Affairs features State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda][See below for the Chicago metro suburban, City of Chicago, Aurora and Rockford airing schedules for the show with Rep. Beaubien]. Rep. Beaubien [Watch here on YouTube], Chief House Republican Budget Negotiator, debates and discusses State budget, tax, spending, education, healthcare and pension issues with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz. See the narrative to the right of the YouTube airing picture for a more detailed list of topics discussed and more about State Rep. Beaubien.
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The "Public Affairs," show with Rep. Beaubien can be watched on your computer.
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More charter schools, a smaller state deficit.
Jeff Berkowitz: …Take that eleven billion dollars that the state of Illinois is spending on education right now. John Tillman says that there’s a lot to be gained there if you had charter schools, lifted the cap on charter schools. You could get the same quality of education, perhaps even better, spending less. I don't know whether his number would be ten billion, or so forth. You agree with John Tillman on that?
State Rep. [and House Republican Chief budget negotiator] Mark Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: I do. We've had such strong resistance in the state to charter schools. I think THE ONLY WAY to improve education is to have competition. You have competition by creating charter schools. This constant resistance, by the powers that be, to this-- I think really hurts the education system. I think if you had more charter schools in the city, you'd have better education.
Uncapping the number of charter schools.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is the cap [on the number of charter schools] right now 45 across the state of Illinois? [Ed note: Actually, it is 60, see here for a description of the caps and the severe anti-competitive educational impact of the Illinois legislature's actions].
State Rep. Beaubien: I don't know. There is a cap.
Jeff Berkowitz: I think it's 30 in the city of Chicago, but I am confused, myself, whether that counts campuses, as separate, or not [Ed. Note: campuses are not counted separately, i.e., that is one way around the caps on charter schools].
State Rep. Beaubien: Education is not my strong suit.
Jeff Berkowitz: But there is a cap. Would you favor the state of Illinois saying no caps? Whatever people want in charter schools, they can have.
State Rep. Beaubien: I think you've got to ease into it. I think just a blanket-
Jeff Berkowitz: But should the state legislature--shouldn't that be a local decision? If Chicago wants to have more charter schools, they can; if they don't, they don't. Why should the state of Illinois say to Chicago or downstate or the suburbs--here's the maximum level of charter schools you can have. Why should the state of Illinois play Big Daddy on that?
State Rep. Beaubien: I don't believe that they should.
Jeff Berkowitz: So, lift the cap? Would you say you're in favor of lifting the cap?
State Rep. Beaubien: Either that or lift it in stages.
Jeff Berkowitz: …we're going to continue to speak as the credits roll, but I very much want to thank our guest, State Representative Mark Beaubien. We'll have to have you back, because we've just touched the surface… So, you can save money on education by following John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute [and increasing, significantly, the number of charter schools]. Could you also do that on healthcare? Could you cut back on Medicaid with more managed care?
Cutting Medicaid costs
State Rep. Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: Here's the problem with Medicaid. Apparently--and I don't have a final call on this yet--apparently under the stimulus package you can't change your existing Medicare payments. We have mandatory payments, and we have a huge amount of optional payments. A great deal.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you could have more managed care.
State Rep. Beaubien: You could have more managed care. But there are people that are I think scholars, certainly not the majority, but many, who think you really don't save that much money doing it. I don't know.
Jeff Berkowitz: [Senator Bill] Brady says you could save a billion dollars or so, maybe two billion. I think maybe it was [Senator] Kirk Dillard, a colleague of yours, two colleagues of yours, Dillard and Brady [who made that argument]. You agree with them? One billion? Two billion? You don't know?
State Rep. Beaubien: I just don't know the answer.
Jeff Berkowitz: You ought to talk to them [Republican Senators Brady and Dillard].
Rep. Beaubien: I don't think I need to talk to either one of them about what's in the budget.
Jeff Berkowitz: You think you know more than they do?
State Rep. Beaubien: I'm not going to get into that-- either.
--Cutting Pension costs
Jeff Berkowitz: How about pensions? Make them defined contributions, not defined benefits, at least for future employees? You could do that, right?
