So apparently Pritzker is the moderate among the Democrats

I read and wrote about J.B. Pritzker yesterday, and, by coincidence, there was a debate among the Democrats last night, that brought candidate Daniel Biss to my attention, and led me to look at his website.  And, holy moly!, does he make Pritzker look like a moderate.

Biss agrees with Pritzker on a $15 minimum wage and enhanced union bargaining power, as well as on marijuana legalization, protection for illegal immigrants, and all of the usual topics on which there’s a bidding war to see who can be most “progressive.”

But Biss goes much further.

Biss promises a single-payer healthcare system in Illinois.

Biss promises free college.

Biss promises heavily-subsidized childcare (10% of income capped at $500).

Biss promises a 12-week paid family leave program.

Biss promises “universal long-term care.”

Biss promises that he will include transgender transitioning procedures as covered benefits in his universal healthcare plan, and that he’ll appoint an LG+ cabinet member specifically to advocate for the “+” causes, and that he’ll change Illinois birth certificates to replace “mother” and “father” with “parent 1” and “parent 2.”

Biss promises to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.

And so on.

And he funds all this (except, to be fair, the family leave program, which would be an added payroll tax) through tax hikes, including the constitutional-amendment-requiring graduated income tax, and a tax he calls the “LaSalle Street tax.” Biss offers no specifics about the income tax hike but the latter tax, he claims, would bring in $10 – $12 billion in FREE MONEY! by taxing Chicago Board of Trade and Merc transactions.  It’s similar to Bernie Sanders’ plan, except that when Bernie planned to tax Wall Street, he at least planned to share the largesse with the entire country, so, really, it’s as if Cuomo decided to tax all Stock Exchange transactions to the benefit of New Yorkers.  As a bonus, Biss calls this a “loophole” because we ordinary folks pay our 6.25% state sales tax on our purchases, so it’s unfair that the fat cats don’t.  (Never mind that we ordinary folk don’t pay a sales tax when we buy our houses, or when we deposit money into a 401(k), for instance.)

So, wow.  Certainly seems like the question is not whether, but when we get our own moving truck.

Image:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADaniel_Biss_2012.jpg; By Tim (Rep. Daniel Biss) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons