Chambana Sun

A downstate lawmaker wonders how long Illinois can remain Illinois with everything that’s happening in Springfield.

“They are running Illinois like a third-world country,” state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) told the Chambana Sun of the ironclad grip Democrats have come to have on state government. “This governor doesn’t seem to understand the state Constitution or free enterprise and clearly isn’t bothered by the fact that people are suffering. Nothing about what Democrats are doing makes much sense.”

Caulkins points to the newly passed $42 billion state budget bill as a prime example of that, including a provision that stands to make Illinois the first state in the country to provide Medicaid benefits to undocumented immigrants. As of July 1, 2021, undocumented immigrants over the age of 65 with incomes of $12,670 or less would be eligible to receive Medicaid benefits.

“Every Democrat that just sits on their hands and does nothing to stand up for working people while Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker passes a budget that depends on borrowing billions and taxing working people more is personally responsible for the time when the state totally collapses,” Caulkins added.  “To not make any demands on the governor is not standing up for your constituents. He’s running roughshod over the state while not doing anything to fix the problems that he promised he would.”

Caulkins says all that to say there’s no way he can see the state being in a position to assume the kind of debt providing medical benefits to undocumented immigrants could mean.

“The state is already a financial disaster,” he said. “We’re still keeping businesses closed and promising unemployment benefit we haven’t been able to deliver,” he said. “How can we possibly be in a position to assume this kind of added debt?”