Ken Cody's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
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Ken Cody has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
New Jersey Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I am pro-choice. I support codifying Roe v. Wade. I believe a woman has the right to her own body and has the right to choose. Abortion is never an easy decision and all options should be considered. I believe third trimester abortions should be avoided unless the life or severe health consequences of a woman are at stake. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| I would support an income tax increase for wealthy wage earners. Just the top one percent of wage earners control about forty percent of our nation's wealth. Redistribution of the wealth can help programs thrive. Funding free education and improving our infrastructure are just some examples. Economically this is fair and makes sense. Tax hikes generally have little impact on the rich. Spending does not change and most of their income tends to go into savings accounts. I do not want to see any tax increase for the lower and middle class. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I believe we need to set strict regulations on all forms of contributions. Indirect campaign contributions or "soft money" needs to be limited and better accounted for. Candidates need to focus on the issues and spend less time fundraising. My candidacy accepts no monetary contributions and is self-funded. I feel any money raised should go to important causes like education, medical research, curing illness and helping the less fortunate. Why should money influence elections? It should not. Just because you can raise the most contributions does not make you always the best candidate for the job. | |||
| No | Do you support the protection of government officials, including law enforcement officers, from personal liability in civil lawsuits concerning alleged misconduct? | ||
| Any wrong doing or misconduct should be heard in a court of law. No one should be given special treatment. Civil lawsuits should be able to proceed. Also, we need to look at reforming our prison system. Currently, over two million people are serving time. It is the most in the world. Many prisoners are in jail for non-violent offenses. In fact, four in ten drug arrests were for marijuana. Making marijuana legal and expunging marijuana convictions is the right thing to do. | |||
| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| I am proud of our military and support our courageous men and women who defend our freedom. We will do what it takes to defend our country if attacked. However, engaging in war needs to be a last resort. We have spent four billion dollars a month in Afghanistan for a war that has no ending. I would reallocate that money and put it into programs like Medicare-for-All, Clean Energy and Education. I would support legislation that returns our brothers and sisters home from endless wars. Ending regime change wars will save money and most importantly save lives. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| I will support legislation that will help our economy grow. Most importantly, we need to support local companies and make the "Made in the U.S.A." label thrive again. We must focus building more small businesses and believe in them so they can become "Big Business". Buying American products is a start so we can reestablish a strong economy, keep our jobs here and help our unemployed find long lasting employment. Currently COVID-19 has devastated businesses. To help them we must support initiatives that promote recovery grants, direct lending programs and debt relief so that they can recover. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| I believe adopting federal education standards would overall be beneficial. By doing this the educational system would have less inconsistencies and more accountability. If students need to change schools, they can expect the same standards in different school districts across the country making it easier to adjust. By working together and with federal guidelines in place there is a possibility of more cost-sharing. This can save schools money and taxpayers as well. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I support legislation that invests in clean energy projects. Wind and solar power are two main sources of renewable energy. Wind power produces no pollution and no harmful reactions. We never run out of wind so it will be always a source of energy. Solar power is created as long as the sun shines. No water or air pollution is associated with solar power because there is no chemical side effect from combustion of fuels. Also, clean energy creates jobs. The clean energy work force continues to grow. Over 800,000 jobs were related to renewable energy employment in 2018. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| We need to pass strict gun law legislation. I believe that according to the second amendment of the Constitution you should have the right to bear arms. Many states have different rules and laws. There are several options that I believe that would improve gun control regulations if adopted nationwide. I support the following requirements: Universal background checks, state permits needed to purchase, owner license required, magazine capacity restrictions and open carry of a gun should be prohibited. Gun ownership should go to qualified individuals. These rules need to be enforced for the safety of our society, especially our children. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Yes | Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| I would replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act with Medicare-for-All. Due to COVID-19 millions of workers have lost their jobs and along with it their health insurance. Medicare-for-All will have Americans covered even if you lose your job. We need this health coverage more than ever. COVID-19 has cost lives and has changed the way we live. With Medicare-for-All in place we will be prepared with more facilities to take in the sick. We will have medicines and vaccines in stock if another pandemic should strike. The bottom line is that Medicare-for-All will save lives. | |||
| No | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| There needs to be a pathway to citizenship. I would implement an "immigrant amnesty" program allowing undocumented immigrants to come forward to federal, state and local authorities with no penalty. By coming forward we can go through proper procedures to determine if they qualify for citizenship. A wall along the Mexican border is not needed. The cost would be over $45 billion to build. It would be better served if we employed more security and used more modern technology to help with border control. | |||
| No | Should the United States use military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a weapon of mass destruction (for example: nuclear, biological, chemical)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts? | ||
| I believe in our military and thank them for everything they do. They should be involved in missions with clear objectives. It is time to end regime change wars. The cost of war is staggering. Not only are we risking our soldiers' lives we have spent over five trillion taxpayer dollars since 2001 on wars that have no end. I would reallocate this money towards Medicare-for-All, Clean Energy, Educational programs and more. Bring our troops home. War should be a last resort. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| Removing barriers to international trade will promote economic growth and can create opportunities for long term investments. Relations and new partnerships can grow between nations. If growth and profit are the result so will be the possibility for more employment throughout the world. | |||
| My campaign believes in strict campaign finance reform. Stop the wasteful spending that goes on in Politics. In the election of 2018 Congressional candidates spent $5.7 billion dollars from contributions and political action committees. My campaign does not accept any monetary contributions. I self-fund my campaign. I will support legislation for Medicare-for-All. Over thirty million Americans lost their job due to COVID-19 and with it their health insurance. Medicare-for-All will save lives and prepare us better for any future crisis. Funding can be obtained by ending regime change wars and reallocate the trillions of dollars into Medicare-for-All and other programs. |
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