David Smith of the Illinois Family Institute points out how the state has $15 billion dollars in unpaid bills and a quarter-trillion dollars is owed to public employees when they retire.

“Politicians are notorious for making promises they can’t keep,” begins a CNN story about the looming junk credit rating. “But they really outdid themselves in Illinois — and now the state is paying for it.”

Meanwhile, the City of Chicago has selected a gold-painted sculpture that reads “REAL FAKE” as part of its Year of Public Art program. The sculpture, one of five chosen by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, was placed next to Trump International Hotel.

Trump, meanwhile, announced this week that a 20-agent task force from the ATF is joining a Chicago “strike force” of local and state authorities to target violent criminals in the crime-ridden city. Chicago recorded 762 homicides in 2016, the most in 20 years.

Smith also recalls that Chicago rolled out rainbow-colored train cars to mark “Pride Week” this month.

“Which I’m sure cost the taxpayers tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, to get done,” he tells OneNewsNow.

The cost was not mentioned in a Chicago Sun Times story, which called the painted cars a “well-intended gesture.” But the story noted that Chicagoans are ridiculing the overture to the LGBT community when the train cars are failing to run on time.

“They’re spending money left and right,” Smith observes, “and when they’re out of money or facing crisis, they always turn back to the taxpayers, the hard-working families of Illinois to dig deeper into their pockets.”

Citizens and businesses are fleeing the state, he says, at the same time the state’s credit rating has slipped into “junk status” and Illinois officials can’t even fund the Mega Lottery games.