By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, includes “…Ignore the claims by Illinois lawmakers of their heroic acts of ‘balanced budgets,’ ‘fiscal discipline’ and the like. Even if those claims were true – and they are not – they couldn’t by themselves create such a swing in Illinois’ short-term fortunes. Credit, instead, the massive $138 billion in federal funds from the multiple COVID relief and stimulus packages – as compiled by the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget – that are now flooding Illinois’ public and private sectors.”