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.