State Rep. Beaubien: No, you can't, and I'll tell you why. Our pensions, let's say, are fifty five percent funded. We're relying on the new employees to pay into that system. If you take them out of that system, all the income from new employees is going into the defined contribution plan, not into the state plan. We're relying on the new employees to put money into the system.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you're also getting substantial liabilities for future payments… if you're obligated to [pay out] defined benefits to them as opposed to defined contributions. You see the difference?
State Rep. Beaubien: Um, um.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you don't favor that change. It sounds like [Senate President] Cullerton does, [Speaker] Madigan does. But, [Rep.] Beaubien doesn’t.
State Rep. Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: It's fine to verbalize it. But as an economist and budget person, we can't do it. We can't afford to do it. We're relying on the money coming into the old system from the new employees.
--Increasing the state income tax?
Jeff Berkowitz: So are you saying to me, focusing on those three areas [Education, Health and Human Services, and state operations/pensions], you don't get big savings, you're going to have to favor raising the income tax?
State Rep. Beaubien: No.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you're not going to raise the sales tax. You're going to have [increased] license fees that total to four or five billion dollars a year [to cure this coming year’s deficit]?
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Post game comments:
Expanded gaming revenue?
Jeff Berkowitz: You just said there’s two billion dollars, here. Tell me about the two billion dollars.
State Rep. Beaubien: That’s not cuts, that’s income.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay, where’s the two billion dollars in income that you are getting.
State Rep. Beaubien: Chicago casino, 300 to 500 million dollars. All of these numbers, by the way, have been pared way down.
Jeff Berkowitz: Keep on going—
State Rep. Beaubien: Expansion of existing riverboats, maybe 50 million. Slot machines at racetracks, maybe 125 million dollars. Legalized video poker, 500 million. Professional management of the lottery system as opposed to the system we have now might bring in 300 million dollars.
Jeff Berkowitz: Sounds like we are up to about 1.3 billion dollars
State Rep. Beaubien: Well, that’s not all the numbers—
Jeff Berkowitz: So, say you get to two billion dollars—where’s the other three billion you are going to get. We’re sure we’ve got at least a five billion dollar deficit [for next year], right. You’ve only given me two billion in revenue; I need three billion more [in spending cuts or revenue increases].
State Rep. Beaubien: Well, again, nobody’s told me what the cuts are yet. See what happens is, the public out there—
--Spending cuts
Jeff Berkowitz: So, you’re saying there may be cuts in spending of three billion dollars from that 28 billion dollar [General Revenue Fund]…
State Rep. Beaubien: If you were purely looking at the balance sheet [income statement?], you could do it.
Jeff Berkowitz: Purely looking at the what?
State Rep. Beaubien: Just look at the sheet; If you don’t have the money, you don’t pay it out. It would be a tremendous burden.
Jeff Berkowitz: Cuts from education, healthcare and pensions? No? State operations? Employees? Salaries?
State Rep. Beaubien: Yeah. You bring the unions back in to renegotiate. You put everything on the table and say everybody has a little bit of pain. Let’s find out what the bottom line number is.
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The "Public Affairs," show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda was taped on March 15, 2009.
**************************************
Amy Allen, a research intern for Public Affairs, prepared a draft of the above partial transcript of the show with Rep. Baubien. Public Affairs appreciates the time and effort contrbuted by its in-studio and research interns.
***************************************************
Public Affairs Chicago Metro suburban airing schedule:
The show featuring State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda] is airing this week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs in its regular slot:
Tonight (Tuesday) at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette
and Tonight (Tuesday) at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.
and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
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Chicago and Aurora:
The "Public Affairs," show featuring State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda] will also air throughout the City of Chicago this coming Monday night, April 13 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21(CANTV, aka Chicago Access Network TV) and that same night on cable in Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30 pm on ACTV-10. The Aurora station, ACTV-10, aka Aurora Community Television, Comcast Cable Ch. 10, reaches all of Aurora, Bristol, Big Rock and parts of Oswego, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.
