Will County Gazette

Illinois state Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) laments that Democrats keep finding ways to make things even worse when it comes to the state’s long-troubled finances.

“Most of the budget makes no sense given how deep in the hole we are,” McDermed told the Will County Gazette of the state’s newly passed $42 billion spending plan. “As deep in debt as we are, we didn’t cut a single line item in this budget.”

McDermed argues that’s hardly the worse element of it, pointing to a provision that stands to make Illinois the first state in the country to provide Medicaid benefits regardless of immigration status. 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.

“None of it makes sense when you consider that it’s the federal government’s job to be working to fix the immigration issue,” McDermed added. “For Illinois to be deciding to go into the immigration policy business is not what was intended by the Constitution. Not only is that totally inappropriate, but you have to ask yourself why lawmakers in Springfield would be pushing to put even more burden on taxpayers.”

McDermed can't understand the reasoning offered by Democrats for why they’ve taken some of the actions they have when it comes to the budget.

"Gov. Pritzker’s argument that we’re in bad shape from top to bottom and he doesn’t want to cut anything makes no sense, especially when you have no money,” she said. “Everyone has to make sacrifices, but with Democrats everything just comes back to this being an election year.”