Thousands of protesters at Illinois Capitol demand tax INCREASE

What's the antonym of a Tea Bag?

The Hand Outs?

Thousands of protesters bused down by labor unions and social service advocates rallied at the Capitol today in an attempt to pressure state lawmakers into raising the income tax to avoid more budget cuts. Obviously these people didn't have anything else to do on Wednesday?

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White's office estimated the rally crowd at 15,000, with more than 12,000 marching around the building. That would appear to make it the largest Capitol protest since the Equal Rights Amendment crowds a quarter-century ago.

Bus after bus pulled up on streets surrounding the Capitol complex and dumped sign-waving protesters clad in purple, green, red and blue shirts that represented a show of strength from a variety of public employee unions (wouldn't ONE color do that more effectively?) and dozens of groups that formed what they named the “Responsible Budget Coalition.”

"Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes!" they chanted, lined up shoulder to shoulder for a few hundred yards stretching a street in front of the Capitol.

"These 177 people who have a job don't want to do their job," said Henry Bayer, head of the Illinois chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, referring to the number of lawmakers in the House and Senate. "Yes people are hurting, that's why we need a tax increase....If you try to leave town without doing your job we're going to chase you." And no one once asked if they sent some of their pay, which is generated only from tax revenue if they sent any of it back? Or why there is a budget crisis, which is tied directly to their bloated pensions granted to them from the indited former Gov. Blago? No - that would be reporting.

The un-indited current Gov. Pat "Mighty" Quinn is pushing a 33 percent increase in the state income tax rate --- taking it from 3 percent to 4 percent --- to prevent cuts in state spending. Quinn has suggested that education will bear the brunt of the cuts, although that would have to be negotiated with the General Assembly. Which means nothing is going to happen since it's an election year.

Organized labor showed up in force to pressure lawmakers to change their minds.