In democracy - and the good thing about democracy, big change does not happen quickly, and you need a buy-in and a convincing, a selling, an arm-twisting to get big change. And that takes time.
If yelling and threatening, intimidating and chanting solved problems, Illinois wouldn't have any problems. We're good at that stuff.
We've become a collectivist economy in Illinois. It's crushing us. And no problem is going to get fixed unless we bring more economic freedom into the state. And I believe that very passionately.
If Republicans and Democrats commit to working together, we can reach a bipartisan, common-sense agreement to reverse Illinois' economic decline and set the stage for a bright economic future.
I've been very engaged in Illinois and Chicago civic activities for a long time; mostly around building businesses and helping entrepreneurs grow companies, but also around education and education reform.
I'm a big outdoorsman... I'm a big hunter. Avid fisherman. Hiker. Climber. Scuba diver. Skier. Love the outdoors.
Our government workers should be treated fairly and appropriately. They should have a decent retirement, but not a gold-plated system where they can retire multimillionaires in their 50s.
Voters want conflicting things. They want a lot of government spending, but they don't want higher taxes.
Those who want low taxes and healthy job creation know that an unnecessary dollar going to these unions is a dollar that cannot reduce the tax burden on homeowners, small businesses, and job creators.
I don't like to pay lip service. I don't frankly like to talk about stuff.
Government pensions are among the largest cost drivers for state and local governments.
We have a moral duty to have an efficient government.
We need to focus on reducing property taxes. We need to focus on education funding. We need to focus on getting term limits on elected officials.
We have to reduce the tax burden, whether it's income tax for corporations or private individuals, and we should put a freeze on property taxes.
Government unions should not be allowed to influence the public officials they are lobbying, and sitting across the bargaining table from, through campaign donations and expenditures.
The people of Illinois sent me to Springfield to end the era of unbalanced budgets and runaway debt.
The critical thing is that we have to reduce the tax burden.
The tax money belongs to the taxpayers. It doesn't belong to the bureaucracy. And government is not a welfare system.
