By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, includes “There’s a price tag attached to the unprecedented federal money lavished on states under the pretext of COVID relief, which is over $9 trillion and growing. It’s in addition to higher federal taxes that will be needed to pay for it. It’s inflation, which is finally getting the attention it deserves. … One group that’s been conspicuously silent about the issue are Illinois politicians. That’s because they are among the biggest beneficiaries of the federal government’s printing press. They love the billions of dollars flooding into Illinois …”