Congress’ New Pizza Man: Thumbs-Down to Government Health Care, Thumbs-Up to DC Pizza
| ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:
Rep.-elect Bobby Schilling won election to Congress earlier this month as a quintessential outsider whose anger at Washington drove him to get involved in politics – a Moline, Ill., pizza parlor owner who’d never run for office before defeating a Democratic incumbent in a House race. Schilling, R-Ill., told us on ABC’s “Top Line” today that he’s staying true to his outsider status, refusing a congressional pension in addition the health care coverage that members of Congress are entitled to receive. “I’ve done a contract with my district,” Schilling said. “I have term-limited myself. I am not taking the pension. I am not taking pay raises, and my family and I are bringing our own health care to Washington, D.C. And my dad taught me as a kid to lead by example — Congress should not have anything better than the American people.” As for the pizza, he allowed that Washington has some decent slices, giving a thumbs-up to the house specialty at We the Pizza, a new Capitol Hill hot spot. But he was thumbs-down on the notion of a Sarah Palin presidential bid, Schilling’s ties to tea party activists notwithstanding. “I think she has got a tough hill to hoe,” Schilling said. “I don’t know if Sarah is presidential material. I think that when she was brought on as the vice president pick, the McCain campaign was basically fallen over, and she came in and livened up the party. I don’t know if she is presidential material or not.” Schilling also praised GOP House leadership for “listening to us” newly elected members. “There are a lot of things that are going to be totally different this time around,” he said. “We’re not coming here to make friends.” Watch the full interview with Rep.-elect Bobby Schilling HERE. |