CHICAGO, IL — New today in Crain’s Chicago Business, Americans for Prosperity-Illinois Deputy State Director Brian Costin penned an opinion piece after his visit to the socialist convention at McCormick Place in Chicago. While there, Costin heard plenty of too-good-to-be-true socialism promises — and challenged them with free-market and entrepreneurial common sense.
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OPINION: Socialism’s promises sound familiar. So does the track record
Crain’s Chicago Business | AFP-IL Deputy State Director Brian Costin
I went to the recent Socialism 2026 conference in Chicago, concerned about the growing appeal of socialism. What I heard there gave me more reason to take it seriously.
When I asked people why they had chosen to attend the conference, I heard versions of the same answer: They were looking for solutions to practical challenges.
Housing is limited and costs are too high; socialism promises to bring down rent. Education is creating debt; socialism promises to erase it. Healthcare is too expensive; socialism promises to make it free. When promises like these meet real challenges, they deserve more scrutiny, not less.
What struck me most about the ideas at the conference was how familiar the underlying argument sounded: Give government more control over the economic decisions that shape our lives, and it can make necessities more affordable and accessible.
Illinois gives us an opportunity to test that promise against experience.
I’ve spent years speaking to people across the state, and I have heard firsthand about the pressures they face from high costs, taxes, and a healthcare system that too often fails to meet their needs.
We don’t have to look far to test whether expanding the government’s role has addressed these challenges. We can look in our own backyard.
Consider Chicago’s own budget. The city’s $16.6 billion 2026 spending plan counted on $89.6 million from selling $1 billion in debt owed to the city, but that revenue — like other anticipated sources — failed to materialize, leaving an $85.1 million gap the city now plans to address in part by refinancing debt.
This year, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the largest budget in state history — a $55.9 billion spending plan that includes hundreds of millions in new taxes, largely on businesses. General Fund spending has grown from about $36.4 billion in fiscal 2019 to $55.9 billion in the fiscal 2027 budget. The question isn’t simply how much government spends, but whether Illinoisans are seeing better results in return.
Healthcare offers another example. Illinois requires healthcare providers to receive government approval through its Certificate of Need program before making certain investments, including building or expanding facilities, adding beds, or purchasing major medical equipment. The stated goal is to contain costs, prevent unnecessary duplication, and improve access to care.
That approval process can determine whether new healthcare capacity is built at all. Beloit Health System proposed spending roughly $22 million to establish a 10-bed neighborhood hospital in Roscoe. The project was intended to improve access to inpatient and emergency services within its 17-mile service area. After a two-year review process, the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board denied the project, citing concerns including whether the need for the facility had been demonstrated and whether it would unnecessarily duplicate existing services.
That process assumes government planners can judge future healthcare needs better than providers responding to patients and demand.
The same tension is playing out in Chicago’s housing debate. The City Council is weighing two competing proposals to expand protections for renters, but deferred votes on both measures this week as aldermen seek a possible compromise.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s revised Protecting Renters Ordinance would create a citywide rental registry and a new Bureau of Rental Housing Services, restrict certain fees, and expand protections and enforcement mechanisms for renters. Most landlords would pay a $20 annual registration fee for each rental unit to fund the new bureau.
Johnson’s proposal has already changed substantially. Before it advanced from committee, he dropped provisions that would have imposed “just cause” requirements on certain lease nonrenewals and, in some cases, required relocation payments.
The goal — protecting Chicagoans struggling with housing costs — is understandable. The question is whether adding new costs and regulations to providing rental housing will make housing more affordable or create costs that ultimately work against that goal.
Chicago is also investing heavily in subsidized construction to address housing affordability. This month, officials celebrated the opening of Austin United Alliance Apartments, a $51.7 million development on the West Side with 78 apartments, 50 of them affordable. The project relied on substantial public support, including millions of dollars in TIF funding and a long-term, zero-interest city loan, along with private equity generated through federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
Unlike policies that regulate the existing rental market, those subsidies produced new housing. But they raise another question about scale and cost: How much public support is required to produce affordable units this way, and can Chicago replicate that approach widely enough to meet the city’s housing needs?
That’s why the conversations I had at the conference matter more to me than the labels people use. The people I spoke with weren’t describing imaginary problems. Housing and healthcare are expensive. Families worry about taxes, debt, and whether they will be able to get ahead.
The disagreement is over what we do about it.
Socialism promises that putting more decisions in the hands of the government will make the things people need easier to get and afford. But those promises should be judged by what happens when they’re put into practice.
Illinois has already tried to address high costs, limited access, and economic insecurity through government. Before giving it more control in the hope that this time will be different, we should reckon honestly with what that experience has actually produced.
Brian Costin is the deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity in Illinois.
