Peter Bonk's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Peter Bonk has demonstrated Political Courage by telling citizens where he stands on the issues he may face if elected.
Rhode Island State Legislative Election 2012 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| Seems like allowing sex selective abortions, as was recently voted in the US Congress, is the ultimate "War on Women". Gendercide... | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State Taxes:Using the key,indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Rhode Island's budget.
| Slightly Decrease | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Health care | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Other or expanded categories: | ||
| Slightly Decrease | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Property taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Meal and beverage taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | j) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | k) Other or expanded categories: | ||
| No | a) Tapping into Rhode Island's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| Yes | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| Yes | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| Yes | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support giving local city and town councils the authority to suspend cost of living increases for under-funded public pension plans? | ||
| Federal Dept of Education should be eliminated or greatly scaled back. Education is a local issue. A core level of education spending should come at the state level, with local communities adding to that as need and as resources are available. Waste has to be rooted out in all areas- zero based budgeting must be the norm. | |||
| Industrial development, esp. manufacturing needs to be encouraged. Tourism will remain a very critical part of the state economy, and every effort should be made to make RI as attactive a place to vacation, etc. to out of state visitors. "Rhode Island does not have a revenue problem it has a spending problem" sums up in a nutshell. | |||
| Most if not all of these "reductions" would be applied to future raises, COLAs and other built in escalators. Defined benefit plans are unsustainable and must be eliminated. It is very disturbing that tuition rates have gone up much faster than inflation for quite some time, even before recent state cuts. The public colleges and universities in RI must weed out inefficencies and duplicate services- these important institutions are not jobs programs.... | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| No | 1) Individual | ||
| No | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| No | 4) Political Party | ||
| No | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Money is in politics mainly because the government has inserted itself into all manner of economic activitly, and it is only right- and perhaps an important curb on govt. power- that those affected by policy be able to shape it. Currently corporate donations to candidates in RI are not allowed. I have mixed feelings about direct corporate contributions. b) Some races are hotly contested- more should be- and liek it or not it takes resources to run a campaign, so arbitrary limits are unreasonable. d) and e): Yes of course. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| No | c) Do you support decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| a) Some crimes are awful; lifetime incarceration is punishment and protects the public. It doesn't have to be a cushy incarceration. b) With unpleasant consequences for non compliance. c) Esp. for minors and young adults - it should come with consequences. For productive, responsible adults, maybe. I do not like the blind inflexibility of "zero tolerance" policies. d) Again, a case by case basis. Kids come in all levels of maturity and malice. f) Of course. Is it only the FBI that pursues bank robbers? | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support increased spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| b) I have seen this abused; companies taking $$ for training they would have done anyway. c) We should be careful not to create incentives not to work. d) Create a good business climate, but don't try to pick winners and losers or institutionalize "crony capitalism". | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| No | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| Yes | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| No | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Rhode Island high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| e) Most charter schools are public schools. f) Aid such as Hope Scholarships encourage good students to attend RI colleges and universities. g) How can we reward illegal activity? d) Current system is very much a monopoly- economic theory says monopolies lead to bloated costs and poor service/product. A little competition, while often uncomfortable, can be a good thing. | |||
| No | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| No | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Rhode Island's energy infrastructure? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| b) To the extent that practical regulations are in place to allow these activities to be done safely and with minimal adverse impact on the environment. a) These need and will continue to need significant subsidies to operate, which means that much less expensive alternatives are readily available. c) Most of RI energy providers are private companies; the Public Utility Commission must work with these companies to make and get paid for the needed improvements. e) Slight warming - not all bad- much so called "climate change" is well within natural variation over time. Adapt if necessary. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| The 2nd amendment isn't about hunting. The difficult truth is that it is about citizens having an ultimate control mechanism over their government. History has far too many examples of governments turning on segments of its own population. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| No | f) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| f) Sounds nice in theory, lots of anecdotes. THC exists as a prescription drug; it does have a legit medical use. Very difficult to implement in practice and there is lots of abuse of this where it exists. | |||
| Yes | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Rhode Island's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Rhode Island's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Concerns: c) and d) unlike racial discrimination, which can be based on appearance or presentation, orientation/gender identity are not apriori evident, and somewhat "self identifying". In free markets, discrimination against some creates an opportunity for others, and would be self correcting, with minimal government interference. a) Marriage has been long identified as a union of a man and a woman. This is a good thing, socially beneficial, and should not be messed with. b) Civil unions that stay that way, not as a wedge to create same sex marriage, are fine with the broad respect for citizens freely entering agreements. | |||
| Legislation to allow towns and cities to make changes to unsustainable employee contracts. No binding arbitration. Zero based budgeting for all state units, with strong encouragement to apply same to town and school budgets. Simplify business regulations to encourage new businesses. EDC should not be trying to pick winning businesses. Major efforts to find and eliminate fraud and waste in government spending. Get Rhode Island out of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. |
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