Collins Bailey's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Maryland Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | |||
| No | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | |||
| Yes | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| b & d = Only to save the life of the mother. I am opposed to the taking of innocent human life. I support legislation that would define life as beginning at conception, HR 1094. The right of an innocent, unborn child to life is at the heart of the American ideals of liberty. Personhood begins at conception. I support legislation to remove the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect innocent human life. I also support legislation, HR 1095, which would prevent federal funds from being used for "population control." | |||
1) SpendingIndicate what federal funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.2) TaxesIndicate what federal tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Maintain Status | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland security | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical research | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Scientific research | ||
| Slightly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Eliminate | l) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | m) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| No | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| We must eliminate unconstitutional programs and balance the budget. c) Our nation has troops in 130 nations. Our nation has over 700 bases and 572,000 troops overseas. Our generals tell us we have stretched our military too thin. We have given aid to nations that do not have our best interest at heart. We should avoid nation building and should not be policing the world. We must choose our friends more carefully and guard against our enemies more diligently. Our representatives must understand the cultural and religious as well as the military realities of the present world. | |||
| Congress should raise the personal exemption from $3,400.00 to $15,000.00 immediately. Congress must balance the budget by cutting spending, not by raising taxes. Wasteful, unconstitutional, counter-productive, ineffective spending and over-regulation must be eliminated. Half of the savings should be used to pay down the national debt. The other half returned to the taxpayers by reforming the tax code. I support less taxes. Lower taxes benefit all of us, creating jobs and allowing us to make more decisions for ourselves about our lives. I have always supported lower taxes and lower spending. When the Kennedy's administration cut taxes revenues actually increased. | |||
| Social Security Revenues must be kept in a lock box and kept with a separate budget. The American worker has paid into Social Security $2 trillion dollars more than has been paid out for Social Security benefits. Yet every dime is gone, it has been spent on things other than Social Security. Social Security should be made revenue specific and those moneys that a person pays into the Trust Fund should be kept for the person that paid them into the fund, plus interest. See the Issues page of the campaign web site for details. www.BaileyforUSCongress.com | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| No | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| The Federal budget is 4-1/2 times all the state budgets combined. Deficit spending, over-regulation and a tax structure that penalizes productivity all make our ecomony weak. Our federal government has grown beyond our consent. Therefore the American people must come together as American and vote out of office those representatives that have violated their oath of office to "Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution." Federal revenues went up 40% from 2003-2007. Yet spending has gone up even more. This causes the money in our pockets to be worth less and less. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | |||
| No | d) Should candidates for federal office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support giving the President the power of the line item veto for items concerning appropriations? | ||
| f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | |||
| There are 70 lobbyists for every Congressperson. These lobbyists seek to influence and control members of Congress through "soft money" contributions, which are unregulated, unlimited donations to political parties. "Soft money" has silenced the voice of the American people. "One man one vote" should be our guide. All contributions to a candidate for Federal office over $2000.00 should be made public 30 days prior to any election. Only persons eligible to vote should be able to contribute to a Federal candidate. Non-persons (such as corporations) shouldn't be able to give money to a candidate. We should eliminate all "soft money." | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related training and job-placement assistance when released? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support reduced prison sentences for non-violent offenders? | ||
| e) Do you support mandatory prison sentences for selling illegal drugs? | |||
| I support reducing the number of things that are a federal crime. I support more state authority and autonomy. We have about 4.6% of the world's population and 24% of the world's inmates. We need to rethink the direction we are heading. Restitution should always be preferred to incarceration. | |||
| No | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| No | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| a,b,c,d for the District of Columbia, YES. For the rest of the nation, education is a local issue. As a member of the Charles County Board of education for 16 years, I have seen first hand the negative effects of the federal government's involvement in education. I would abolish the Department of Education. We need to return our Federal government to a size that fits the Constitution and allow the financial resources that are being soaked up by Congress to stay at the state, local and individual level where they can be more effectively managed and/or spent. | |||
