Matt Silverman's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Matt Silverman has demonstrated Political Courage by telling citizens where he stands on the issues he may face if elected.
Wisconsin Congressional Election 2012 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I support a woman's right to choose. I believe we must implement policies that reduce the need for abortions. This includes access to sexual education and contraception. It also includes policies that strengthen family support and improve the home life of our nation's children. | |||
| Yes | Do you support United States' combat operations in Afghanistan? | ||
| No | Do you support a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan? | ||
| As an Army Captain and Iraq War veteran I will always support my brothers and sisters fighting overseas. I do not believe a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan is prudent, we should instead leave immediately. We have not clearly identified our goals, without which we cannot identify success. The American military will execute any mission, but in Afghanistan we must be realistic. If our goal is to ensure their women are treated as equals, we will never be able to leave. If our goal is to reduce the threat of attack against US soil, we have already succeeded. | |||
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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | Is balancing the budget a legislative priority? | ||
| We must get our deficit under control. That will take increased revenue and spending cuts. Everything is on the table. A balanced budget is not necessary, just a smaller deficit than the trillion dollars we currently run. The first step is to cut Congressional salaries by 25% and eliminate Congressional pensions. The money saved will be miniscule compared to the federal deficit, but the message is important. We are all in this together, and before Congress raises any revenue or cuts any spending it must look inward. Congress should not ask the American people to sacrifice before they sacrifice themselves. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| The money in politics is destroying Americans' faith in their own government. We need 100% mandatory public financing of all federal campaigns. This will require a constitutional amendment but is what we need to clean up our electoral system. We must also lead from the front. I do not accept any PAC contributions and will not stand for any 3rd party expenditures on my behalf. The winners of elections get to write the rules, and until we vote out the money, nothing will change. | |||
| No | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Capital punishment is permanent and leaves no room for the errors of man. It is a punishment that can never be reversed to correct an injustice and therefore has no place in the American legal system. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | Do you support spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the temporary extension of unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | Do you support the 2010 temporary extension of tax relief? | ||
| I support short term spending on infrastructure (including power grids, data networks, schools and other government buildings) if we simultaneously reform long term obligations for entitlement programs and defense spending. We need to spend now to help get the economy moving but also cut long term spending to ensure our fiscal survival. I support eliminating the corporate income tax and instead taxing all capital gains as income. In this way we won't need tax incentives to grow business. I don't support funding tax breaks by taking money from the social security trust fund, our future seniors can't afford it. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| When it comes to education, the job of the federal government should be to level the playing field, not dictate policy. I support a competitive scholarship for students to become teachers. The federal government would pay for college in exchange for a commitment to teach for a period of 4 years anywhere in the country. Students would be required to take certain courses to prepare them for the profession of teaching. This program would ease the burden of becoming a teacher and allow the federal government to place our most important resource, human capital, where it is needed most. | |||
| Yes | Do you support reducing restrictions on offshore energy production? | ||
| I support a carbon tax combined with increased domestic oil production. We must end our dependence on oil. A carbon tax will incentivize the development of renewable energy and increases in energy efficiency. A carbon tax alone, however, will never pass a divided Congress. In order to craft a reasonable compromise I can also accept increased domestic drilling, provided we enforce the necessary EPA regulations to minimize environmental risk. If we do not change our energy policy, we will continue to destroy our environment and fund nations against our national interest. The status quo is unacceptable. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| We have only one environment and we must do everything we can to preserve it. Renewable energy technology is a winner for both the planet and for American businesses. Nations worldwide, including China and India, recognize the damage we are doing to our environment and are looking for better alternatives. Environmental regulations will spur development of sustainable technologies by American companies. Those advancements can then be exported on the global market place. In the early 2000's when the EPA toughened regulations on locomotives, GE innovated and built a new engine from the ground up. China bought 300. | |||
| Yes | Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| The individual right to bear arms is written into the constitution and is therefore a fundamental right. That right can be limited, but any limitation must pass strict constitutional scrutiny. That means any law restricting the purchase and possession of guns must serve a compelling government interest and have a minimal adverse effect on law abiding gun owners. That means we must balance public safety against the right to bear arms. Only those laws that actually protect the public with minimal restriction are permissible. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act? | ||
| Yes | Should individuals be required to purchase health insurance, as mandated in the 2010 Affordable Care Act? | ||
| Expanded health coverage is a good thing, but if we can't afford the care itself the coverage doesn't matter. If we do nothing about cost, health care will become too expensive for anyone, including the federal government, to afford. When that happens we will be forced into a single payer government run system. I support using that leverage to force the health care industry to change. If the industry cannot lower costs nationwide by Jan. 1, 2016, we implement a universal system. We should place the burden on those who profit from the free market system to reign in costs. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| We need new immigration laws and they must pass Congress. I support a path to citizenship but I am open to negotiating the details. I believe the cutoff age of eligibility for a Dream Act type of law should be lowered. I believe that if a child is brought to the US as an infant or toddler, they know nothing but America. A child brought over at the age of 12 or 14, is not in the same position. In order to get a compromise version of the Dream Act through Congress we should lower the age of eligibility. | |||
| Yes | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| The government should not be involved in marriage at all. Marriage is a religious and social construct, the government should deal only in civil unions. The purpose of a civil union is for two individuals to easily assign a bundle of rights to one another. These include property rights, custodial rights and rights over the other person's health/end of life care. Every American should be allowed to assign these rights to the one person they trust most. That decision has nothing to do with gender and the government has no right to discriminate on such a basis. | |||
| Yes | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| No | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| I support the targeting of suspected terrorists only if there is a procedural check on that power. A system similar to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court must be in place to provide judicial review before any individual is placed on a target list. Before any military action is used to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon we must exhaust all other avenues, including political and economic pressure. I do not believe we are at the point yet where military force is required. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| The point of Social Security is to ensure a basic standard of living for the elderly. As we can see today, the pot of money that makes up Social Security may not always be sufficient to pay out the benefits promised. In that case, the structure of the program must be altered in order to care for our citizens that need it most. By allowing individuals to divert their Social Security taxes out of the trust fund, we greatly reduce our ability to meet the needs of a changing population. | |||
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.
| Slightly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Education | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical Research | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Space exploration | ||
| Slightly Decrease | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | i) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Eliminate | j) Payroll taxes | ||
| The federal government currently has $15.8 trillion in debt and a $1 trillion annual deficit. This type of reckless spending is unsustainable and is an unacceptable burden to pass on to future generations. As we struggle to reduce our deficit we must be willing to cut all federal spending. Not all federal dollars, however, are equal. The job of a Congressman is to make tough choices. I will examine the facts, apply the Democratic principles and ideals, and craft a workable solution that can actually pass a divided Congress. We must work together as Americans to fix our budget. | |||
| For personal income tax we should eliminate all exemptions and deductions and lower the marginal rates to their current average effective rates. We should also add new brackets and the $1, $5, and $10 million levels. This will make the tax code more fair and more progressive. We should also eliminate the corporate income tax and instead tax all capital gains as income. The corporate income tax is a hidden tax on working Americans and is reducing economic growth. We should be taxing the individuals that profit from business, not the businesses themselves. | |||
| My top three priorities are to: (1) initiate short term spending on infrastructure, education and research, (2) reform entitlement and defense spending, and (3) reform the tax code. These three priorities are what it will take to get our economy growing again and ensure the long term fiscal health of our nation. The only way to accomplish these goals, or any other legislative goals, is through real compromise. Democrats and Republicans must sit down together and negotiate reasonable deals where everybody gets something but nobody gets everything. This is how democracy must function. |
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