Since the January 2011 tax hikes, Illinois’ recovery slowed down, the rest of the Midwest sped up and the rest of the U.S. significantly accelerated. The Great Lakes states performed in lockstep with how well they fostered the free-enterprise system.

An encouraging December helped pull the Land of Lincoln out of last place in the Midwest for 2014 jobs growth.

Illinois’ decades-long experiments with progressive economic policies have thwarted human potential and forced dependency on a massive scale.

Five things to remember from Governor Bruce Rauner's Inaugural speech

There are now 1.06 million more Americans working than when the recession began. In comparison, there are 232,000 fewer Illinoisans working over the same time period, the second-largest employment gap in the U.S.

The stunning data underscore an important point as power shifts to Governor-elect Bruce Rauner: Illinois cannot raise taxes on a population that is shrinking due to massive numbers of people leaving.

Illinois’ jobs crisis has led to a dependency crisis.

Chicago City Council claims that over 400,000 workers in Chicago will get pay hikes. What lawmakers should be studying is how many tens of thousands of those workers are going to be unnecessarily thrown out of work the next time the economy slows down, property taxes go up or a new technology comes along that can replace human labor.