Mike Steinberg's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Issue Positions
For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2012.
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- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
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This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Constitutional rights apply to the baby from conception. | |||
| No | Do you support United States' combat operations in Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | Do you support a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan? | ||
| We were drawn into a "nation building" exercise that was futile from the beginning, spent hundreds of billions, and cost the lives of our brave men and women in the military. I supported airstrikes - drones, missiles, etc.; and the use of special forces for limited engagements. Some parts of the world cannot be "tamed" or brought into order. We need to exit as orderly as possible as quickly as possible and monitor the situation through intelligence - eliminating threats as they arise, using our highest technological advantages. | |||
Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing the federal budget.In order to balance the budget,
| Yes | do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| No | do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | do you support reducing Medicaid spending? | ||
| Yes | do you support reducing Medicare spending? | ||
| Yes | Is balancing the budget a legislative priority? | ||
| "Balancing" implies NOT paying down the debt. I believe that if we limit the government to its Constitutional role we will have surpluses that will allow us to pay down the debt, not just "balance" the budget. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| The question is vague, but campaign financing needs to be addressed. While I believe in the rights of individuals, our system has become greatly influenced by wealth and special interests. While some may argue that "it's always been that way" - it doesn't mean it's right. We're currently sixteen trillion dollars in debt from the way it's always been, and something needs to change so that we can get more business-people in office and less career politicians. | |||
| Yes | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| We need to limit the number of appeals and re-trials to stop wasting taxpayer money. Seeking the death penalty only when there is compelling, incontrovertible physical evidence or credible first hand eyewitness testimony would be to have a higher success ratio and reduce the backlog of court cases. | |||
| No | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | Do you support spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | Do you support the temporary extension of unemployment benefits? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the 2010 temporary extension of tax relief? | ||
| The federal government needs to be limited to its Constitutional role. THAT will reduce regulations, reduce spending (lowering the federal debt), and encourage higher employment by making the U.S. job-friendly again. Washington inhibits job creation by churning out regulations and picking winners and losers by incentivizing certain industries or behaviors. LIMIT the federal government, reduce regulations, reduce taxes, pay down the debt, and the economy will grow in a sustainable manner - not produce a "bubble". | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| We currently spend $11,000 per year per student for public education. That same money could be allotted to parents to send their children to the school of their choice (vouchers). That would create tens of thousands of private schools that would engender competition and increase quality of education, as well as increase demand (and thus salaries) for good teachers. | |||
| No | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| The Constitution allows Congress to regulate interstate commerce. It may be a stretch but if a state were to become desparate and allow ridiculously excessive pollution to accommodate industry and that pollution were to adversely affect surrounding states, there could be a need for regulation. However, the federal government has shown no self-constraint and uses such premises to overreach and overregulate, so I answered no. | |||
| No | Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Not for legal, law-abiding citizens. For felons and anyone who's used a gun to commit a crime, yes there needs to be restrictions. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | Should individuals be required to purchase health insurance, as mandated in the 2010 Affordable Care Act? | ||
| Government needs to completely withdraw from the healthcare industry. Their attempts to "fix" it through regulation make it more complex, more expensive and are discouraging bright young men and women from pursuing a medical career, fearing that they'll ultimately be de facto government employees. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| No | Do you support allowing illegal immigrants, who were brought to the United States as minors, to pursue citizenship without returning to their country of origin? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration law by state and local police? | ||
| These questions are poorly written (in my opinion). The FEDERAL authorities should be enforcing the FEDERAL laws, states and local police should be transferring detained illegal immigrants to the federal authorities for processing (and the FEDERAL authorities need to DO THEIR JOB.) We need to stop providing education, healthcare and jobs (via E-Verify) to illegal immigrants, then there will be no incentive for them to come or stay. | |||
| Yes | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| Yes | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| We should use technology (i.e. cyber-attacks), drones, missiles, aircraft strikes, special forces, etc. I do not think another "boots on the ground" war in the Middle East that leads to another situation of "nation building" (that costs us billions if not hundreds of billions of dollars) is wise. | |||
| Yes | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| There needs to be some guidlelines to avoid overly speculative investments that have a high probability of being unable to meet long-term investment goals. | |||
SpendingIndicate what federal spending levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category; you can use a number more than once.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.
| Eliminate | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Eliminate | h) Medical Research | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Greatly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Greatly Decrease | k) United Nations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Decrease | m) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Greatly Decrease | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | i) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Payroll taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | k) Other or expanded categories | ||
| READ the Constitution. If Congress isn't authorized to spend it, then STOP. | |||
| I would completely scrap the existing IRS codes (all of them) and replace them with a 15% flat tax for EVERYONE (including businesses). Allow an exemption of $17,500 per adult, $5,000 per child. No deductions except charitable contributions. | |||
| Join with a coalition of House & Senate members that are committed to limiting the federal government to it's narrow Constitutional role. Seek out OTHER members that can be persuaded to join such a coalition. Require meetings with lobbyists to be recorded and posted to the internet so the public can see what's transpiring "behind closed doors." Propose congressional term limits. Require that Congress lives under the same laws as all other citizens (i.e. they exempted themselves from the "Healthcare Reform Act"). Reduce benefits for Congress to make it public service, not a pathway to prosperity. |
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