Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm a pretty disciplined investor and pretty disciplined buyer. I do my due diligence. I do my homework. I don't waste money.
State universities in Illinois are a microcosm of our state government - broken with work rules and administrative bureaucracy.
We must find a way to balance our tradition as a state welcoming of refugees while ensuring the safety and security of our citizens.
If yelling and threatening, intimidating and chanting solved problems, Illinois wouldn't have any problems. We're good at that stuff.
Illinois will only get economically healthy if we stop focusing on growing minimum wages and start focusing on growing everyone's wages.
Great teaching requires incredible talent and dedication, strong intellectual ability and interpersonal skill, real discipline and empathy.
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.
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.
I have my strong views and opinions. I really want to transform Illinois government because this state is failing the taxpayers and the children.
Being a successful CEO, where I've driven a bottom line, assembled teams, driven results, that's a critical benefit to running the state government.
Government employees deserve to be treated fairly, but they do not deserve a significantly better deal than average Illinoisans get in their own jobs.
Illinois has every reason to succeed. We have the hardest-working people in America, the best infrastructure in America, and the best location of any state.
For every challenge we face - unemployment, poverty, crime, income growth, income inequality, productivity, competitiveness - a great education is a major component of the solution.
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.
Our government works 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.
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.
Those who value a strong safety net for our neediest citizens see that every extra dollar spent on these unions is a dollar that cannot go to help the sick, the elderly, and the vulnerable.
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.
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.
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.
I think we've got to be competitive here in Illinois. It's critical we're competitive. We're hurting our economy by having the minimum wage above the national. We've got to move back to the national.
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'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.
When my mother was young, only two professions were open to women ; teaching and nursing. She chose nursing, but the teaching profession was full of talented women like her, confined there in part because they had few career options.
The structure that is currently in place, inside government, forcing government employees to pay union dues, even if they don't want to be in a union -- that is fundamentally unconstitutional and it is against the American system of freedom of choice.
We've talked through the fact that our family will be attacked. Our family will be dragged through the mud. My businesses that I've helped build and create will be attacked and dragged through the mud. That's politics. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it or thinking about it.
Your average person in Illinois doesn't really even know what workers' comp is. The average person doesn't know really what's going on in the pension system. They know their taxes are too high; they know we've got a deficit. But getting that message out and helping the people of Illinois really understand what's going on, that's hard.