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Running for First: Jack Bergman wants to control budget, cut ‘bureaucracies’ in D.C.

Jack Bergman, a former three-star Marine Corps general running for Congress in northern Michigan, wants to “get the budget under control” on day one if elected.

The Republican recently entered the race in Michigan’s competitive 1st Congressional District. The district includes the northern third of lower Michigan and all of the Upper Peninsula.

“Congress needs to start working together, negotiating the tough decisions,” Bergman told IPR News Radio in an interview last week.

Bergman, who lives in the western Upper Peninsula town of Watersmeet, is running for political office for the first time. He faces state Sen. Tom Casperson and former state legislator Jason Allen in the Republican primary.

In the interview, Bergman also talked about ways to promote economic growth in northern Michigan.

“You can give all the tax breaks in the world,” Bergman says, “but if the company says, ‘but there’s nobody there to do the work,’ then we haven’t done what we can do to entice the company.”

The self-described conservative also briefly addressed Line 5, the oil pipeline crossing the Straits of Mackinac.

“It’s there. Let’s inspect it. Let’s make sure … it’s sealed tight,” Bergman says.