Flannery Fired Up: Survey ranks Rauner as one of America's most unpopular governors

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - By picking stupid fights he didn't need and turning former friends into enemies, Governor Bruce Rauner's worked hard to give tone-deaf rich guys a bad name.  

No surprise is a new survey. It ranks Rauner as one of America's most unpopular governors. Just 34 percent of Illinois voters approve the job he's doing, while 54 percent disapprove.

That's good news for the bipartisan crowd who wrecked the credit ratings of state and local governments, worst of all saddling taxpayers with huge pension debts. That crowd happily signed off on the unaffordable 41 percent pay raise that unionized state workers have seen since 2005, which was a period when pay for other Illinois workers was flat.

Rauner had vowed to rein in what one study called the richest government pay and benefits of any state. But instead of focusing on that very doable goal, rallying taxpayers to his side, Rauner wasted time on things not doable.

In the next few days, he's likely to veto legislation that would strip him of much of his power in bargaining, and government unions want the General Assembly to override that veto.

Don't listen to the political smokescreen about it being a rebuke to an unpopular governor. The truth? It would be a huge defeat for taxpayers, who need to see the cost of government go down and who deserve a lot better from Rauner than he's yet delivered.