(The Center Square) – Illinois Republican state Rep. Chris Miller says there’s a name for the sickness he argues has long permeated Springfield, resulting in the city of Chicago now being home to second-biggest inflation problem among all metro areas.
“The problem in Springfield is that there’s a classic case of denier syndrome,” Miller told The Center Square of the Democrats now running the state. “Anything that’s uncomfortable, they just deny that it’s true. They make themselves feel better about it, but the bottom line everyday working people out in the state know that the inflation is real. They know bad public policy is real.”
A new WalletHub study also finds that over the last two months the city suffered a price-index change hit of 0.9% to trial only Minnesota at 1.3% for largest in the country. Researchers reached their findings by comparing 23 Metropolitan Statistical Areas across two key metrics related to the CPI, with Chicago zooming to an overall score 77.71.
“It’s piling on the things that we’re already experiencing because of bad public policy,” Miller added. “When you combine some of the things that the Pritzker regime has done, it’s like putting a multiplier on the inflation rate. All of the inflation has been driven by bad public policy.”
Given all Springfield’s dysfunction, Miller adds its little wonder so many residents across the state are reacting the way that they are, including a growing number of them deciding to leave the state altogether.
“I think that the velocity of the exodus is increasing with bad public policy,” he said. “When you can go live in a free state and you can save $40,000 a year and you have the ability to work remotely of have a job that is conducive to that, those people have mobility and they’re hitting the dusty trail. I think that bad public policy is going to increase the velocity of the exodus of Illinois. You always hear people talk about they’re voting in their pocketbook.”
Miller argues things could easily change if lawmakers advanced policy that plays more to the state’s strengths.
“We have more BTUs of coal in the state of Illinois than Saudi Arabia,” he said. “One of the reasons why we enjoy the quality of life we have had in the past is because of cheap, affordable, reliable energy and we’ve taken all that off the table. We need to mine our own coal and we need to drill our own oil and we need to open up all the coal fire plants that they shut down.”
Chicago was joined on the top five list of cities experiencing the biggest problems with inflation by Minneapolis (overall score 83.33), Detroit (70.18), Honolulu (65.79) and New York (65.61).
With remnants of the pandemic still being felt in some parts, the U.S. inflation rate recently clipped a 40-year high at 2.5%, with factors such as the a series of Federal Reserve rate hikes, the war in Ukraine and domestic labor shortages all contributing to the overall rise in inflation.
