Republicans, biz groups knock Pritzker’s plan
Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dan Petrella at the Tribune…
Republican lawmakers in the Illinois House on Wednesday gave scathing reviews to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s regional five-phase plan to reopen the state’s economy.
“This plan does not work,” House GOP leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said on a videoconference.
“This plan presumes that the governor shall rule the state for the upcoming months — and possibly much longer — if the vaccination is not available,” Durkin said. “I took an oath of office to faithfully discharge my duties in the coequal branch of government called the legislature. I did not abdicate nor relinquish my elected responsibilities to the executive branch.” […]
“Speaker Madigan, you set the calendar,” Durkin said. “Mr. Speaker and the House Democrats, get back into the game. Get your head out of the sand, and let’s go back to work.”
* Finke…
Under the timeline and criteria set out in the plan, [Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington] said, it could be “months or years” before the state fully reopens.
Durkin said the state’s hospitality industry will be destroyed under the timeline of the plan. If everything goes well, the earliest Phase 4 could be achieved is the end of June, he said.
“That will force bankruptcies and closures. This plan does not work,” Durkin said.
* More…
* Greg Hinz…
“Business is happy that he has a plan,” said Todd Maisch, CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. “They’re not happy with this plan.” […]
Under Pritzker’s order, “The earliest we’d be able to open is on June 26,” Illinois Restaurant Assn. President Sam Toia said. Those restaurants initially shut in early March. “I don’t know any business that can go 16 weeks with 80 percent or more reduce income and stay viable.”
Toia urged Pritzker to move restaurants from phase four to phase three, which sets lesser standards for testing, et al. Restaurants should have to require staff to wear masks and other personal protective gear and at least initially limit capacity, as has happened in some other states, Toia said. But moving restaurants to phase three would allow some to reopen by Memorial Day weekend.
“We obviously care about the health and safety of our team members and customers,” Toia said. “But let’s be realistic.”
I really think these folks are way over-estimating the eagerness of people to go back to eating in restaurants and using public restrooms. Right now, you’re only as safe as the covidiot closest to you.
After 9/11, lots of folks were criticized for still thinking they lived in a 9/10 world. I just don’t think the restaurant business, regardless of any executive orders, is going to be what it was for a while.
- Techie - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:41 pm:
I see the point of Durkin and restaurant owners. How long can they go with very little income and survive? Not very long.
However as Rich implies, even if they’re allowed to open sooner than Pritzker’s plan permits, would they get enough business to stay afloat? It’s very possible some would, but as he said, the restaurant business (and many others) won’t be the same for a while. Even if people are allowed to go to restaurants, many, many people who used to go before the pandemic are not going to be willing to go when restaurants reopen.
There is an extent to which the post-pandemic world will be quite different, and for a good while.
At the same time, if we can’t eradicate the disease and it will be with us for months if not years (probably years), how long do we stay closed for?
These aren’t easy issues. Really sucks the federal government is so incompetent and not acting in the interests of the people.
- NotRich - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:44 pm:
Gov can’t win.. people scream “where is the plan”?? he puts out a plan people scream “this sucks, you are killing us” you have no idea what you are doing..maybe he should just open everything up, and if it gets bad again close it down and tell all “I told you so”!!
- Fighter of Foo - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:49 pm:
The restaurants in Florida, Georgia, and Texas are open and operating. People are going to them. The point they are making people want the choice. Right now, they are facing bankruptcies if you can’t open. Enough people will go, we know that from the other states.
- Perrid - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:49 pm:
I eagerly look forward to the Republicans plan. I’d like to see in writing what milestones they think need to be met. I honestly want to know if leadership is going to double down on the “open everything now now now” as official IL GOP policy. If you say the Guv’s plan doesn’t work, that’s only logical.
- 44th - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:49 pm:
4 regions, 5 phases sounds like a plan but with government heel dragging will take too long. Focus on nursing homes, the elderly and at risk people, for the rest of us time to take more active measures to re start. Social distancing and facemarks required while we do it. curve flattened was the objective.
- Jibba - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:52 pm:
“This plan does not work”…as fast as we want. Fixed it for you.
BTW, nothing will work as fast as you want but you wanted a regionalized plan. Here you go.
