My family is well represented in the military service of our great nation. My father is Lt. Colonel Calvin McCarter, a retired U.S. Air Force chaplain. He dedicated his life to others in many ways. Most importantly, his military service taught me the respect and admiration the members of our Armed Forces deserve. My brother, Jeff McCarter, is a career officer in the U.S. Army, and my son Zach is serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force after having graduated from the U.S. Air Force Acade-

my. Their service has taught me to honor our current as well as former military service members. I have lived close to Scott Air Force Base for several years, and currently repre-sent many mil-itary members and their fam-ilies as a state senator. I have the privilege of

attending functions on base in an official capacity as well as participate in special holidays,

such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The new 54th State Senate district has many military veterans. We should honor all of them and their service to our country. As a state senator, I feel honored to be representing their interests and will always have time to hear their concerns. I will continue to recognize the sacrifices they have made so that we can live in a free society.

We are in the throes of a fiscal crisis in Illinois, but there is Hope. If we change attitudes and change public policy, we can re-turn Illinois to fiscal good health, pay off our long overdue back-log of bills, and begin reducing the debt burden on our children and grandchildren. It is clear Governor Quinn and Democrat leaders in the Senate and House do not have the courage to make real cuts in spend-ing. Over the past ten years, the party in charge has increased spending by about $1 billion each year. That’s $1 billion more than state government collected in tax revenue. And, after passing a massive 67 percent increase in the state in-come tax hike in January of 2011 that cost Illinois taxpayers $7 bil-lion, state government still is run-ning billions of dollars in deficits and owes more than $8 billion in overdue bills, the same amount of past due bills they started with. For the past three years, I have made and supported realistic pro-posals to get us out of debt, such as: • Identifying and eliminating the waste with a forensic audit of state government, programs and

policies; • Reforming Medicaid to reduce costs, respecting the poor by holding them accountable, and protecting access to quality healthcare; • Reforming Workers’ Compensation in a meaningful way that lowers the cost of hiring to create more work opportunities for Illinois families; • Filing SB 3932, a common sense pension reform bill that

saves the pension system from bankrupt-cy; • Introducing a detailed budget, www.IllinoisRealityCheck.com, that creates surpluses instead of deficits. There is Hope for Illinois but it will take a policy shift away from the failed policies of the past. We should demand an honest commitment to fiscal responsibility. I’m committed to putting our fiscal house in order. Working families, small businesses and our neighborhood chari-ties are cutting back, tightening their belts, holding the line on spending and paying off the debt they already have before even considering new debt. State government should do no less and the taxpayers who ultimately pay the bills deserve no less of an effort.

Honoring Veterans

There is Hope for Illinois

My father serving others in Vietnam.

He taught me how to fish too.

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