| No | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| No | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | ||
| No | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | |||
| a,b,d,f We need an energy independence policy/strategy that empowers all 303 million Americans. The federal government has made a mess. DWRRA should be repealed. The "$75 million liability cap" should be removed completely. Revenues for oil leases on federal lands should go to the American people. Prior to the creation of the Department of Energy, we imported 22% of our oil. We now import over 60%. The federal government has made us more vulnerable to hostile oil producing nations. There should be a tariff on imported oil with 100% of the revenues going directly to the American people as rebates. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual citizens to own guns? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| I support the Second Amendment which says: "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The Second Amendment addresses the personal and collective rights of a free society. Our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution to guarantee our God-given liberties. They wisely made many provisions to guard against tyranny, including tyranny from our own government. The Second Amendment is one of those provisions. It acknowledges our personal rights as well as our collective rights. In addition, citizens have a natural right to self defense and that right does not end when they leave their homes. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Should the federal government expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support relaxing regulations on the importation of prescription drugs? | ||
| There is no government system that can make choices for an individual as well as the individual can make their own choices. We need to move away from the trend toward socialized medicine and instead increase consumer driven, voluntary healthcare options. Health care must be addressed on multiple levels at the same time. All analysis must take into account quality, cost and availability. And all decisions must successfully cover all three components. I will vote for all Americans to have a full tax deduction for any healthcare related insurance and a full tax credit for any cash payments for healthcare. | |||
| a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | |||
| Yes | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| a. We already have one. First: We must secure our borders. Second: We must deport those that are a threat to society. Third: Stop spending taxpayer money for welfare and/or government subsidies for persons here illegally. My positions are: Physically secure our borders and coastlines. Stop chain migration. End visa lottery. Enforce visa rules. Enforce the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act that's on the books now. No amnesty. No federal welfare for illegal aliens. No Social Security for illegal aliens. I support a border that allows peaceful people to be able to cross our borders peacefully for peaceful purposes. | |||
| a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | |||
| No | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing economic development assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | |||
| e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | |||
| No | f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | ||
| g) Do you support increasing sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy United Nations mandates? | |||
| Yes | h) Do you support the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq? | ||
| i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | |||
| We need to make ourselves a smaller target by: Minimizing our involvement in the internal affairs of other nations. Not giving funding to both sides of a conflict as is often done. Choosing our allies more carefully, (Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and Iran were all allies at one time not to distant in the past). Being more judicious in the use of American troops. Not giving foreign aid to hostile nations and rogue regimes. Stopping policing the world. Avoiding nation building. Clearly defining American Independence and National Security objectives in our relations with any and all other nations. | |||
| Yes | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| No | b) Do you support allowing openly-gay men and women to serve in the United States military? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the federal government end affirmative action programs? | ||
| b. = The military is not a dating service. I do not support any on duty service person "openly" promoting their sexuality or sexual orientation. Unfortunately, the military has been used by politicians to politicize this issue. c,d We need to return our federal government to a size that fits the Constitution. There is more than enough state and local government to address many of the issues that the federal government has gotten involved in. Our elected Representatives need to be more diligent to apply the 9th and 10th Amendments of the Constitution that they swore to uphold and defend. | |||
| Balance the budget. Cut Federal spending. Put a lock box on Social Security. Fix Social Security by making it revenue specific. Reduce the Federal government to a size that fits the Constitution. Reform the tax code. Audit the Federal Reserve. Raise the personal exemption to $15,000.00. Repeal congressional retirements. Pass term limits. For a more detailed list please visit my web site. www.BaileyforUSCongress.com Pass the: "Enumerated Powers Act." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enumerated_Powers_Act "Read the Bill Act." http://www.downsizedc.org/read-the-laws "One Subject at a Time Act." http://www.downsizedc.org/osta-legislation "Write the Laws Act." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_the_Laws_Act "Free Competition in Currency Act." http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/85 Repeal the "Deep Water Royalty Relief Act." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DWRRAct |
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