- TheUpperRoom - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:55 pm:
Sounds like partisan bickering to me. If Pritzker just threw his hands up and did everything the house republicans wanted him to, they’d criticize him for listening to them and not stepping up to lead. I admire governors taking the heat and keeping their states safe. And what leader Durkin failed to mention is that a lot of small business owners of restaurants and shops are actually happy with these decisions as well, even though it’s a very tough time for them. Believe it or not, even people who have the most riding on the economy are putting people first, as we saw in Atlanta and other places in Georgia. So the picture the GOP is painting is not accurate. It’s a shame everything has to play out in such a partisan manner, but poll numbers indicate Pritzker is doing the right thing, at least up to this point. Also, let’s not rule out ulterior motives.. it would be a shame to see people go back to work, lose their unemployment, then get laid off or furloughed again if this flairs up or if the business closes anyways.
Anyways. I’d prefer overly-cautious than being careless.
- Almost retired - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:55 pm:
The virus is what shut down the economy not the executive order. There is and will be no going back to the normal that existed before this virus and this pandemic. It is now figuring out how to live safely in our new world. What is not being said here is the bottom line trade off. How many grandmothers and grandfathers die? How many Fathers and Mothers die? How many people who are diabetic die? How many people who have heart problems die? How many of our fellow Americans and folks who are our neighbors in Illinois die? Lets not hide this discussion from the discussion on opening up the economy. How many deaths are worth saving a restaurant? How many deaths are worth keeping every hotel and motel open? The business model of the old “normal” will not work for the “new normal.” How many deaths will it take to educate and push through this denial.
- Rachel - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:57 pm:
Restaurant workers who can collect unemployment may not want early openings either. Some, especially older ones are afraid of contracting the virus while at work. You can’t have a mask on when you eat or drink. If their businesses are allowed to open, their unemployment disappears and they will be forced back to work in a very unsafe environment.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:57 pm:
I look at the “noise” and the hyperbolic criticism with “ruling over the state” as this and nothing more;
The plan has some things, I feel, need a clearer explanation and the presser today will be the first day among many coming days that that the administration should use to iron out confusions.
Deciding to pan a plan, without a counter plan or thoughtfulness to the polling that indicates how people feel, which isn’t all to safe to eat at restaurants as an example, or how people feel the governor is doing in voters’ eyes, will lead to the HGOP, again, missing the mark and look like money over lives is their mantra.
It’s a global pandemic where some infected will die. This isn’t “fair maps” or “graduated income tax”.
Ya can’t pan a plan with a pandemic and expect me to take you at all serious without showing me things that aren’t “scary words” like bankruptcy or closing businesses when families can’t buyer loved ones.
This is real life. Real life and death sometimes too.
- JB13 - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:58 pm:
A) There is no demand, so there’s no point in opening anything
B) If we open up, restaurants and parks and theaters will be packed with people, COVID will bloom like never before, and tens of thousands will die.
Please pick one of these logically exclusive positions.
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 1:58 pm:
If Durkin opens up his office to the public, his words would have more weight.
So Mr. Durkin, what say you.
- The Doc - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:01 pm:
==curve flattened was the objective==
That was the first objective, not the only one.
You know that, right?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:02 pm:
Also…
Leader Durkin,
Are you in favor of businesses getting let off the hook, legally, if they open and customers and/or workers get sick or worse.
Leader Durkin, if are in favor of immunity from liability for businesses open from lawsuits pertaining to Covid-19, how safe is it to open if these businesses need this immunity from liability?
Thanks,
OW
- RDB - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:02 pm:
One of the employees of a McDonald’s franchise in Urbana (owned by Rodney Davis’s brother) told me they aren’t planning on having any dine-in seating until January at the earliest.
If the Republicans and other businesses desperately want to re-open, then they should be demanding, requiring, and actively pushing for people to wear masks, gloves and wash their hands. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is the case.
- Just Me 2 - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:04 pm:
What would the House Republicans suggest different? Hoping the disease magically goes away and returning to normal next week?
Let’s see their plan (banned punctuation).
- Northsider - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:06 pm:
Reason No. 11,697,696 why I’ll never vote for a Republican.
- Saul Goodman - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:10 pm:
Perrid,
I think there’s a lot of space between “open everything now now now” (your words) and “we can’t fully reopen until we have a vaccine or a magic bullet treatment”.
I’m going to give Pritzker the benefit of the doubt for now — slow and steady probably still wins this race — but we need to see how the executive applies his criteria.
