By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
The Illinois legislature’s biggest failure during the pandemic has been its complete abdication of responsibility over the management of the pandemic itself – Gov. Pritzker has been running the state’s response via executive fiat for over a year.
The result has been a disaster for democratic norms. Lawmakers should have stepped in and authorized the governor’s emergency rules or passed their own laws at the start of the pandemic. But they did neither.
No matter their excuses, Illinois lawmakers no longer have reasons for inaction. The curve has been flattened. There’s no risk of running out of hospital beds or ICU resources. Daily cases have collapsed. And most importantly, vaccines are being rolled out at an increasing rate. Herd immunity is expected by the end of April.
Gov. Pritzker should be stripped of his powers by the legislature immediately. That’s especially true now that Pritzker has added another incremental phase to his plan instead of fast-tracking a full reopening.
Here’s why the legislature needs to retake control:
First of all, Pritzker’s yearlong control of Illinois’ COVID response has been marred by missteps and mismanagement. There’s the administration’s abject failure to protect retirement homes. The refusal to overrule unions and get kids safely back into school. The arbitrary shutdown of the economy across the state. And now the continuing botched vaccine rollout.
Second, Pritzker’s centralized, one-size-fits-all orders don’t appear to have helped against the pandemic in the first place. Illinoisans have been living under some of the strictest lockdown policies in the country and yet Illinois ranks 15th-worst nationally for COVID deaths per one million residents.
Meanwhile, many of the other states that pursued a policy of remaining more open have done better overall. Florida, the poster child for less-restrictive policies, has nearly 20 percent fewer deaths per million residents compared to Illinois.
Florida’s handling of the crisis has also done a better job not just protecting lives, but livelihoods. The state kept its economy free and reopened its schools, preserving jobs and limiting the damage of COVID. Today, Florida’s unemployment rate has fallen to less than 5 percent, far less than the national average, while Illinois’ rate is still a high 7.7 percent.
Third, all of Illinois’ indicators of the pandemic have collapsed over the past few months.
Vaccinations are now under way and, despite continued distribution problems, more than 2.6 million adult Illinoisans have gotten at least one shot. That’s about 30 percent of the adult Illinois population over the age of 20.
Plus there’s the fact that more than 1.2 million adults in Illinois have gotten COVID already. That means nearly 4 million adult Illinoisans already have some form of immunity (for sure there is some overlap between those who’ve had COVID with those recently inoculated). That’s approaching half the adult population.
Add to that the likely millions of Illinoisans who have suffered asymptomatic cases of COVID on top of that and we’ll rapidly approach herd immunity levels as the vaccination distribution process continues to improve.
Vaccination data is buttressed by the fact that COVID metrics are moving strongly in the right direction here in Illinois. Hospitalizations, deaths and daily reported cases have fallen dramatically in the last four months.
Hospitalizations are down 80 percent off of their 6,100 peak, with an average of 1,131 patients as of March 14th. Hospitalizations are now at a lower point than last year’s summer average.
Daily deaths, which peaked at a 7-day average of over 150 in December, are also declining rapidly. The 7-day average for daily deaths is now down to 28, an 80 percent decline.
And daily cases in Illinois have collapsed even more, down nearly 90 percent off their peak in November. The most recent 7-day average for cases was 1,514, way below the average of 12,000 a day just four months ago.
Jobs data is the other big reason the legislature should want to retake the reins from Pritzker over COVID. If there’s a group getting hurt most by the economic lockdown, it’s low-income populations.
The hardest hit job sector by far, leisure and hospitality, is filled with lower-income workers. Over 215,000 Illinoisans in that sector, or 34 percent, have lost their jobs.
And while Pritzker’s shutdown policies are widening the earning gaps between low- and high-income Illinoisans in the short term, it’s the shutdown of schools that’s causing long-term, irrevocable harm. Online learning has worsened the learning and earning gaps for low-income students for decades to come.
End the lockdowns
There is no reason for Illinois to have functioned under Pritzker’s emergency rules past the first 30 days of the pandemic, something Wirepoints has consistently argued since the pandemic began. Pritzker’s clockwork renewals of his emergency orders have made a mockery of the original intent of Illinois’ 30-day emergency law.
Blame former House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President Don Harmon if you want. Maybe they didn’t want to bear responsibility for any bad COVID outcomes, so they let the governor run the show. And what’s worse, the state’s courts have largely upheld the governor’s actions.
The good news is some lawmakers are trying to make sure Pritzker’s rule-by-fiat comes to an end. Senate minority leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) and several fellow senators recently introduced a bill that would require Pritzker and all future Illinois governors to seek approval from the Illinois General Assembly each time they renew their emergency powers.
Action by the General Assembly won’t change the mismanagement that’s unfolded over the last 12 months, but it can at least set Illinois on path to recovery sooner than Pritzker’s rules would allow.
Read more about COVID-19 in Illinois:
- Why Peoria County is doing COVID vaccinations right
- Illinois elderly still dying of COVID in vast disproportion to others, showing many vaccines are going to the wrong people
- Jumping the COVID vaccination line: the next casualty of common sense
- True inequality: In-class education at Chicago’s Catholic schools but remote learning at public schools
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.
Another fact free article from loony land.
Did they teach you that? You don’t need to make a point or refute any argument under discussion? Must be great to go through life shouting “misinformation” and “lies”, then consider yourself a genius.