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Rockford:
The "Public Affairs," show featuring State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda] , will also air throughout the City of Rockford (and in surrounding areas) a week from this coming Thursday night, April 16 at 8:00 pm on Cable Ch. 17. The surrounding areas reached by Ch. 17 include Byron, Cedarville, Cherry Valley, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Mount Morris, New Milford, Portions of Ogle County, Oregon, Polo, Stillman Valley, Winnebago, Portions of Boone County and Poplar Grove.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. *************************************************************
"Public Affairs," is a weekly political interview show airing in Chicago on CANTV, in the Chicago metro area, Aurora and Rockford on Comcast and also often on the Illinois Channel. You can watch the shows, including archived shows going back to 2005, here.
*******************************************************************
Recently posted shows on the Public Affairs YouTube page include the fastest five minutes on the web- a New York Times video about Obama-Berkowitz, a show with State Senator and likely 2010 10th CD candidate Susan Garrett(D-Lake Forest) about hot topics in Illinois state government, a show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda) about hot topics in Illinois state government, a show with State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago), a show with IL 5th CD Dem nominee--Cook County Cmsr. Mike Quigley (who is now extremely likely to win the April general election to decide who replaces Cong. Rahm Emanuel), the second fastest five minutes on the web- a segment of Bill O'Reilly with Berkowitz discussing a clip of Obama from 2002 on Blagojevich and many more shows. And, see here for very recent postings on our Youtube page.
**********************************************************************
State Rep. [and House Republican Chief budget negotiator] Mark Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: ...We've had such strong resistance in the state to charter schools. I think THE ONLY WAY to improve education is to have competition. You have competition by creating charter schools. This constant resistance, by the powers that be, to this-- I think really hurts the education system. I think if you had more charter schools in the city [of Chicago], you'd have better education.
****************************************
State Rep. Beaubien: You could have more managed care [for Medicaid]. But there are people that are I think scholars, certainly not the majority, but many, who think you really don't save that much money doing it. I don't know.
Jeff Berkowitz: [Senator Bill] Brady says you could save a billion dollars or so, maybe two billion. I think maybe it was [Senator] Kirk Dillard, a colleague of yours, two colleagues of yours, Dillard and Brady [who made that argument]. You agree with them? One billion? Two billion? You don't know?
*************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: But you don't favor that change [to defined contributions for state pensions]. It sounds like [Senate President] Cullerton does, [Speaker] Madigan does. But, [Rep.] Beaubien doesn’t.
State Rep. Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: It's fine to verbalize it. But as an economist and budget person, we can't do it. We can't afford to do it. We're relying on the money coming into the old [defined benefit pension] system from the new employees.
**********************************
This week’s Chicago metro suburban edition of Public Affairs features State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda][See below for the Chicago metro suburban, City of Chicago, Aurora and Rockford airing schedules for the show with Rep. Beaubien]. Rep. Beaubien [Watch here on YouTube], Chief House Republican Budget Negotiator, debates and discusses State budget, tax, spending, education, healthcare and pension issues with show host and executive legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz. See the narrative to the right of the YouTube airing picture for a more detailed list of topics discussed and more about State Rep. Beaubien.
**********************************************
The "Public Affairs," show with Rep. Beaubien can be watched on your computer.
******************************************
More charter schools, a smaller state deficit.
Jeff Berkowitz: …Take that eleven billion dollars that the state of Illinois is spending on education right now. John Tillman says that there’s a lot to be gained there if you had charter schools, lifted the cap on charter schools. You could get the same quality of education, perhaps even better, spending less. I don't know whether his number would be ten billion, or so forth. You agree with John Tillman on that?
State Rep. [and House Republican Chief budget negotiator] Mark Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: I do. We've had such strong resistance in the state to charter schools. I think THE ONLY WAY to improve education is to have competition. You have competition by creating charter schools. This constant resistance, by the powers that be, to this-- I think really hurts the education system. I think if you had more charter schools in the city, you'd have better education.
Uncapping the number of charter schools.
Jeff Berkowitz: Is the cap [on the number of charter schools] right now 45 across the state of Illinois? [Ed note: Actually, it is 60, see here for a description of the caps and the severe anti-competitive educational impact of the Illinois legislature's actions].