Especially for the last stage — what would qualify as an “effective treatment”? Would it count if there were four or five drugs that work in different scenarios? Even if there isn’t a single drug, there’s a decent chance that doctors will develop a series of options that would improve chances of survival substantially — that should count well enough to reopen.
Pritzker also needs to acknowledge the possibility that the disease will mutate into something less lethal, something that could render all the rest of the lockdown unnecessary within a few weeks.
(I realize that would be a huge break and we haven’t caught many of those so far — I wouldn’t assume that’s just about to happen — but it does happen and IF it does we can and should wind down the emergency.)
- lakeside - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:14 pm:
I don’t understand this from businesses. Push for the state and fed governments to back you up while you close for your patriotic, civic duty keeping people safe.
When you push to reopen and no one shows up, that’s going to be on you. No one will bail you out because it’s your choice. Lobby to get the money you need to stay afloat while the gov asks you to do this for America.
- In 630 - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:18 pm:
The reopen now crowd really shows their hand when they say nothing about expanding testing capacity and standing up the tracing program faster, or how the feds seem to be all but quitting whatever help they ever were. No regard for the well being of workers or customers, or anyone but the handful more businesses who might be able to survive on the dollars of a few fools
- Chicagonk - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:22 pm:
@Perrid - The Republican plan is to open up sooner than Pritzker wants. If Pritzker said end of May, Republicans would be saying May 15th.
- Bigtwich - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:24 pm:
==Enough people will go, we know that from the other states.==
No, actually we do not.
https://www.winemag.com/2020/05/06/restaurants-reopen-capacity/
- OpentoDiscussion - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:26 pm:
Let’s get real. This is destroying the economy and the livelihoods of so many.
If this disease plateaus then it will be necessary to accept this horrible situation as the ‘new normal.’
If it continues to escalate we are all in such big trouble that no one can anticipate how negative this will be.
We had ll better hope that vaccine is developed and fast!
- levivotedforjudy - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:26 pm:
If a small restaurant or bar opens soon and a person working there has COVID - 19 and then transmits it and one of those patrons dies, how many people will frequent that business after that? And, do you ban elderly people who may look a bit sickly from patronizing it? Do you also ban anyone wearing hospital scrubs? Do you ban using cash? Yeah, let’s rush into this.
- Pelonski - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:27 pm:
I’m fortunate to be able to keep working, but if I was someone watching my livelihood and life savings disappear, I can’t say that I wouldn’t be advocating for things to open up. If I was in a high risk category, I might be actively pushing back against any changes.
This one of those cases where this is no good outcome. The governor has to try to identify the least harmful outcome, and that is almost always hard to get exactly right.
- Sayitaintso - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:27 pm:
The Upper Room said it. - to Durkin et.al. You guys are the Peanut Gallery, you stand small next to Pritzker. He has shown all the qualities you’d want from a leader in hard times. You - and yours - pathetic
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:28 pm:
- OpentoDiscussion -
Do you think businesses should have immunity from liability with Covid-19?
Thanks.
- Pundent - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:28 pm:
=Pritzker also needs to acknowledge the possibility that the disease will mutate into something less lethal, something that could render all the rest of the lockdown unnecessary within a few weeks.=
The opposite holds true as well. I have no doubt that if the disease get appreciably better or worse adjustments will be made. But baking them into a plan now doesn’t seem to make much sense. No elected official wants this to go on any longer than possible. But hope isn’t a strategy. If it was we would have already witnessed the miracle where this simply disappears as predicted by others.
- Roman - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:33 pm:
@Perrid is right.
How about a bill? You want to get back to Springfield…put your plan in a bill and file it.
- Grey-World - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:45 pm:
Party of responsibility?
The VIRUS is responsible for all this harm. The VIRUS is causing this, not the government.
If everything opened up today, you would a lot more cases! (We are currently 4th in the country and we are likely going to move into the third spot after NY and NJ). Illinois is a world hot spot for the Virus. People pretend that we are not, but we are- its reality.
That said, if we open up today, the jobs and the economy is not going back to normal. People will not go to restaurants, bars, gyms, hotels, sporting events barbers, hair salons, tattoo parlors like before, etc etc. It sucks but be pissed off at the VIRUS and not the EO. Again, it sucks, but that is what this virus did. We know must prepare so that when another virus like this hits again (and it unfortunately will), we are better prepared to deal with a pandemic than we did here.
