John A. Barrasso (R-Wyo.)

The Economy

Barrasso is a fiscal conservative. He was a vocal opponent of President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package, which was signed into law in February 2009.

"The numbers are just so huge. ... My concern was it wasn't timely, it wasn't temporary, it wasn't targeted. We were just going to borrow a lot of money from our foreign competitors to have our kids and grandkids pay for this. So, I wanted something I could vote for. I couldn't vote for this," he told the Wyoming House and Senate.

He also voted against the 2008 financial bailout plan. He said taxpayers should not have to pay for the $700 billion plan to rescue failing financial institutions and criticized the bill for being "sugarcoated" with earmarks funding lawmakers' pet projects.

Health Care

Providing health care solutions for rural communities has been one of Barrasso's top legislative priorities.

He supports the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health care for children in low-income families that do not qualify for Medicare, but voted against the 2009 bill that extended eligibility to 4 million more children and authorized an additional $32.8 billion in funding.

Barrasso said this was too large an expansion. He noted that a family of four living in New York on $80,000 a year, which is 400 percent above the federal poverty line, would qualify for coverage under the new eligibility requirements.

"I'm a strong supporter of SCHIP and supported it in the Legislature. .... [But] the bill that passed the Senate really was a massive expansion to include parents way beyond anything Wyoming has ever imagined," he said.

He also voted to uphold President Bush's veto of the 2007 Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act. Barrasso said the bill was a "Band-aid" and did not address Medicare issues in such rural states as Wyoming. The Senate and House both voted to overturn the veto and the bill was passed into law.

Reproductive Rights

Barrasso's is staunchly against abortion rights. The National Right to Life Committee has awarded him 100 percent in its vote scorecards for the 110th and 111th Congresses.He took a slightly more moderate position on abortion in his 1996 Senate primary campaign, however, opposing federal funding for abortion providers but saying the choice to have an abortion should remain between a woman and her doctor.

Gun Rights

Barrasso is a strong supporter of gun-owner rights. He was consistently awarded an "A" rating by the National Rifle Association during his time in the Wyoming Senate.

Energy and The Environment

Barrasso opposes climate legislation based on the "cap and trade" system for regulating carbon emissions. He says the policy, which would set limits on pollutant emissions that could be auctioned and traded in a market-based system, is too costly for consumers. He supports increased investment in "clean coal" technologies. Wyoming has the third-largest coal reserves in the country, accounting for almost 40 percent of the nation's coal.

Barrasso angered environmentalists when he proposed an economic stimulus amendment that would implement a 270-day deadline for completing the environmental reviews on stimulus-funded projects mandated by National Environmental Policy Act.

There is no deadline for the reviews, which are intended to assess the impact that construction and development projects would have on the environment. Barrasso said he was concerned a backlog in the review process would hinder the ability for "shovel-to-the-ground" projects to create jobs and aid to economy recovery. The amendment failed.

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