By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Talk about ending covid with a bang.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Disaster Declarations 39, 40 and 41 for all 102 Illinois counties on Tuesday when he said he would finally end his three-year long use of Emergency Orders on May 11, 2023. Illinois law limits emergency orders to just 30 days, so if he wants to keep the state under his rule for another 100 days, he’ll need another three such declarations.
Pritzker has no choice but to finally end his declarations after President Joe Biden announced the federal government would end the nation’s covid health emergency on May 11.
Biden’s decision finally strips Pritzker of his ability to hang on to his unilateral decision making over covid, which has included some of the most draconian lockdown and mitigation responses in the country.
The end to the federal disaster also means Pritzker can no longer rely on the extra federal food stamp and Medicaid dollars that were allowed under his own disaster declarations. All that extra cash expanded the number of Illinoisans dependent on government to new heights. A record 3.6 million Illinoisans are now enrolled in Medicaid and over 2 million receive food stamps. Not to mention Pritzker’s continued draw of federal dollars has helped fuel the nation’s 40-year-high inflation rate.
Illinois is one of just 9 states in the country still operating under Emergency Orders. All of Illinois’ neighboring states ended their use of emergency orders months or years ago.
By final count, Illinoisans will have lived under the governor’s emergency orders for over 1,155 days.
End of a destructive era
The end of Pritzker’s disaster declarations mean an end to a long reign of one-size-fits-all commands ranging from universal lockdowns to school masking to vaccine passports to poor retirement home management. All were top-down policies which, as Wirepoints reiterated time and again, were not grounded in science, eroded the public’s trust and did more harm than good.
You can read Wirepoints’ exhaustive list of Illinois’ covid mistakes here, but unfortunately no official assessment has been made of the state’s failures and overreach. Nor have lawmakers passed any reforms to keep another governor from doing the same thing again.
It’s fitting that Pritzker’s announced end to his emergency declarations includes one last snub to the rule of law. As mentioned above, Illinois’ emergency laws say declarations expire every thirty days and must be renewed. And yet Pritzker just renewed his emergency for 100 more days.
Covid is finally in the rear-view mirror, but Gov. Pritzker’s continued unilateral rule making, combined with the leadership’s failure to retake legislative control – in the General Assembly have permanently shattered democratic norms.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Will he ever quit? Gov. Pritkzer issued Covid Disaster Declaration No. 38
- 1,000 days: Pritzker’s Emergency Declarations kill jobs, increase Illinoisans’ dependence on government.
- In Hopes Of Doing Better Next Time, Here’s A List of Illinois’ COVID Policy Mistakes
- Pritzker administration pushes back against Wirepoints’ critique of latest “Disaster Declaration.” Our response.
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
COVID-19 countermeasures: Evidence for an intent to harm – FULL (rumble.com)
Vote buying by throwing around more Federal taxpayer funds and power tripping to prove he’s somebody. What else could it be?
Pugsley liked the dictatorial power that he abused for the last 3 years — like anyone else who never had a real achievement on their own merit, he enjoyed the ability to get his way
Is it me or has everyone else noticed former fans of Biden are popping up everywhere to call Joe a dope. He’s wrecked the country and edging to a hot war among nuclear powers. Hmmmmm……maybe we’d be better with Trump.. you’re reminded of his malicious incompetence everytime you buy anything. Don’t get me started on that freak show cabinet.
“… freak show cabinet.” Couldn’t have put it more succinctly.
You must be talking to the wrong democrats. I know several and recently had conversations with them. The best president ever, biden. Trump is causing all the issues now because of his policies are finally kicking in. Slow Joe smarter that President Trump ever was. What inflation? Oil prices have nothing to do with shutting down pipelines and public lands used for drilling. Egg prices high due to conspiracies among President Trump supporters. President Trump should go to prison for having secret documents, biden just made a mistake. CNN & MSNBC are the best sources of information available, FoxNews just… Read more »
In my family I. Surrounded by Trump haters. I think the perfect ticket for’24 would be desantis/Trump. Desantis is president and Trump can do whatever he wants. He should also be given power to demand testimony under oath. Today he could play golf, tomorrow he could go after Schiff, , Nancy, Stacey, Lori and the list goes on and on. His reward after being hounded by the Democrats. Oh! And Hillary too!
My spouse is a liberal, but his family members are elite ” woke liberals” to the max. Most, if not all, continue to blame Trump for anything that goes wrong now. Everyone in the family knows that I’m on the right side of life, so leave me alone. Literally.
They might be calling him a dope, which he rightly is, but when these people vote, they will happily pull the D lever.
The only reason your’re seeing those rumblings being aired out in the open, even in the MSM, is the silent powers behind the curtain that actually control the D party (and de facto the White House), are quietly shoving Joe and Kamala out the door. They already have their preferred successor waiting to be installed. My guess? Michelle Obama. Been saying that since Joe got elected… he’s just a place holder.
Possibly, but I doubt it could happen unless it’s stolen. I doubt the country is prepared for another incompetent wokester of any color or questionable gender.
Fair enough. But, I still think the „rock star” factor that Michelle still brings would be enough to glaze the eyes of the uninformed masses. The steal would just be the nail in the coffin.
sadly, Pritzker’s ability to declare disaster is not limited by Biden just Pritzker’s ability to use it as a tool to get federal dollars. I did read other states made LAWS allowing them to get the federal dollars. There has been zero emergency things Pritzker has done recently that could not have been done in the normal fashion … that is passing useful laws. They surely passed enough bad ones quickly when they wanted.
Illinois is the biggest Disaster in the country. When you move tell people you are from anywhere but Illinois.
It’s premature to end the Illinois disaster declarations. Illinois is, and will be, a disaster for the rest of my lifetime.
Tyrants will cling to their power until it ripped from their greedy claws or until the people revolt.
looks like the pigs almost out of lipstick?
BFD, how about those
sanctimonious clowns at ABC, a Disney Company of pedos.