All the people employed by these professions above are not going to spend money in our consuming commerce. That sucks, but that is our reality. It is a huge problem but it seems the only way one party wants to handle this is to just pretend and hope that everything is going back to normal. I do not think that is reality with Illinois people.
If the majority of people are not going to go to a restaurant or bar until their is a vaccine, is it worth the risk to reopen? There will be a huge cost (it costs money) on our health care system which we all eventually end up paying for, never mind the fact that we have to acknowledge that such a move will lead to more deaths.
The virus and situation sucks…
- Norseman - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:47 pm:
=== This plan presumes that the governor shall rule the state for the upcoming months — and possibly much longer … ===
Yes, Pritzker was elected to rule the state until 2023. Despite the whining, he’s actually doing what leaders do.
- Nacho - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:50 pm:
==A) There is no demand, so there’s no point in opening anything
B) If we open up, restaurants and parks and theaters will be packed with people, COVID will bloom like never before, and tens of thousands will die.
Please pick one of these logically exclusive positions.==
It’s quite possible there wouldn’t be enough demand to justify opening but enough to significantly spread the virus.
- Anyone Remember - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:51 pm:
Fighter of Foo
“… people want the choice.”
Didn’t realize we’d received from Enterprise Transporter Chief Miles O’Brien (Star Trek TNG) a bio-filter to screen out COVID-19 before interacting with people at risk. /s
- Norseman - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:54 pm:
=== Let’s get real. This is destroying the economy and the livelihoods of so many. ===
Economies recover and help is available for people whose livelihoods are damaged. Death is forever.
- OpentoDiscussion - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 2:56 pm:
OW
At this point the answer is NO.
But I made my point and it is far more complicated than some on this and other sites would like to believe.
Particularly if they face long term unemployment which undoubtedly does not apply to you and certainly does not apply to me.
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:02 pm:
Perhaps a civics refresher is in order
Dictators rule
Governor’s govern and administer laws passed by the General Assembly, many of whom will accountable to the voters in 2021.
Pritzker was not elected to rule the state until 2023
- dbk - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:02 pm:
As others noted, if the Rs have a better plan (note: “Open the restaurants and bars, now” is not a plan), let them urge their D colleagues to reconvene the GA, pronto.
I think it’s just beginning to sink in that Pritzker’s plan - which is open to discussion, sure, but informed, serious discussion, not “business business business” rants - is neither a quick nor an easy one.
Rather, it’s a plan that’s consistent and in line with gradual opening of an economy while a pandemic continues to make its virulent way through the population. Above all, it’s a plan with a clear informing ethos, that of protecting human life.
Illinois is barely in Phase (2), and whoever thinks we’d be at Phase (4) by late June - well, barring a miracle (possible but don’t bet on it), that’s just wishful thinking.
It will be many months before we make it to Phase 4, and frankly there are some sectors, among them the dining sector, which will not recover unless/until there’s a vaccine. Same holds for the tourism-hospitality sector.
Instead of carping, which comes cheap, how about some informed, serious discussion? That, after all, is how you deal with a pandemic.
- Pundent - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:07 pm:
===Enough people will go, we know that from the other states.==
Restaurants are opening with capacity restrictions of 25-50% and polling shows that only 22% feel comfortable in eating at a restaurant right now. You can’t sustain a business on that math.
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:10 pm:
Illinois is currently
3rd in confirmed cases
5th in tests
5th in deaths per million
7th in fatality rate
long overdue that the legislature convenes and legislates
I can only imagine the howls if a Republican Governor was ruling the state for two months with zero checks and balances
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:23 pm:
=== Particularly if they face long term unemployment which undoubtedly does not apply to you and certainly does not apply to me.===
I do appreciate your response and honesty.
I’d also be remiss if I don’t say to that… you can’t un-die.
With respect.
The liability idea or reducing liability is a big tell, at least for me.
- anon2 - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:26 pm:
The plan includes Republican suggestions, but they still oppose it. Where’s the future incentive to give the GOP concessions if they’re opposed anyway?
- Pundent - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:30 pm:
=The liability idea or reducing liability is a big tell, at least for me.=
This is not insignificant. You can tell people that they can venture forth and sue businesses if their health is compromised. Businesses won’t like that. Or you can give businesses the protection they seek and tell their customers venture out at your own risk. Either scenario is bad and will keep things from opening up.
