Gloria La Riva's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Gloria La Riva has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
Presidential Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I am decidedly pro-choice, I believe in a women's right to determine our own destiny rather than a government interfering in our own healthcare decisions. There is currently a right-wing national offensive attacking women's access to abortion. This offensive is designed to undo Roe Vs. Wade and roll back gains of the women's rights movement. I also believe that other issues must be front and center, like free and accessible childcare, pre- and post-natal care. My supporters and I have actively organized rallies and participate in the movement to defend and expand Roe, and for full women's equality. | |||
| 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? | ||
| The top 400 corporations paid only 11.2% federal taxes last year, below the 23% ridiculously-low tax rate passed in 2017. Amazon paid NO federal taxes in 2018! Politicians keep cutting taxes for corporations and ultra-rich, while the working class pays more through direct taxes, but also in social service cuts, and indirect taxes of fees, fines, lotteries. The increase in funds for Social Security should come from corporations. Funding must be increased for all social spending, from Medicare, Social Security to education. In fact, healthcare should be free for all, by taxing the corporations, slashing the Pentagon budget. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| The Citizens United decision proves the absolute power of corporate influence over the elections. How can the U.S. electoral system be considered democratic when it takes billions of dollars for someone to become president, and tens of millions of dollars for a congressperson. Then once elected, the officials are the subjects of thousands of lobbyists who fill the halls of Congress, writing legislation that benefits corporations, banks and military contractors. It is wrong to conflate corporations and unions, unions represent the interests of workers, the overwhelming majority of society. Overturn Citizens United, as a first step. | |||
| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| The U.S. military budget now stands at 1 trillion dollars, not just the $738 billion military budget but the nuclear weapons programs in the Department of Energy. I oppose the Pentagon's aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, the growing occupations throughout Africa. China and Russia are increasingly targeted. I call for the shutting down of all U.S. military bases around the world and withdrawal of troops, planes & ships. The money should instead be used for education, infrastructure, healthcare, jobs and housing projects that actually benefit people, including reparations for countries harmed by U.S. aggression. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| The best way to stimulate the economy: raise the federal minimum wage to $20. When people have more income, they can provide for themselves and their families. When corporations get tax breaks they hoard the extra money and invest it in Wall Street gambling. In the end, only a socialist system can resolve the growing crises that we face. A sustainable, planned economy, where the wealth of society that workers create is shared, to provide for housing, education, healthcare, culture, and a society where equal rights are guaranteed and social peace reigns. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| I believe there must be standards that promote respect for all people in all our diversity and backgrounds; to promote science, not right-wing superstitions. What is needed most of all is funding, funding, funding. Teachers should not have to spend their own limited income to better their students' education, children need music, art, real participative sports for every student, and quality education. Teachers should be able to teach in manageable class sizes, and not have to burden their students with excessive testing. Stop scapegoating educators for problems imposed on them by governments and school administrations. | |||
| 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? | ||
| The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports we have only 12 years to prevent a spiral of catastrophic climate change. We must immediately fully fund all green renewable energy production and stop fossil fuel extraction and use, to have those workers instead employed in green renewable energy production. The unlimited search for profit created climate catastrophe, we need a fundamentally different system to reverse climate change, a planned, sustainable economy that puts people before profit, which is socialism. More than stopping fossil fuel use, we need mass transit, stop plastics production, so much more to do! | |||
| Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | |||
| The biggest problem of all is the gun industry, which profits from the sale of weapons of war and is protected from lawsuits by the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). This means that gun manufacturers can pump millions of weapons into society for profit, with no concern for liability. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| We should be providing universal, accessible and free healthcare for all. Although the Affordable Care Act helped in important ways, it was an inadequate fix for the scale of the healthcare crisis we have in this country. There are more than 30 million without any health insurance, and another 30 million who are "under-insured". 60% of all foreclosures are due to the cost of a medical emergency. Abolish the insurance companies, they do nothing to provide healthcare, in fact they are a parasitical block to healthcare. The funding can come from greatly raising taxes on the major corporations. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Immigrants have built this country. I absolutely oppose the divisions created against our brothers and sisters south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The scapegoating of immigrants is promoted by politicians and corporations that in reality have grown rich and powerful by exploiting other countries. This is the biggest cause of immigration, whether it is NAFTA, or U.S. proxy and direct wars in Central America, or U.S.-backed coups as in Honduras in 2009, or the economic exploitation of Haiti and refusal to help the Haitian people after natural disasters, I support the right of immigrants and refugees to immediate, full legalization. | |||
| 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? | ||
| The real danger to world peace is our own government. Millions of lives have been lost through U.S. direct and proxy wars since 1945: 4 million Koreans killed 1950-1953; more than 3 million Vietnamese; Guatemala 1954, Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s; Iraq: the Gulf War, genocidal sanctions, U.S. bombing and occupation starting 2003; blockades against Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, North Korea, U.S.-backed Israeli apartheid against Palestinians. The U.S. is the only country that claims the right to first-strike use of nuclear weapons, even against countries that have no nukes. I say, withdraw all U.S. military presence worldwide. | |||
| Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | |||
| Lesser developed countries have a right to protect their national economies against U.S. corporations and banks, with protective barriers. The U.S. government heavily subsidizes U.S. agribusiness, which over the years has demanded and won free-trade agreements that weaken other countries' economies by heavily subsidized products that those countries are forced to import. Mexico is an important example. With NAFTA, Mexico was forced to give up its tariffs and agricultural supports that benefited small farmers. Much of Mexico's agriculture collapsed as a result. Industry was severely affected by those "free trade" policies. | |||
| Stop the deportations, shut down the jails that imprison children and their parents; declare an emergency over the healthcare crisis, convert the Pentagon budget to meet people's needs of healthcare, jobs, education. For example, instead of bailing out the banks as was done in 2008, cancel all student debt. Declare an emergency on housing, moratorium on evictions, create massive jobs programs to rehabilitate blighted cities, with youth apprenticeships in construction. |
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