Jobs

Mark knows we can't turn our economy around overnight, but he's committed to turning Michigan around one job at a time.

Last year, Mark was proud to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which has helped create more than 69,000 Michigan jobs and helped save nearly 17,000 education jobs across the state. Additionally, the Recovery Act included one of the largest and fastest tax cuts in history, cutting taxes for 95% of working Michigan families.

While the Recovery Act was an important step in the right direction, Mark knows we still have a long way to go to get our economy back on track. That's why he's committed to working arm in arm with local businesses to help them compete in the global economy and create jobs here in Michigan.

Trade

Unfair trade deals have forced Michigan businesses and workers to compete on an uneven playing field with other countries, costing us hundreds of thousands of jobs over the past decade. When Mark ran for Congress in 2008, he made a promise that the first bill he'd sign up to support would tackle these unfair trade deals - and less than two weeks after taking office, he kept that promise by co-sponsoring the Trade Enforcement Act.

Since then, Mark has supported legislation to fully repeal NAFTA - which has hurt Michigan manufacturers and sent hundreds of thousands of jobs to Mexico.

Additionally, after discovering that materials used to promote the 2010 Census were made in China earlier this year, Mark introduced a bill that would ban Chinese companies from bidding on contracts with the U.S. government, since China has blocked American companies from its own government contracts.

Mark is committed to leveling the playing field for Michigan businesses and workers by fighting for fair trade policies that will help put people back to work.

Education

Mark believes education is one of the best long-term economic investments our nation can make. That's why he was proud to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which helped save nearly 17,000 education jobs in Michigan. Mark also voted to support a bill last year that would provide every school district in our area with resources to modernize, renovate and repair facilities to provide students with a healthier, safer, and more energy-efficient learning environment.

For families struggling to pay for college, Mark added language to the new student aid law that will cap student loan payments to 10% of a person's income - making higher education more affordable for Michigan families.

Turning our economy around won't happen overnight, but by providing our kids with a quality education, Mark is fighting to make sure our future workforce has the necessary skills to compete for 21st Century jobs.

Transportation

To get our economy back, Mark is committed to investing in our infrastructure to put people back to work and help our businesses compete.

As the Vice Chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, Mark has fought to end Michigan's status as a donor state and make sure we get our fair share from Washington to fix our crumbling roads and bridges.

Mark has also been leading the charge to save tens of thousands of road construction jobs in Michigan by preventing the cancellation of critical road projects due to a shortfall in state funding.

Health Care

Mark was a proud supporter of legislation signed into law this year that will help fix our broken health care system. Doing nothing would've allowed the powerful health insurance companies to keep raising premiums on Michigan families and businesses by double digits each year, Medicare would be put at risk for Michigan seniors, and the federal deficit would continue to skyrocket. Mark felt this course was simply unsustainable.

Health care reform will ban health insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions or the loss of a job, close the Medicare prescription drug donut hole for 9,600 seniors in the 7th district, extend coverage to 24,000 uninsured local residents, cut the federal deficit by $1.3 trillion, and allow the American people to sign up for the same kind of quality, affordable, private health insurance plans that are available to members of Congress.

In the days leading up to the final vote on health care reform, the health insurance industry spent nearly $400,000 on ads attacking Mark in a desperate attempt to scare Michigan families and maintain the status quo. Despite this massive misinformation campaign, Mark made it clear that he doesn't work for the powerful health insurance industry - he works for the people of Michigan, and isn't afraid to do what's right to fix our broken health care system and get our economy back on track.

National Security

Mark is committed to keeping Michigan families safe. That's why he has consistently voted against funding to transfer terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to the United States until the administration submits a plan to Congress that will ensure the safety of the American public.

Following the attempted terrorist bombing on NW Flight 253 last Christmas, Mark called for swift hearings as a member of the Aviation subcommittee and pushed the administration for answers. Through Mark's efforts, the House attached an amendment to the Intelligence bill requiring the Director of National Intelligence to formally investigate the attempted attack and report back to Congress with steps to prevent similar intelligence breakdowns from re-occurring.

Prior to serving in Congress, Mark was an early critic of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. Since taking office, he has consistently voted to ensure our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have the resources they need to complete their missions and return home safely.

Small Business

Mark and his wife Christine own a small retail shop in Battle Creek. As a small business owner, Mark understands the pressures of making payroll in this tough economy.

That's why he's fought to make credit more accessible to small businesses by supporting bills that would increase the amount credit unions are able to lend to small businesses, and creating a new direct lending program through the Small Business Administration by taxing excessive bonuses at bailed out Wall Street firms.

Additionally, as one of the only members of Congress with a full-time Economic Development Director on his staff, Mark has worked closely with local businesses to help them compete for federal contracts and bring jobs to Michigan.

Fiscal Responsibility

When President Bush took office, he inherited a projected 10-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion from President Clinton. When Mark took office last year, he inherited from President Bush a deficit of $1.3 trillion for 2009 alone and nearly $10 trillion more in deficits over the next 10 years. Mark is committed to getting our fiscal house in order so we can focus on what matters most - helping our businesses create jobs.

One of Mark's first votes as a member of Congress was against spending another $350 billion on the Wall Street bailout. Since then, he has voted against raising the national debt ceiling twice, and co-sponsored a pay-as-you-go law that requires Congress to save a dollar for every new dollar it spends. This is the same fiscally responsible rule that was originally signed into law by a Republican president and helped create record surpluses during the 1990s.

Last year, the conservative Club for Growth released a report that showed Mark had cut more pork barrel spending from the federal budget than any other Michigan Democrat - even more than Republican Reps. Candice Miller and Dave Camp. While Mark has fought to bring more of our tax dollars back to Michigan to create jobs here, he will continue to vote against projects like Maine lobster research that simply waste taxpayers' money.

Additionally, Mark was proud to support health care reform legislation which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts will cut the federal deficit by $1.3 trillion over the next two decades.

Mark knows it won't be easy to restore fiscal responsibility in Washington, but he has shown his commitment to getting our fiscal house in order by voting against wasteful spending that
will pass our debt onto future generations.

Wall Street Accountability

For eight years, President Bush and his Republican allies ignored growing risks in the financial markets as Wall Street and big banks exploited loopholes and harmed America’s families and small businesses. Their failure to regulate financial markets and control these risks left Wall Street and the big banks to gamble with our money, which compromised our future, our savings, and the American Dream. We know what happened: the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

That's why Mark has supported legislation that will end taxpayer-funded bailouts and ‘too big to fail’ financial institutions, protect consumers from predatory lending, safeguard our retirement and college savings from unnecessary risks, and inject transparency and new accountability into a financial system run amok.

Mark thinks we can’t afford to spend another dime on more taxpayer-funded bank bailouts that leave consumers and small business owners in Michigan behind. We simply can’t afford to put our economic recovery at risk by allowing Wall Street bankers to police themselves.