By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Gov. Pritzker recently extended his Disaster Proclamation for Illinois for the 37th straight time, a period that now stretches over 1,000 days.
The governor’s extension of the state’s Covid disaster declarations, in conjunction with President Biden’s continued aid, is harmful to Illinoisans in so many ways. Loss of rights and crippling inflation are but two of them.
On top of that, keeping Illinois a “disaster area” gives the state access to extra Medicaid and food stamps, and that’s creating more government dependency and killing jobs at the same time. The data below bears that out.
Right now, there’s a nationwide fight over government dependency which the WSJ Editorial Board recently captured in its oped: “The Battle Over Work and Welfare.” The board warned that “the Biden Administration is using the pandemic to expand the class of Americans who are permanent government dependents” by continuing to dole out federal dollars:
For the past two years, the Administration has repeatedly extended the national public-health emergency for no ostensible purpose other than to expand the welfare rolls. President Biden in September declared the pandemic over, but the Health and Human Services Department says it plans to extend the emergency until at least mid-April [2023].
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 increased federal Medicaid funding to states on the condition that they don’t kick ineligible beneficiaries off their rolls as long as a public-health emergency is in effect. The law also increased food-stamp benefits and waived work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults during the emergency. (Emphasis added.)
Governors have picked sides, and Pritzker has chosen “welfare.”
It’s hard to ignore the evidence. Illinois’ Medicaid rolls are now at an all time high, with more than 3.6 million residents dependent on the program. Enrollment is up nearly 25 percent compared to pre-Covid 2019.
The number of Illinoisans on food stamps is also pushing toward all-time highs, with more than 2 million residents enrolled as of September, 2022. At 15.6 percent, Illinois now has the 6th-highest SNAP enrollment as a share of population in the nation.
One of the consequences of such dependency is reflected in the state’s jobless numbers. At 4.6 percent in October, Illinois has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Since the governor took office in 2019, Illinois’ total employment has shrunk by 156,000, one of the worst performances in the nation (ranked 44th).
The above numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Pritzker has run Illinois under Emergency Orders for 70 percent of his time in office.
Whatever Gov. Pritzker’s intentions may be to help Illinoisans, they’re clearly having the opposite effect.
But what’s worse, even after Pritzker finally ends his declarations, the dependency he’s engrained will likely remain.
Appendix.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- A 36th-straight Illinois Covid Emergency Declaration. 979 days under Pritzker’s Executive Orders. Does it even matter?
- Illinois has created no net new jobs in 20 years
- Pritzker administration pushes back against Wirepoints’ critique of latest “Disaster Declaration.” Our response.
- New release: Illinois continues to have the worst unemployment rate in the nation
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
I really appreciate your reports, and listen to AM 560 each week when Mr. Dabrowski talks with the morning hosts. Thank you for all the work you do for us.
JB and the state should go on a diet.
The JB the Hutt regime is a disaster for Illinois. There is no end in sight to this malaise.
‘Plantation Politics’ has been THE core competency of the Democrat Party for a very long time, so long that new ‘leaders’ like Jeffries don’t know any different.
Who cares about inflation? No one in the Biden WH.
The “serfs” continue to vote in their masters, without a care in the world…
That is, until the day when it becomes “their turn” to pay for the young serfs stuff…
These are the Tyrants that the founding fathers warned you about.
ALL THIS GUY HAS DONE IS KILL ILLINOIS
The more conservatives he can drive out of state , the more political power he has, the Curley strategy.
was the remote work emergency order for state employees ever lifted? or what is status?
I recently chatted in line at the local Jewel with a man who used his SNAP free government food card to buy a bunch of tasty looking food (while I bought hamburger reduced priced near the expiration date). I encountered him in the parking lot as he rolled out in a newer Ford Explorer ($58K). These are the same people who voted in a progressive Congress Woman to the (formerly) conservative district, who also support an strident Socialist as D41 Superintendent.Your chart reports a tripling of Food Stamp use since 2000, I would love to see a Project Veritas uncover… Read more »
Free stuff and living beyond one’s means has always been popular. Don’t worry, his car will be repo’d soon enough, his cell phone service will be shut off, and he’ll be feeding his family lentil soup with day old bread, while standing in line, and complaining, about the lack of choice at the food pantry. It’s just the American Way!
I see that too. There should be some sort of program that scans the purchases. When someone is consistently buying filet mignon and lobster tails their income and benefit status should be reviewed.
Years ago I was at Dominicks and the woman (I’m a biologist) ahead of me used her card to buy pizza and bratwurst while I used my tax dollars to buy organic salad mix and health food.
Extending the Covid emergency allows for extended SNAP benefits and extended Medicaid benefits to people who could be working full time but are satisfied with a seat on the gravy train. People content to be dependent on the government.
The declarations of emergency do exactly what the fat man wants them to do
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Pritzker’s going to keep the permanently-temporary state of emergency going until he’s able to get Federal approval for his amended Medicaid waiver requests that keep the vote-buying Illinois Medicaid gravy train rolling in perpetuity. He knows he’s got the Federal guvmn’t socialist-swamp on his side there. Not to mention Big Doc, Big Pharm, and Big Hospital – nothing they like better than emergency rooms full of Medicaid coughs, colds-n-flu and sprains-n-strains pumping big sweaty wads of taxpayer dollars into their bank accounts. And then there’s Big Insurance. The Managed Care Organizations… Read more »