Lower the Cost-of-Living for Working Families

The sky-high cost-of-living in Illinois has made the American Dream seem out of reach for many everyday Illinoisans.

Life is too expensive for working families—especially in Illinois, where we suffer under the highest tax burden in the nation and an economy that lags the rest of the Midwest because of tax-and-spend Democrats. Utility prices are at record highs, housing costs are pushing seniors out of their homes and keeping young people from being able to start their families, gas and groceries are too high, and health care costs keep rising at an unsustainable pace.

This forces many families to make difficult choices. Do you pay your utility bill this month or put food on the table? How are you going to provide for your kids and give them the opportunities they deserve? Gone are the little pleasures of life and the pride of being self-sufficient. The American Dream seems like a fantasy when you're just struggling to survive.

Illinois working families need someone who will work for them in Washington. I've spent my career fighting for working families and small businesses. I'm ready to take that fight to the U.S. Senate, where my top priority will be to lower the cost-of-living.

I will push common sense solutions that make life more affordable for working families. This includes lowering energy and gas costs by pursuing a reasonable energy policy that utilizes all available energy sources, lowering costs and protecting our energy independence, while continuing to transition to a clean energy future. It also includes lowering health care costs, including drug prices and the cost of health insurance, by instituting price transparency, increasing competition, and eliminating taxpayer-funded free healthcare for non-citizens. And it includes lowering taxes and inflation by reducing government spending through increasing efficiency and minimizing waste and fraud, hiring based on merit, reducing interest rates, and encouraging able-bodied adults without minors or disabled dependents to rejoin the workforce.

I will also work to improve the economy by streamlining regulation and supporting small businesses, manufacturers, and farmers throughout Illinois. We need to lower the cost-of-doing-business by cutting excess regulation. And we need to support American manufacturers and farmers, ensuring they have a fair, level playing field when they compete in the global marketplace.

My Democrat opponents are all career politicians who have voted to make government bigger and more expensive, driving up the cost-of-living for all of us. They are closing our cleanest power plants prematurely, raising our utility bills. They passed countless unfunded mandates, forcing businesses to increase prices and local governments to raise property taxes. They've made it nearly impossible to build new housing, thereby limiting the supply of affordable housing. Why? To support the special interests and lobbyists who fund their campaigns and to placate their extreme progressive base.

I will work for everyday Illinoisans, not special interests or extreme agendas. Unlike my career politician opponents, I understand the struggles of working families. I started working in the warehouse of our family business when I was 10 years old. My wife, the daughter of a handyman and a factory worker, grew up without indoor plumbing until she was in the seventh grade. I've run a small business and had to sacrifice to make payroll. I've raised a family and know how hard it is to put food on the table.

Because of these experiences, I will be the voice for everyday Illinoisans in Washington. I have lived the American Dream, and I will fight with everything I have to lower the cost-of-living for working families so everyone in our great state can achieve their own version of the American Dream.