WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 28, 2010 – The National Federation of Independent Business, America’s leading small business association, announced its full support and endorsement of Mariannette Miller-Meeks for election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa’s 2nd District.
“Mariannette Miller-Meeks is a former small business owner who clearly understands the struggles small firms face on a daily basis,” said Lisa Goeas, NFIB vice president of political operations. “She is extremely well-versed in the top issues facing small business, especially healthcare. As a former president of the Iowa Medical Society, she has passion for and expertise in the healthcare field, and she has strongly advocated for full repeal of the healthcare law. It’s clear Iowa’s small businesses would have an advocate in Washington with Mariannette as their Congresswoman.”
Miller-Meeks, an ophthalmologist who owned and operated a practice for many years, will stand firm for small-business owners whose priorities include extending the 2001 and 2003 tax rates, increasing the choice of affordable health insurance options and freedom from unfair labor union organizing schemes such as “card check” laws, Goeas said. Furthermore, she is an active opponent of the job-killing cap and trade bill.
There are more than 64,000 small employers in Iowa. Nationally, small businesses generate more than half of the nation’s non-farm gross domestic product and have created more than 60 percent of net-new jobs in the U.S. over the past 15 years.
Small business owners and their employees vote in large numbers and are known for actively recruiting friends, family members and acquaintances to go to the polls. NFIB will encourage its Iowa members to help turn out the small business vote on Miller-Meeks’ behalf on Election Day.
Today’s endorsement comes from NFIB’s Save America’s Free Enterprise (SAFE) Trust, the association’s political action committee, and is based on candidates’ positions on key small business issues including healthcare, taxes, and labor and regulatory policy.