Issue Position: Issues

Issue Position

Moving Our Economy Forward!

Before being elected to Congress Jared Polis was an entrepreneur and started several successful companies including America Information Systems, BlueMountain.com and Proflowers.com and created hundreds of jobs. With American families and businesses still struggling to recover from the Great Recession, Congress must have a singular focus on job creation and expanding opportunity. A sustainable and successful economic recovery rests on supporting new and small businesses, reforming our bloated tax code, expanding markets for U.S. goods and services, providing every American with a high-quality education, and balancing the federal budget. These steps will get our economy growing and creating jobs again.

We need to ensure our small businesses are competing on a level playing field by reforming the tax code and eliminating loop-holes and special treatment for those with the best lobbyists.

We need long term investment in a strong public education system. A strong education system means economic stability now and prosperity in the future - restore Fiscal Integrity - Polis supports a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance the budget, and believes that the wealthiest 1% should pay at least the same tax rate as the middle class.

End Washington Gridlock

Washington, D.C. is far too poisoned with partisanship. Elected officials need to stop fighting over what divides them and start working on issues where we can find common ground. We need to elect leaders that are willing to put partisanship aside to find practical solutions that will reignite the American Dream, create jobs, and offer hope and opportunity to all.

Jared Polis has been a leader for restoring ethics and integrity to government.
In Colorado he took on the special interests to ban lobbyists from giving gifts to legislators, and in Congress was a leader in the effort to ban Congressional insider trading.

When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act Jared Polis fought to ensure that it required members of Congress to buy health insurance instead of getting free government healthcare.

These were common sense reforms aimed at restoring trust and transparency to the political process.

Education:

Jared works tirelessly to improve our schools, and he became the youngest member on the Colorado State Board of Education in 2000. Jared has founded five schools, and he serves on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy. As a successful entrepreneur, he understands that America's economic success is tied to every child's success in the classroom. He believes that education is the single most meaningful investment America can make in its economic future and in its people.

Polis is fighting to make higher education more affordable by keeping student loan rates low, and expanding access to education grants such as Pell grants.
Polis is working on getting accountability right at all levels, expanding educational models that work, and improving persistently failing schools with data-driven models to reduce achievement gaps Jared believes investment and reform in our public education system will mean economic stability now and prosperity in the future.

Healthcare

The Affordable Care Act is not perfect but it goes a long way to ensuring every American has access to affordable health care and guarantees that insurance companies can no longer drop coverage just because somebody gets sick.

No discrimination based off pre-existing conditions
Young adults can stay on their parent's insurance plan until age of 26
Tax credits for 68,000 Colorado small businesses to pay for insurance for employees
Closes prescription drug donut hole for seniors.
Jared supports efforts to change and improve the affordable care act so long as they help make the cost of healthcare more affordable.
Energy Independence

We need an all- of- the above approach to expanding American energy production to unleash a new energy economy and create jobs here in America.

Extending the wind energy tax credit is essential to leveling the playing field for a clean renewable alternative against the oil and gas industry's $40 billion of annual government subsides.

Improve fuel efficiency standards

Equal Rights

The idea that any American can be discriminated against based on gender, religious beliefs, or who they love is out of step with America's values and our Founding principles.

It is not the proper role of government to be making health care decisions for women or anybody else.

Same-sex couples should have the same equal protections and responsibilities as all married couples.

Immigration:

There is broad consensus that our immigration policy has failed but political games have prevented a real solution. We must address this issue by taking a comprehensive approach to immigration reform that includes securing our borders, improving enforcement, and requiring illegal immigrants to register and get right with the law in order to receive work permits.

We must secure our borders and improve enforcement.
Require illegal immigrants to register and get right with the law in order to receive work permits
Establish real verifiable biometric ID checks that are done by the employer.

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