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Where Mike Stands
Protecting and Creating Jobs
With Mike’s leadership, we passed legislation to crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. We also created and expanded the Quality Jobs Act bringing 13,000 good-paying jobs with benefits to Missouri. We reigned in workers' compensation fraud meaning lower rates for company and small business owners and ended lawsuit abuse.
Available, affordable healthcare for all Missourians
Mike declared war on the high cost of healthcare and passed reforms that focus on wellness and prevention rather than only treating people when they are sick. We've empowered patients with choice about their family's health care decisions and made the largest one-time investment - $60 million - into making healthcare more available and affordable through health centers in underserved areas.
Education
We increased funding to K-12 and higher education by $1.2 Billion over four years without a tax increase and rewrote the school funding formula based on student needs. We limited tuition increases and tripled scholarships to help more students better afford college, meaning we went from 17,000 to more than 38,000 Missouri students receiving needs based college scholarships.
Protecting Our Families
We preserved the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman in Missouri by adopting the Same Sex Marriage Amendment.
Protecting Our Children
We passed some of the toughest laws in the nation, namely Jessica’s Law, requiring 30 year mandatory minimum prison sentences for child predators. We've banned child pornography and funded local law enforcement task forces to catch cyber criminals and predators and enhanced Missouri's Amber Alert system to help bring more children home safely.
We passed reforms that saved a program that provides more than 8,000 developmentally disabled Missouri infants and toddlers with early intervention services. Plus, we more than doubled funding for autism diagnosis and treatment, helping reduce the waitlist for services.
Mike also created the Missouri Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders as a result of recommendations made by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Autism he formed in 2007 to help empower families living with ASD.
Mike passed new tools to combat underage drinking to protect our children by increasing and adding penalties to help curb this growing epidemic.
Mike also found a way to protect vulnerable newborn babies by creating the Safe Places for Newborns Act to prevent scared parents from leaving their newborn for dead by giving them the option to relinquish custody of their newborn child to a safe place without facing prosecution.
Protecting Our Neighborhoods
We cut methamphetamine production with drug logs and stepped in to fund anti-meth law enforcement task forces when the Democrat-controlled Congress stopped.
Protecting our homes, farms and businesses
We ended the abuse of eminent domain and created the Property Owners' Bill of Rights protecting your property, especially property that has been handed down over generations. Plus, we are working to end back door tax increases caused by reassessment that are forcing businesses to close their doors and seniors out of their homes.
Protecting Seniors
Mike ended a double tax on Missouri seniors' social security benefits and public pensions. Seniors have been taxed on their incomes for their entire working careers and we ended the unfair practice of taxing them twice on their retirement benefits. We also set strict penalties and mandated reporting of elder abuse for anyone who is trusted to care for our seniors or the disabled.
Protecting Crime Victims
Mike passed legislation protecting victims of sexual and domestic violence so they can feel secure to come forward and seek justice. He’s making sure women are no longer forced to take a polygraph test in order for law enforcement to investigate a crime and are not further victimized by having to pay for the rape kit collection of evidence.
Banning Human Cloning
Mike supports a ban on human cloning that includes the prohibition of creating human embryos for use in research. Mike strongly supports ethical research to find lifesaving cures, but believes human cloning is wrong and should be prohibited.
Defending Life
Mike was among the first to work against those who tried to legalize partial birth abortion in Missouri. He also worked to expand the Alternatives to Abortion program to help pregnant mothers, led the fight to break a filibuster to pass a bill protecting women from being forced to make an instant decision on abortion (24-hour wait period was upheld by courts), and protected minor daughters from being taken across state lines for abortions without their parents' consent.
Protecting 2nd Amendment Rights
We secured Missouri citizens’ right to protect themselves with right to carry thanks to Mike’s deciding vote to override a governor’s veto. Mike also helped ban government or law enforcement from confiscating firearms in times of natural disasters as well as helped pass the Castle Doctrine, protecting property owners from lawsuits in the event they defend themselves and their family in their home from intruders.
Energy Independence
We created a “Green” sales tax holiday to purchase energy saving appliances and set renewable energy targets for utilities to meet without extra costs to consumers, making Missouri a cleaner place for future generations. |
