PRESS RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Daniel Anthony at Danthony@IllinoisPolicy.org or (312) 607-4977
or Diana Rickert at Diana@IllinoisPolicy.org or (312) 607-4977

Illinois Policy Institute statement regarding Republican support for ObamaCare

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (May 25, 2012) – Late Thursday, Illinois lawmakers approved legislation that would implement ObamaCare two years ahead of schedule in Cook County. Sixteen Republican lawmakers voted for the ObamaCare legislation, bucking the national trend of Republicans standing firm against President Obama’s misguided, big-government health mandate.

Illinois Policy Institute CEO John Tillman released the following statement regarding the Republican support for ObamaCare: 

“By partnering with Democrats to implement ObamaCare ahead of schedule in Cook County, these Illinois Republicans and Illinois Republican leadership demonstrated how out of step they are with taxpayers and members of their own party. Unfortunately, this is not the only arena in which Illinois Republicans are the outlier.

Elected officials in neighboring Wisconsin and Indiana are reining in state spending and cutting costs, helping to put their economies back on track. Meanwhile in Illinois, there are some Republicans who believe the state still doesn’t have enough money – despite record revenues resulting from last year’s $7 billion tax increase. In addition to backing ObamaCare, Republicans are poised to support a $1-per-pack cigarette tax later today.

Beyond supporting ObamaCare and a tax hike, Illinois lawmakers have also fallen short of their own goal to cut $2.7 billion in expenditures from its Medicaid program. Instead, they have equated tax hikes with spending cuts and reached less than $1.6 billion in material cuts. Worst of all, neither the cuts nor the tax hike fix the actual problems with the state’s Medicaid program. They leave in place a broken system where spending will continue to rise faster than revenues, which has long been Illinois’ core problem that has been left unaddressed.”

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MEDIA CONTACT: Daniel Anthony at Danthony@IllinoisPolicy.org or (312) 607-4977 or Diana Rickert at
Diana@IllinoisPolicy.org or (312) 607-4977

The Illinois Policy Institute is a nonpartisan research and education organization dedicated to making Illinois a beacon for liberty and prosperity for all citizens. As a leading voice for economic liberty and government accountability, the Institute engages policy makers, opinion leaders and citizens on the state and local level by promoting free market principles and liberty-based public policy initiatives for a better Illinois. To learn more about the Institute or review policy briefs, please visit: www.illinoispolicy.org.