Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was at NIU Monday, speaking to a political science class. After his presentation, Hastert spoke with the media and gave his opinion on the recent election night and issues facing the country.

Hastert said, incoming speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has his work cut out for himself with a Democrat-controlled Senate and presidency. Hastert said as the Speaker of the House, Boehner will be able to control the spending, an issue he said that has Americans concerned.

“Some of the issues that were important to the Republicans and some of middle Americans is the whole fiscal issue going on in Congress,” Hastert said. “[Boehner] has the ability to balance the budget that hasn’t been balanced for a number of years under Democrat control.”

The Republican victory on election night wasn’t a personal referendum on President Barack Obama, but rather on the out-of-control spending Americans saw.

“People were upset with the spending they saw,” he said. “Every time there was a problem people just threw money at it instead of trying to understand what the problem really was and try to fix it.”

Hastert said a similar fiscal problem exists in Illinois. He said, Illinois legislators and Gov. Pat Quinn will need to make drastic changes in spending before an improvement in the budget is seen. Hastert said legislators borrowing money from pension funds and highway trust funds to pay off pension funds was like “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

“You have to justify what your spending,” he said. “[Illinois legislators] have to treat themselves as a business that’s in bankrupt. We’ll never be competitive with the rest of the country unless we are balanced. Families have to do it, businesses have to do it and ultimately state government has to do it.”

Hastert was a member of the House of Representative from 1987 to 2007 and served as Speaker from 1999 until his retirement in 2007.

Staff Writer Kim Skibinski contributed to this article.