State Rep. Beaubien: I don't know. There is a cap.
Jeff Berkowitz: I think it's 30 in the city of Chicago, but I am confused, myself, whether that counts campuses, as separate, or not [Ed. Note: campuses are not counted separately, i.e., that is one way around the caps on charter schools].
State Rep. Beaubien: Education is not my strong suit.
Jeff Berkowitz: But there is a cap. Would you favor the state of Illinois saying no caps? Whatever people want in charter schools, they can have.
State Rep. Beaubien: I think you've got to ease into it. I think just a blanket-
Jeff Berkowitz: But should the state legislature--shouldn't that be a local decision? If Chicago wants to have more charter schools, they can; if they don't, they don't. Why should the state of Illinois say to Chicago or downstate or the suburbs--here's the maximum level of charter schools you can have. Why should the state of Illinois play Big Daddy on that?
State Rep. Beaubien: I don't believe that they should.
Jeff Berkowitz: So, lift the cap? Would you say you're in favor of lifting the cap?
State Rep. Beaubien: Either that or lift it in stages.
Jeff Berkowitz: …we're going to continue to speak as the credits roll, but I very much want to thank our guest, State Representative Mark Beaubien. We'll have to have you back, because we've just touched the surface… So, you can save money on education by following John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute [and increasing, significantly, the number of charter schools]. Could you also do that on healthcare? Could you cut back on Medicaid with more managed care?
Cutting Medicaid costs
State Rep. Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: Here's the problem with Medicaid. Apparently--and I don't have a final call on this yet--apparently under the stimulus package you can't change your existing Medicare payments. We have mandatory payments, and we have a huge amount of optional payments. A great deal.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you could have more managed care.
State Rep. Beaubien: You could have more managed care. But there are people that are I think scholars, certainly not the majority, but many, who think you really don't save that much money doing it. I don't know.
Jeff Berkowitz: [Senator Bill] Brady says you could save a billion dollars or so, maybe two billion. I think maybe it was [Senator] Kirk Dillard, a colleague of yours, two colleagues of yours, Dillard and Brady [who made that argument]. You agree with them? One billion? Two billion? You don't know?
State Rep. Beaubien: I just don't know the answer.
Jeff Berkowitz: You ought to talk to them [Republican Senators Brady and Dillard].
Rep. Beaubien: I don't think I need to talk to either one of them about what's in the budget.
Jeff Berkowitz: You think you know more than they do?
State Rep. Beaubien: I'm not going to get into that-- either.
--Cutting Pension costs
Jeff Berkowitz: How about pensions? Make them defined contributions, not defined benefits, at least for future employees? You could do that, right?
State Rep. Beaubien: No, you can't, and I'll tell you why. Our pensions, let's say, are fifty five percent funded. We're relying on the new employees to pay into that system. If you take them out of that system, all the income from new employees is going into the defined contribution plan, not into the state plan. We're relying on the new employees to put money into the system.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you're also getting substantial liabilities for future payments… if you're obligated to [pay out] defined benefits to them as opposed to defined contributions. You see the difference?
State Rep. Beaubien: Um, um.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you don't favor that change. It sounds like [Senate President] Cullerton does, [Speaker] Madigan does. But, [Rep.] Beaubien doesn’t.
State Rep. Beaubien [R-Wacounda]: It's fine to verbalize it. But as an economist and budget person, we can't do it. We can't afford to do it. We're relying on the money coming into the old system from the new employees.
--Increasing the state income tax?
Jeff Berkowitz: So are you saying to me, focusing on those three areas [Education, Health and Human Services, and state operations/pensions], you don't get big savings, you're going to have to favor raising the income tax?
State Rep. Beaubien: No.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you're not going to raise the sales tax. You're going to have [increased] license fees that total to four or five billion dollars a year [to cure this coming year’s deficit]?
*************************************
Post game comments:
Expanded gaming revenue?
Jeff Berkowitz: You just said there’s two billion dollars, here. Tell me about the two billion dollars.
State Rep. Beaubien: That’s not cuts, that’s income.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay, where’s the two billion dollars in income that you are getting.
