Chambana Sun

Veteran state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) walks away from news of Springfield’s veto session cancellation with just one overriding assessment.

“They’re cowards,” Caulkins told the Chambana Sun of legislative leaders who made the call to hit the pause button out of concern for rising COVID-19 infection rates. “I know that’s the company line coming from Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker and Democrats, but I think it comes down to them not wanting to talk about the governor’s overreach and abuse of his executive power, Speaker (Mike) Madigan not wanting the General Assembly to discuss his fate as it pertains to his leadership and Democrats not wanting to talk about the problems they’ve created with a budget that’s severely underfunded.”

Caulkins said he’s not surprised to see Madigan now claiming to have the backing of a “strong majority” of House Democrats supporting his cancellation decision, arguing that it all strikes him as just more coordination.

“The residents of Illinois are the big losers in all this and after the defeat of the governor’s signature progressive tax proposal they’re afraid of what could come next,” he said. “Rather than face serious issues, Democrats are choosing to hide from them. The people of Illinois elected all of us to deal with these kinds of things.”

Caulkins argues Pritzker has the power to change everything.

“He could call us back at any time to deal with all this,” he said. “When it comes to the budget, we continue to spend money we don’t have at the same pace we always have when everyone knows we don’t have the revenue to support that. In no other world would we be doing things with our budget and finances the way our government is right now.”