In Illinois, where legislators are paid $45,000, plus as much as $10,000 for leadership work, about half are full-time politicians.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The reality is that politicians, in terms of the amount of power they wield and the amount that they work, don't actually make that much money.
The accountability of state legislators is so much more than federal legislators.
Instead of taking a very high-paying type of law job or something that I might be able to do, I have been a legislator. That's what I do. I think it's an honorable profession - if you're honest and have integrity and work hard.
As a private lawyer, I could bill $750 an hour, but I don't.
My job as governor is different from the legislators. They represent their districts. I have to represent all 6.6 million Tennesseans and come to the best decisions I can.
I have done things politically, and I've been running a business at the same time, but I sort of joke that to some extent I do more than most legislators have done in their whole careers, and I've been doing it as a part-time job.
I am committed to working with Speaker Hastert and the other members of the Illinois congressional delegation to do all that I can to ensure that Illinois' funding needs are adequately met.
Money often determines not only who gets elected, but what gets done. Which voices do lawmakers listen to, the banks or home owners, coal companies, or asthma sufferers, the CEOs or the unemployed?
The important thing to understand about legislators is that there are dozens of competing interests and issues that occupy them. They are stretched thin.
I get the feeling a lot of politicians are there to help themselves financially, first and foremost.
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