The Illinois Policy Institute's (IPI) John O'Hara hit the airwaves yesterday pitching the conservative group's new "no tax hike" budget. On WFLD's Good Day Chicago, O'Hara claimed their plan would "preserve core services without making draconian cuts and raising taxes on Illinois families."

What O'Hara failed to mention is that $2.7 billion of IPI's proposed spending reductions come from the social services sector. That represents about an 18 percent cut in state funding for the poor, elderly, and disabled -- vulnerable populations who have seen their state-sponsored programming steadily weakened in recent years.  They would probably quibble with O'Hara's definition of "draconian."