Below is a copy of Dr. Gill’s statement along with commentary as to where he is wrong.

Statement of Dr. David Gill on Endorsement of Senator Dick Durbin

Published on: August 5, 2012

Thank you Senator Durbin.

I’m humbled by your support and look forward to being YOUR Congressman in Washington, and partnering with you to preserve Medicare and Social Security and defeat the radical Republican budget.

This year, central and southwest Illinois is suffering through a terrible drought. It’s destroying corn and other crops and threatening our farmers and our rural economy.

But we don’t just have a historic drought in the Heartland.

I believe we have a drought in the halls of Congress too.

It’s a drought of leadership.  A drought of courage.  A drought of common sense.

Crops are dying in the fields and the hopes for some of our communities are dying along with them. And the Tea Party Republicans–with their extreme partisanship, radical agenda and refusal to compromise– are killing our agricultural economy.

Yes – no leadership, courage or common sense.  The Democratic Senate hasn’t passed a budget in 3 years.  Sen Dick Durbin is in the leadership of the Senate, will you lead like he does?

They refuse to pass a bi-partisan, balanced, reasonable farm bill. As your Congressman, I’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with Dick Durbin to get that done.

Republican in the House wants to rein in Food Stamp spending which has exploded.  The Senate bill cuts $4 Billion, the House wants $16 Billion.  No communities are dying – the current bill doesn’t expire until September 30th.

There are a lot of things Senator Durbin and I agree on.

I’ve been impressed to see the Senator lead the fight against the corrupting power of corporate and foreign money in our political campaigns. The Citizens United decision allows banks, billionaires and big corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections and keep most of what they spend a secret.

Citizens United leveled the playing field between corporations and unions.  If both sides can spend unlimited amounts to influence elections, isn’t that equal?  Democrats don’t have PAC’s?  Foreign money?  Got any proof of that?

I’ve pledged to support an amendment to the Constitution to overturn this disastrous decision. In Congress, I’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with Dick Durbin to get this done.

I know what it’s like to work hard and struggle. My dad died when I was 13, and I had to go to work. I worked my way through college and medical school. I know middle-class families here in Central Illinois are struggling to get by.

It’s those people we should be helping—not millionaires, billionaires, Big Oil and Washington lobbyists.

Dr Gill, since you succeeded by hard work, why do you think struggling is a dirty word?  Why is it government’s job to make life easy?

There are big differences between my opponent Rodney Davis and me.

He supports the Ryan budget that would raise taxes on middle-class families and includes more tax breaks for billionaires and Big Oil.

The Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% in our country should be allowed to expire.

We must not raise taxes on the middle class or on people who make less than $250,000. We can fix our budget mess without the Romney/Ryan tax increases on the middle class.

Our budget deficit should be closed by millionaires and billionaires finally paying their fair share—not by cutting seniors’ Medicare, funding for small-town hospitals and student aid.

What exactly is “Fair Share”?  Taxing the top 2% more ISN’T going to balance the budget.  It’s the SPENDING.  We spend $1 Trillion more per year than the Federal Government receives.  The Congressional Budget Office says the top 20% pay 67.9% of all federal tax!  Again-What is FAIR SHARE?  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/10/cbo-rich-pay-outsized-share-taxes/

Ernst & Young recently reported that the President’s tax increase would devastate the economy.  It would cause the following:

• Output in the long run would fall by 1.3 percent, or $200 billion, in today’s economy;
• Employment in the long run would fall by 0.5 percent or, roughly 710,000 fewer jobs, in today’s economy;
• Capital stock and investment in the long run would fall by 1.4 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively; and
• Real after-tax wages would fall by 1.8 percent.

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/18/ernst-and-young-obamas-tax-increase-would-kill-710000-jobs/

Is FAIR SHARE still a good idea?

Let’s be clear– The Ryan (Republican) budget will devastate central and southwest Illinois.

