At a Center for American Progress event on Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) spoke about orienting Democratic policy towards the middle class.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I think I wanted to just start where you ended, which is on the embers all around us and what
00:11the leaders in Chicago did to rebuild.
00:15You talked a lot about your record and what you've done, but I guess I'd ask you to just
00:21step back and discuss what you think we should be doing going forward, or how does your experience
00:29in Illinois, what do those experiences tell us about how we can have a vision for the
00:37future?
00:38Well, I think I mentioned to all of you, and I want to be clear, we were in pretty dire
00:44straits and we had $17 billion of unpaid bills when I came into office.
00:50We had had a Republican governor who essentially refused to sign a budget, so two years without
00:56a budget, longer than any state in the nation ever, and we had no rainy day fund.
01:04Think about the pandemic that was to come.
01:07No rainy day fund, we hadn't balanced the budget in years in Illinois, and we had the
01:13lowest credit rating in the nation, pension challenges, I mean, the list goes on.
01:19So by the way, there were lots of people who said, you don't want to be governor of Illinois.
01:24Our problems are too great, you're going to have to declare bankruptcy or something.
01:27There isn't bankruptcy for a state, I might add.
01:31But when I think about what we were facing, I mean, it was pretty daunting.
01:38I think the thing that has gotten us through that is focusing on working families, focusing
01:45on lifting up, what is it that people really want?
01:50The challenges that people are facing at the kitchen table are the very challenges
01:55that the Democratic Party is best at addressing.
01:59And we have better ideas, and I'll just throw just one, and there are many that I'd love
02:04to talk about, maybe we'll get a chance.
02:07But why are we not all screaming about the $7.25 minimum wage in this country?
02:14No one can live on it.
02:19We Democrats are the ones who, we believe in lifting up people, right?
02:24$7.25, $14,000 a year, you can't raise a family and you can barely live on yourself.
02:29In fact, I don't think you can on your own.
02:33$7.25.
02:34If you ask Republicans what their view on the minimum wage is, they'll give you one
02:38of two answers.
02:39They don't want to raise it, or they wish there wasn't a minimum wage.
02:43Now, what a contrast.
02:45We're a party that believes in a living wage for people.
02:49And they're a party who believes in lowest cost labor is best, what for them, and for
02:56Elon Musk, and the people they represent.
03:00So I really believe that if we center ourselves, and we have in Illinois, on what's best for
03:06working families, what's best for the middle class, what's best for the most vulnerable
03:10people in our society, that that is where Democrats belong, right?
03:15Guess what, Elon Musk doesn't need a lot of help.
03:19But that child who's been abandoned, the child who's in foster care, that family that lost
03:28their job, or the family that's just challenged to make ends meet and living paycheck to paycheck,
03:36that's who we represent.
03:37And by the way, folks who just want to get ahead, they want success, they want opportunity,
03:44we believe in that.
03:45We ought to be, by the way, the party of small businesses.
03:48Why are we not the party of small business?
03:50We ought to be the party of small business, helping people.
03:53This is the next.
03:56Once you've got a job, you get a promotion, you're doing well at your work, the opportunity
04:03to get ahead by building some capital, some equity for yourself going forward is something
04:10there are a lot of people who want.
04:13And we ought to be making that easier for people to get.
04:16Instead, I think the Republicans try to convince people that they're the ones who stand up
04:21for job creation and economic growth.
04:24We should be the party that stands up for job creation and economic growth, and helping
04:29people get a better wage.
04:30Great.
04:31So I'd love to just follow up on that, because I think a lot of people might ask, how do
04:39we differentiate from some of the things we've done in the past?
04:43And you've talked about really tangible benefits to people, access to college, prescription
04:49drugs, and maybe that's a way to differentiate from some of the efforts that we've made in
04:55the past in terms of trying to really communicate what we're doing for working class people.
05:01So beyond the minimum wage, it would be great if you could share tangible things you've
05:06done in Illinois to improve the lives of working class people.
05:10OK.
05:11So let's talk about, I think, the three big things.
05:14And probably each of us could add a fourth and a fifth big thing that really matters
05:19in people's lives.
05:20Right?
05:21I mean, being able to get a good education.
05:22It's got to be, I mean, when you think about the future, your prospects for getting a good
05:28job and a better wage, right?
05:29Having a good education for your kids, for yourself, the ability to improve your own
05:34standing, education.
05:36We should be investing in education.
05:37And in Illinois, since I've come into office, we've put $2.5 billion more into public education.
05:46And we've focused a lot on our community colleges.
05:49We have the third largest community college system in the entire nation.
05:52It's one of the best in the country.
05:55And those community colleges are partnered with businesses in their regions.
06:01Again, we have 48 of them across the state of Illinois.
06:04In those regions, those businesses are asking community colleges to create the programs
06:10that will help them get the workforce that they need.
