Stop Runaway Spending in Congress

Mark Kirk opposed Speaker Pelosi’s trillion-dollar stimulus plan. Congressman Kirk offered two amendments to the bill. The first Kirk Amendment successfully cut a $200 million set aside to re-sod the National Mall. The second Kirk Amendment, which would have created a bipartisan oversight panel, was rejected by the Democratic Leadership.

Mark Kirk opposed the $407 billion Omnibus Appropriations bill filled with 9,000 secret earmarks – including a dozen earmarks totaling $8.7 million secured by clients of Paul Magliochetti and Associates (PMA), a firm raided by the FBI and facing criminal prosecution by the Justice Department.

Restore Fiscal Discipline to Washington

Mark Kirk remains the only member of the House Appropriations Committee to reject pork-barrel earmark spending. He cosponsored legislation to reform the appropriations process to stop wasteful, secret earmark projects.

Congressman Kirk led the effort to cancel House funding for the Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere.”

Mark Kirk supports the line item veto and cosponsored the Balanced Budget Amendment.

He was the first member of Congress in history to visit the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt and has emerged as a leading voice against the Federal Reserve’s policy of printing money to finance our own debt.

Fighting Tax Increases

Mark Kirk voted for the 2001 and 2003 tax relief packages and supports making this tax relief permanent.

Last year, Congressman Kirk voted against a budget plan to raise taxes by $1.5 trillion and triple the debt over the next 10 years (S.Con.Res 13).

The year before, Congressman Kirk voted against a plan to raise taxes by at least $683 billion over the next five years (S.Con.Res. 70) and a proposal to raise the 10-percent tax rate bracket to 15 percent, re-impose the marriage penalty, cut the child tax credit in half, and raise taxes on seniors, working families and small businesses (H.Con.Res. 312).

Mark Kirk believes we should permanently repeal the death tax and marriage penalty, double the child tax credit and cut the capital gains tax.