Appropriate handle, considering the real Joe the Plumber was also the tool of a disingenuous political animal.
Pritzker was terminated by we the people. Arrest him for treason and crimes against humanity. He is a child abusing criminal. Sheriffs and state police are in gross violation of their oath of office . They have a duty to remove this illegitimate public servant from all form of governance immediately or risk prosecution when the military gets here
Hysterical much?
A very well written and researched article. Thank you Ted and John.
It’s time to take things into are own hands ignore this ass move on before it’s to late ladies and gentlemen, last time I looked we are still a free country. Pound sand Pritzker you’ve out done your welcome.
And just think, people thought things were bad when Madigan was running the show.
Well if he opens things up how will he make money from the testing kits, and masks he is invested in? Now that he will get Federal Money to pay for the money they borrowed for their pet projects I am sure his Campaign Donors will be getting big checks just like they did for the McCormick place fiasco.
gauleiter prickster gets his orders from the fourth reich fascists in London and the WEF. I’m still waiting for the first wave – never stopped working. nobody dead or seriously ill. March 15, 2020 194 nations were overthrown by a fascist covid coup based on fake positive PCR tests and pay for covid death toe tags as the year to year death rate did not increase but yet 500k died from the covid cold? covid19 is not a new virus like a new human baby is still human and your innate immune response recognizes it as such and kills cells… Read more »
Wow! I thonk your tin foil hat is a little too tight for you.
George, the frightening part is that this crazy bastard receives upvotes. With twitter banning the loonies and Parler’s issues, a vacuum has been created for unhinged people to express their crazy thoughts. While I appreciate this site keeping comments it clearly is attracting nut jobs from all corners of the internet.
Are you just realizing now that he should have his powers stripped from him? This is a communist state. When one party is in charge of the senate, house and the governorship that is communism.
If you can figure a way to get rid of his powers, than maybe we have a chance of getting rid of Mr. Potato Head in Washington.
Excellent analysis.
Lets take this guy to Nuremberg. He would be found guilty. Matter of FACT.
This should have happened after the 15 days–so over 11 months ago.
His ego is as large as his girth and because the legislature has just let everything go under the table his ego has gotten larger.
He has been hiding behind the diaper on his face.
This hit hard today. We all knew it was coming, this just cements it. IL is never re-opening. We either continue to write about it and watch the state go down… further down the toilet. Or we take action. I don’t know what to do anymore in this state. But damn… It’s grim and depressing…
The madness is never going to end. Forget the awful imagery of a bridge collapsing, we are all packed in a Yugo trying to drive over the Mackinac Island Bridge on a very windy day….
I agree. Hit me hard too when I see other states burning masks and fully opening, with BETTER COVID stats.
The comment below “The abuse of the emergency power statutes by the Gov allowed by elected Dem judges has destroyed so many businesses, scholarship opportunities for athletes”
This is what the official government workers party (Democrats) wanted to happen. they hate the private sector and folks being able to be self-sufficient.
God help us.
God help us is right. Asking the IL legislature to do something? They’ve done nothing throughout this whole mess, but sit home and collect fat paycheck.
That’s the problem wolfnight we sit here and provide are comments and insights as how we see it or would like to see it but only a handful of people can only say and do so much here on wirepoints. We need to gather as a whole somehow some way and do something, yes it’s easier said than done but if we all keep letting this happen we’re doomed beyond damn nation. Look what the black caucus accomplished in Springfield (supposedly) . Now start a white caucus and let’s give them legislators holy hell.
you would be labeled a ” racist” for trying to start a ” white” caucus,how dare you,you racist
Ouch
ever notice you can have btv,black caucus,black this and that,latin this and that but dont DARE put the word ” white” in front of anything ,well,thats just racist!-such a double standard!!
Fed Up – I have tried to mobilize some folk here in Palos Heights. Trouble is over 40% of our population work for government in some capacity. Even worse, most (not all) do not give a damn about the private sector, or the people working in it, despite us paying their wages! I have personally experienced a crassness from public sector workers, in fact probably arrogance. Some are good though. I have said before and say again, why would a government worker vote our Governor out? He protects them, he takes extra special care of them, he loves them like… Read more »
Most of the legislators are happy to let Governor Pritzker take responsibility for all the Covid-19 executive order decisions.
Do not blame me.
Blame him.
Re-elect me.
I don’t understand why he has not been recalled. If California can do it why not us?
I hate to say this, but its true: I trust the legislature even less than I trust JB fatman. The legislature has shown itself to be a progressive $hitshow that has a open conspiracy to support every legislator’s bills regardless of the insanity. There is not a single Democrat who will stand up and say “END THIS INSANITY”. Instead they’ve gone off the deep end causing irreparable harm and damage to the reputation of the state. JB has done a terrible job, but at least he’s not as bad as NY, CA or MI. That’s saying a lot because we… Read more »
None of the legislators will do a thing because if they do they know it will be a embarrassment to the Democratic Party, they know Pritzker has gone to far all they can hope for is that he doesn’t run again in 2022 and they will be ridden of the problem.
Excellent analysis by these two gentlemen– as usual. The facts are clear from the results in many other states. The abuse of the emergency power statutes by the Gov allowed by elected Dem judges has destroyed so many businesses, scholarship opportunities for athletes, and on and on. The crisis is over and the “Emergency” statutes should not apply any longer based on the very science that Pritzker purports to rely on.