SE Illinois News

Illinois state Rep. Daren Bailey (R-Xenia) believes the state’ ongoing economic shutdown is no longer about battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re now living through a socialist experiment,” Bailey told the SE Illinois News. “I really think all the executive actions the governor has used to shutdown our economy are about him continuing his destruction of our state so that more people become dependent on the government. I don’t think he has any intention of allowing businesses to reopen any time soon.”

Pritzker recently went public with details of his five-phase plan to reopen the state, explaining that his “Restore Illinois” public health plan will operate on a region-by-region basis.

Still in the midst of a stay-at-home order that he initially enacted in March that extends through the end of May, Pritzker said the state is already on Phase 2, which allows nonessential stores to open on a limited basis as the spread of the infection ideally begins to wane.

Pritzker said he doesn’t envision the state reaching Phase 5, or fully reopening for business, until a vaccine or effective treatment for the virus becomes available.

“It strikes me as a failed plan, just like everything else he’s done when it comes to the virus,” Bailey said. “At the end of the day, we can’t continue to starve our economy. Businesses down here have had enough and some of them are starting to reopen, no matter what the governor is saying.”

Under Pritzker’s plan, groups of 10 or more people are forbidden from gathering until Phase 3 of the plan and restaurants are not allowed to offer dine-in services until Phase 4.  

“People realize these orders are tyrannical and they understand no one branch of government can do what he’s doing,” Bailey said. “The financial devastation of all this is destroying people and it’s not warranted.”