• 9 rural & small-town hospitals across the district are threatened by potential cuts to the Critical Access program.

• As an ER Doctor and former president of John Warner hospital in Clinton, I know how catastrophic it would be to be 45 minutes away from an emergency room.

• Every second matters in an emergency. The Republican budget would slash funding for these hospitals and leave some towns without a hospital.

The Ryan (Republican) budget will bring devastating cuts to Medicare.

• The Radical Republican budget my opponent supports would move toward a privatization of Medicare, proposing that those currently in the health program get vouchers for private insurance.

• To stick with Medicare and retain access to their current doctors, many seniors would get stuck with much higher premium costs, and anyone new to the Medicare program could see costs rise by nearly $6,000.

The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) devastates Medicare:

Projected Medicare costs over 75 years are substantially lower than they otherwise would be because of provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the “Affordable Care Act” or ACA). Most of the ACA-related cost saving is attributable to a reduction in the annual payment updates for most Medicare services (other than physicians’ services and drugs) by total economy multifactor productivity growth, which the Trustees project will average 1.1 percent per year. The report notes that sustaining these payment reductions indefinitely will require unprecedented efficiency-enhancing innovations in health care payment and delivery systems that are by no means certain. In addition, the Trustees assume an almost 31-percent reduction in Medicare payment rates for physician services will be implemented in 2013 as required by current law, which is also highly uncertain.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html

The Affordable Care Act takes $500 Billion from Medicare.  ObamaCare “saves” money by rationing care and decreasing fees they pay doctors.  Remember the “Take a pill speech” from the 2008 Obama campaign? http://youtu.be/U-dQfb8WQvo

The Republican budget plan will lead to devastating cuts to social security.

• It showers money on Big Oil – $40 billion in tax breaks over 10 years.   GET the REAL FACTS: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/us-obama-energy-idUSBRE82S11P20120329
  TAX BREAKS isn’t an accurate description – it’s called recovering costs associated with production.

The Republican budget plan will lead to devastating cuts to education.

I’m proud to have the endorsement of the Illinois Education Association.

• The Republican budget that Rodney Davis supports cuts K-12 education by possibly 20 percent and proposes big cuts to student aid for college students.

Spending on education is about to triple over the amount spent in the 1990’s.  Test scores, drop out rates, etc certainly haven’t shown the results expected by massive increases in spending.  

Student loan debt has grown at an alarming rate, financial aid has done nothing but make attending college more expensive and putting students in more debt.  Expanding student aid will compound the problems.

I’m convinced we can do better.

We can reduce the national debt without gutting social security, Medicare and funding for small-town hospitals.

There’s a clear choice in this race.

On one side, Rodney Davis is funded by billionaires who want to privatize Social Security…

By companies that are outsourcing jobs to foreign countries…

And by Big Oil.

I won’t take one cent from those people or from any corporate PAC. 

I’m ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with Senator Dick Durbin to fight for middle-class families here in central and southwest Illinois.

It’s time to get Washington working for working people again.

Social Security is now predicted to be bankrupt in 2033, Medicare in 2024. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/us/politics/financial-outlook-dims-for-social-security.html  Using the Democratic talking points does nothing to solve the problems.  The Illinois mentality of wishing problems away is not going to protect seniors in the future.  Radical reforms to both programs were needed decades ago, now solving the problems are much more difficult.

The 2012 election is a clear choice between government control on a federal level, or returning control to the local level-as intended by the Constitution.  I don’t know if Rodney Davis understands how drastically the Federal Government needs to be cut. Republicans are for cutting government, but conservatives want MASSIVE federal cuts.  It makes no sense to send tax dollars to Washington DC, send it through a wasteful bureaucracy, and then beg or compromise values to get some of it back.  We are devastating future generations with the massive federal debt.

Dr. Gill and Dick Durbin obviously do not subscribe to Limited Government and Fiscal Responsibility.  Our kids deserve better.