Issue Position: Holding Washington Accountable

Issue Position

Washington is broken and repeatedly puts partisanship and special interests ahead of real solutions. In order to get our economy back on track, Washington must restore fiscal discipline and be responsive to the people it is supposed to serve.

Peters has repeatedly broken with his party to rein in the deficit, voting against over $300 billion dollars in new spending bills. He was one of just 19 Democrats to support a freeze on domestic spending and was the first of only a few members of his party to call for a total ban on all earmarks to stop pork barrel spending. He successfully fought for a new law to prohibit Congress from creating legislation that would add to the deficit.

Fiscal discipline should not just be a slogan or something asked of others. Peters believes that in tough economic times, elected officials must lead by example and share in the sacrifice being asked of the people of Michigan. One of Peters' first acts was to block Congress from giving itself a pay raise it didn't deserve, while even slashing his own office budget to contribute, returning $135,000 to the taxpayers he serves.

Peters' Government Reform Plan includes:

* Absolutely NO pay raises for members of Congress until the economy is fixed;

* A TOTAL ban on all earmarks to stop pork barrel spending;

* Enacting Pay-as-You-Go (PAYGO) legislation to eliminate new spending that needlessly adds to the deficit;

* A freeze in domestic spending increases until Congress successfully enacts a balanced budget.

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