Fred Costello's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
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Fred Costello has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2018 Political Courage Test.
Florida Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I have two adopted children ... we live what we believe. I am blessed to be endorsed by Florida Right to Life. | |||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| However, I support auditing military expenses and decreasing bureaucratic costs with the savings going to both enhancing our military might and taking care of our veterans without having to continue to increase defense spending. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Corporations and unions (that do not have mandatory membership so all union members are aware they are voluntarily agreeing to fund the campaign contributions) have the same rights to contribute to campaigns as long as regulations assure that all contributions are fully transparent and are voluntary. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| Putting money back in the hands of those who earn the money (by lowering corporate taxes so more money is distributed to employees as salary and to stockholders as profits) is the best economic development tool. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| We need to eliminate all federal education mandates (which are unconstitutional) and leave education up to the states. Let's have 50 labs of innovation in education. | |||
| No | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I support HUGE incentives/bonuses for private enterprise (announced ahead of time but payable after the fact) to encourage them to develop efficient renewable energy. IF/when the impacts of human involvement on climate change via greenhouse gas emissions becomes settled science, which to date it is not, I would be willing to consider regulating them. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| www.fred4us.org lists multiple healthcare reforms including Short Term Medical Insurance, Direct Primary Care, Health Savings Accounts, Medical Saving Accounts for Medicare, Telemedicine, purchase of healthcare insurance across state lines, purchase of pharmaceuticals from outside the US, limited open enrollment period for those with pre-existing conditions, healthcare policies should be fully portable and owned by individuals, healthcare insurance premiums deductible on individual tax returns even if paid for by employers, formation of a high risk pool and tort reform. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| Yes | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Concurrent with immigration reform that creates a secure border, eliminates chain migration, anchor babies and lottery visas, I support expansion of merit based immigration and increasing the number of work visas, with the stipulation that there will be no government benefits available to any who come to the USA on work visas. I support creating a pathway to legal residency for Dreamers (those who were under 18 when brought to the USA by their parents) but I do not support a pathway to citizenship for any who have come to our country illegally. | |||
| No | Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes? | ||
| While serving in the Florida House of Representatives, I voted to authorize medical marijuana. I would vote to allow voters to choose if they want to legalize recreational marijuana but I will vote no. | |||
| Yes | Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| No | Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support? | ||
| There are likely exceptions to these principles. | |||
| 1 Restoration of the Judeo-Christian values upon which our country was founded along with return to actually following the intent of our Constitution ... or amending it. 2 Shrinking the size of our federal government including restructuring, reducing and closing departments which will help reduce our budget so we can attack our $21 trillion national debt. 3 Healthcare, Social Security and Medicare Reform |
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