Last week, Illinois' conservative community's Illinois Review agreed with what the Chicago Tribune said Wednesday about the Democrats' failure to lead on real workmen's comp reform ...

...Illinois very much needs stricter rules for determining that a workers' compensation injury actually occurred on the job. It also needs stricter rules for establishing levels of disability, so that compensation better matches the true extent of an injury.

Inevitably, reforming those missing links in the system would reduce the money available to workers and their attorneys. That's where the savings would come from. No surprise, then, that organized labor and the plaintiffs' bar want to keep the honey pot overflowing. Democrats have failed to stand up to those special interests, both of which, well, if you ask that cynic to explain more about who listens to which constituencies ...

So far, Republicans have taken the lead in pushing for a bill that will make Illinois genuinely more attractive to job creators. Standing firm in the face of overheated accusations about stripping workers of their rights, Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, pushed for last week's roll-call vote. Behind the scenes, business leaders and their lobbyists also have kept pushing for stronger reform legislation.

Again, we at Illinois Review hold no hope that the trial lawyers and unions that own the Democrat-run Illinois General Assembly majority and Governor Quinn himself will ever activate true reforms in workmen's comp.  The only way to get action and lure new businesses back to Illinois is to oust the Democrat majority with reform-minded Republicans. 

Hopefully, the esteemed Chicago Tribune will keep that reality in mind when it comes to endorsing statewide offices in 2012.