06:14And then we're focused also on what's the future workforce need to look like.
06:19In Illinois, for example, we're making big investments in quantum.
06:24And that workforce, I mean, it's going to look different, but it needs to start in high
06:29school, in community college, in universities.
06:32It's not about creating scientists who are inventing the next new quantum technology
06:39necessarily, but all the jobs that get created by the new world that we're going to live
06:44in by virtue of the investments that we're making.
06:47So education is hugely important.
06:49And we've made the investments in Illinois that will make a difference.
06:53We have some of the best universities in the entire world.
06:57Second, health care.
07:00First of all, I hope that the message of the Democratic Party, and certainly my message
07:05is, we're for universal health care.
07:09Everybody should have a doctor.
07:12It's just like when I talk about early childhood, which I won't jump into now, but I mean, this
07:21is, you know, when you make investments in early childhood, you're actually saving money
07:26over the long haul.
07:27The investments you make in those early years, the investment you make in people's health
07:31care and keeping people healthy, it's one of the reasons the Affordable Care Act is
07:35so successful, right, that it focused on that kind of preventative care.
07:41You know, making those investments has been hugely important.
07:44In Illinois, when I showed up in office, there were 140,000 Medicaid applications that the
07:52prior governor had just let sit there, like unprocessed applications.
07:57People who really need health care, unable to get health care just because, well, if
08:02you slow it all down, it's almost like what Elon Musk is trying to get our government
08:06to do now, but we went through it, you know, seven years ago, eight years ago.
08:12So health care to me is, you know, it's a right.
08:16It's also good for our society, and very importantly, I think, good for our economy.
08:22If you want to be fiscally responsible, keep people healthy that live in your state.
08:27So health care, and we've made those investments.
08:29Not only do we process those 140,000, but we've also changed the way we deal with health
08:33care.
08:34For example, I don't know how many of you have had the experience of prior authorization,
08:39seeking prior authorization for some kind of insurance, you know, you hope your insurance
08:44company will cover some kind of condition.
08:48They demand prior authorization on so many important things, including emergency mental
08:52health.
08:53Now think about this, and I have a friend who called me to tell me his personal story,
08:58that his daughter was having a mental health crisis.
09:02She in fact, one night, tried to commit suicide, and he obviously called an ambulance.
09:11They were in an ambulance together, on their way to a hospital that had a care unit for
09:17people who had mental health issues, and he had to call his insurance company to get prior
09:24authorization to allow her to check into this hospital.
09:30They rejected it.
09:32Now what are you going to do?
09:34Your daughter just tried to commit suicide.
09:36I mean, it really chokes me up.
09:38What would you do if you couldn't afford otherwise?
09:45He happened to know somebody at the hospital, and so he called and said, I am going to make
09:49sure that they cover me.
09:51I promise you, you know, I will write the check myself if I need to or work it off,
09:56but please let us come.
09:59And they did.
10:00Now eventually, he got the insurance company over the next 24 hours to do the right thing.
10:05We have now made it illegal in Illinois for insurance companies to deny emergency mental
10:10health care.
10:11And then I'll just give a third one and we'll move on, but I mean, so education, health
10:20care, look, job creation.
10:25Let's talk, you know, you know where most of the jobs come from.
10:27They don't come from large businesses.
10:29We should be helping large businesses continue to be successful.
10:34But most jobs that get created in our society get created by small businesses and startup
10:39businesses.
10:41And there are a lot of people with really good creative ideas.
10:44And some people will start businesses and fail.
10:48That's true.
10:49But there are also a lot of businesses that get started that succeed and wildly so.
10:53I often remind people that the big name companies in Illinois that you can think of, John Deere,
10:59for example, Navistar and others.
11:03Those companies were small startup businesses at some point.
11:07Now they're huge employers in the country and in the world, but they were just startup
11:14businesses at one time.
11:16And especially our party, we ought to be helping people get started in business.
11:20We ought to be helping because it creates jobs.
11:24You know, the idea that someone's going to build capital and plant it right here in the
11:27United States because they're a U.S. citizen, because they believe in wherever it is that
11:33they live or that's where they're going to create the business.
11:35We ought to be – I mean, that is, in my view, something that should be fundamental
11:40to our society.
11:42Now Donald Trump doesn't believe that.
11:45Donald Trump is all about the largest business owners and the wealthiest people and doing
11:50what's easy and best for them and not thinking about the little guy, the small business that's
11:56just getting started and how are we going to make it easier for them.
12:00So I just think – and when I think about these things, the philosophy difference between
12:05our parties is so great.
12:08We need to present it properly to people.
12:10We need to make sure people really understand what the Democratic Party is all about.
12:14But it is about lifting up people who want to get ahead or standing up for people who
12:19are most vulnerable or who are being discriminated against.