Carbondale Reporter

Former Jackson County Republican Party Chairman Chris Grissom wonders if Springfield will ever put the citizens of Illinois first.

“We might want to do a lot of things, but at the end of the day we’ve got to live within our means and understand that we can’t just keep taxing the people of Illinois to the point they can barely afford to live,” Grissom told the Carbondale Reporter. “As a conservative, I’m not against being compassionate, but you can only do what you can do.”

Grissom argues a provision in the state’s newly passed $42 billion budget plan that would make Illinois the first state in the country to provide Medicaid benefits to undocumented immigrants is bad policy simply based on what’s practical. Under the guidelines of the bill soon to arrive on the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker, undocumented immigrants over the age of 65 with incomes of $12,670 or less would be eligible to receive Medicaid benefits as of July 1, 2021.

“We’re already in the midst of a financial crisis that’s only been made worse by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Everything we’re doing needs to be about building fiscal strength and we’re falling short. To take on this kind of added debt when we’re already borrowing billions of dollars just to hold this budget together makes absolutely no sense.”

In the end, Grissom said much of the new legislation only stands to make life harder for already stressed out state residents.   

“To be doing something like this would have been unfathomable even before pre-COVID conditions, to be allowing it to happen now borders on insanity,” he said. “Democrats are only digging a bigger hole for everyone in what looks like a desperate election year ploy aimed at trying to remain in power.”