State Rep. Beaubien: Chicago casino, 300 to 500 million dollars. All of these numbers, by the way, have been pared way down.
Jeff Berkowitz: Keep on going—
State Rep. Beaubien: Expansion of existing riverboats, maybe 50 million. Slot machines at racetracks, maybe 125 million dollars. Legalized video poker, 500 million. Professional management of the lottery system as opposed to the system we have now might bring in 300 million dollars.
Jeff Berkowitz: Sounds like we are up to about 1.3 billion dollars
State Rep. Beaubien: Well, that’s not all the numbers—
Jeff Berkowitz: So, say you get to two billion dollars—where’s the other three billion you are going to get. We’re sure we’ve got at least a five billion dollar deficit [for next year], right. You’ve only given me two billion in revenue; I need three billion more [in spending cuts or revenue increases].
State Rep. Beaubien: Well, again, nobody’s told me what the cuts are yet. See what happens is, the public out there—
--Spending cuts
Jeff Berkowitz: So, you’re saying there may be cuts in spending of three billion dollars from that 28 billion dollar [General Revenue Fund]…
State Rep. Beaubien: If you were purely looking at the balance sheet [income statement?], you could do it.
Jeff Berkowitz: Purely looking at the what?
State Rep. Beaubien: Just look at the sheet; If you don’t have the money, you don’t pay it out. It would be a tremendous burden.
Jeff Berkowitz: Cuts from education, healthcare and pensions? No? State operations? Employees? Salaries?
State Rep. Beaubien: Yeah. You bring the unions back in to renegotiate. You put everything on the table and say everybody has a little bit of pain. Let’s find out what the bottom line number is.
**********************************************
The "Public Affairs," show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda was taped on March 15, 2009.
**************************************
Amy Allen, a research intern for Public Affairs, prepared a draft of the above partial transcript of the show with Rep. Baubien. Public Affairs appreciates the time and effort contrbuted by its in-studio and research interns.
***************************************************
Public Affairs Chicago Metro suburban airing schedule:
The show featuring State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda] is airing this week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs in its regular slot:
Tonight (Tuesday) at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette
and Tonight (Tuesday) at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.
and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
*************************************************************
Chicago and Aurora:
The "Public Affairs," show featuring State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda] will also air throughout the City of Chicago this coming Monday night, April 13 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21(CANTV, aka Chicago Access Network TV) and that same night on cable in Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30 pm on ACTV-10. The Aurora station, ACTV-10, aka Aurora Community Television, Comcast Cable Ch. 10, reaches all of Aurora, Bristol, Big Rock and parts of Oswego, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.
*************************************************
Rockford:
The "Public Affairs," show featuring State Rep. Mark Beaubien [R-Wauconda] , will also air throughout the City of Rockford (and in surrounding areas) a week from this coming Thursday night, April 16 at 8:00 pm on Cable Ch. 17. The surrounding areas reached by Ch. 17 include Byron, Cedarville, Cherry Valley, Loves Park, Machesney Park, Mount Morris, New Milford, Portions of Ogle County, Oregon, Polo, Stillman Valley, Winnebago, Portions of Boone County and Poplar Grove.
*******************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. *************************************************************
"Public Affairs," is a weekly political interview show airing in Chicago on CANTV, in the Chicago metro area, Aurora and Rockford on Comcast and also often on the Illinois Channel. You can watch the shows, including archived shows going back to 2005, here.
*******************************************************************
Recently posted shows on the Public Affairs YouTube page include the fastest five minutes on the web- a New York Times video about Obama-Berkowitz, a show with State Senator and likely 2010 10th CD candidate Susan Garrett(D-Lake Forest) about hot topics in Illinois state government, a show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda) about hot topics in Illinois state government, a show with State Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago), a show with IL 5th CD Dem nominee--Cook County Cmsr. Mike Quigley (who is now extremely likely to win the April general election to decide who replaces Cong. Rahm Emanuel), the second fastest five minutes on the web- a segment of Bill O'Reilly with Berkowitz discussing a clip of Obama from 2002 on Blagojevich and many more shows. And, see here for very recent postings on our Youtube page.
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