- OpentoDiscussion - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:35 pm:
OW,
Obviously no easy answers. Many of us will agree on certain aspects of this issue and disagree on others.
Good to get it all out- at least in a reasonably civil manner.
Need a vaccine and a national focus on this like we did the Manhatten Project.
- Johnny Tractor - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 3:42 pm:
I’m genuinely puzzled by this statement: “We obviously care about the health and safety of our team members and customers,” Toia said. “But let’s be realistic.“
Why the “but” qualifier? I understand that one can never remove risk from life - is he offering some standard of what that is for employees and customers in this particular situation? What’s the offsetting “realistic” value?
I don’t have the answer - just trying to figure what he’s saying the answer is.
- Original Rambler - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:09 pm:
I really think these folks are way over-estimating the eagerness of people to go back to eating in restaurants and using public restrooms.
I’m not going to an eat-in restaurant anytime soon but I do carry-out about 5 times a week when it used to be twice a week.
I’d like to see a poll on this. My guess is maybe 25% would say they’re ready to go to a restaurant tomorrow.
- @misterjayem - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:25 pm:
You don’t need an MBA or a PhD in epidemiology to understand that both can be true.
– MrJM
- Dotnonymous - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:26 pm:
A tattoo artist warned me sixty years ago that the tattoo I was about to receive was for life…plus six months.
- Nick - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:33 pm:
I’ll just be really honest, this is getting stupid.
Restaurants operate on some incredibly tight margins to begin with. Most of them would close even if you assume something like 3/5 of their prior business would make a sustained return if they re-open tomorrow. And that isn’t even addressing the idea of them having to operate at 50 percent or even 25 percent capacity, abiding by 6 foot guidelines, for the foreseeable future.
The stay at home order is not the enemy. The virus the enemy. And until the virus is suppressed, no amount of whining is going to make a the vast majority of bars or a eateries economically viable in the near future.
- Nick - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:34 pm:
===You don’t need an MBA or a PhD in epidemiology to understand that both can be true.===
Exactly.
Most restaurants can not and will not sustain operating at margins where they are stuck at 50 percent or lower capacity, and only get a limited amount of foot traffic.
But that traffic can still represent a significant risk to those people who *do* choose to go to them, given the inability to socially distance between patrons and staff.
- Nick - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:40 pm:
===I’d like to see a poll on this. My guess is maybe 25% would say they’re ready to go to a restaurant tomorrow.===
We have had some polls, actually.
A CBS/YouGov poll from late April said only 29% of Americans would be comfortable going to a bar or restaurant if orders were lifted: https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/04/23/visiting-friends-covid-poll
- Denise - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:44 pm:
We need more balance in this approach. June 26th to eat outdoors? Come on.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 4:46 pm:
===Illinois is currently 3rd in confirmed cases 5th in tests 5th in deaths per million 7th in fatality rate===
And yet you still want to reopen the whole thing.
- Original Rambler - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 5:34 pm:
Thanks Nick.
- Pundent - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 5:56 pm:
=I’d like to see a poll on this. My guess is maybe 25% would say they’re ready to go to a restaurant tomorrow.=
You don’t have to look far. Your guess is a bit high but you’re in the ballpark.
https://capitolfax.com/2020/05/06/open-thread-100/
- Hamlet's Ghost - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 6:21 pm:
=== I can only imagine the howls if a Republican Governor was ruling the state for two months with zero checks and balances ===
I interpret MJM’s statement as saying he thinks JB is more or less on the right track. MJM has never backed down from a Governor he disagreed with, from either party.
If the General Assembly thinks JB is on the right track, what would they legislate, other than to pass a resolution “Good job JB, keep on keeping on. . .”
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 9:41 pm:
Let the adults get back to work and the children can stay home and whine like toddlers. Are you an adult or a child?
- James - Wednesday, May 6, 20 @ 9:44 pm:
Re swastikas–“that type of terminology…,” Durkin said…. “doesn’t reflect the good people of this state, the good people within our party and also the good people of the Democrat Party.”
When he calls the Democratic party by its proper name, I will start listening to the substance of the minority leader’s comments.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 7, 20 @ 7:00 am:
This virus and plan will complete the breakdown of our state’s already dismal finances. Tax revenues will collapse along with thousands of small businesses while the inevitable downgrade of our credit rating to junk will balloon the cost to carry our enormous debt. I fear state IOUs in place of pension checks Are inevitable now.