Kelcey Wilson's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Kelcey Wilson has demonstrated Political Courage by telling citizens where he stands on the issues he may face if elected.
Presidential Election 2012 Political Courage Test
| Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | |||
| The binary framing of the issue here is part of the problem with the debate. I am personally opposed to induced abortion as a birth control method, but I don't believe it's the government's place to tell people what to do with their own bodies. To believe abortion is murder in all cases one would need to believe that there are tens of millions of murderers, including some of our dearest friends, running free in our country today. Instead of more legislation about abortion, we should use our energy to create a society in which pregnancies are always welcomed. | |||
BudgetIndicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing the federal budget.In order to balance the budget,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.
| 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? | ||
| Yes | Is balancing the budget an administrative priority? | ||
| Eliminate | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Maintain Status | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical Research | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 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) | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Payroll taxes | ||
| I answered yes on Medicaid and Medicare but I don't believe the solution is as simple as reducing spending. I believe we need a complete system overhaul, to be determined democratically by the people, and not by the drug and medical industry. I think the best option at the moment is a single payer system where the government is the universal health insurer that keeps quality high by keeping administrative costs low. But more important than the particular form, is that it works. We should not devise a system that subsidizes people's poor health choices. | |||
| Education spending should be maintained, but all money should be in the form of block grants used only for the purpose of increasing teacher salaries. No more money to factory-style education schemes like "No Child Left Behind." Environmental spending should be greatly increased by way of creating a national clean energy program that frees the electric grid to allow people to sell clean energy directly into it, and subsidizes the price of solar panels for sale to homes and businesses, which will be repaid by the owners at the same rate that they would have paid for fossil fuel energy. | |||
| Slightly decrease corporate taxes but eliminate loopholes. Increase transportation fuel taxes (with exemption for truckers) in order to incentivize the move to electrical cars charged with solar power. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I support the complete elimination of campaign contributions from nonhuman entities. Democracy literally means "rule of the people." Nonhuman entities have no right to participate in the collective self-governing of the people. According to the same reasoning, parties, which have nested themselves within government, should be excised, and partisan ballot access rules should be eliminated so that candidates can be elected for the power of their ideas rather than the depth of their partisan connections and loyalty that puts party above country. People have the right to associate, but nonhuman entities have no right to control government. | |||
| No | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| While I am not a pacifist, and believe we all have the right to kill somebody in self-defense, I do not want my government to kill people in cold blood. Killing in cold blood is murder. There's no reason we can't keep people in prison without parole for life, and it makes sense to do so in particular because people on death row are regularly found to be innocent but unjustly accused. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the 2010 temporary extension of unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | Do you support the 2010 temporary extension of tax relief? | ||
| I support what works. I neither support nor reject any of these things unequivocally. I supported the 2010 extension of unemployment benefits because it was temporary and put money directly into the economy because it went to people who had the most need and would spend the money immediately. I did not support the 2010 extension of tax relief because it was not equitable, letting the rich off the hook for paying their fair share for government services at a time that just forced us to go deeper into debt with China. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| Yes, but not the reforms that have been going on, like "No Child Left Behind" that make our schools into factories that turn our teachers into mindless robots whose sole job is to produce little robots of our children. If I were to tie federal grants to reforms, the grants would be for the sole purpose of raising teacher salaries by, say, $30,000, but otherwise keep the federal government completely out of micromanaging education. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Do you support reducing restrictions on offshore energy production? | |||
| The third question is vague these days. Assuming it's talking about drilling for oil: no -- I don't think reasonable restrictions should be reduced. There are, however, offshore wind energy projects underway, and I would be in favor of the reduction of any unreasonable restrictions on those and and any other offshore clean energy production projects. | |||
| Do you support United States' combat operations in Afghanistan? | |||
| No | Do you support a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| The first question is vague. I support some operations and not others. I support our troops and think our leadership is doing a great job in an impossible situation. I supported the operation to get al Qaida and Osama bin Laden and I would have supported fully funded and complete dedication to the elimination of the Taliban and the installation of a more democratic, civil rights respecting government, but that has never happened. Nevertheless, the stated mission has been accomplished, and it's time to withdraw. | |||
| Yes | Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| I wholeheartedly support the right of people to own guns and would never create government policy that would make the U.S. into a nation in which only criminals and the government owned guns. I do, however, support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns and ammunition for convicted felons. I also support microstamping of bullets so bullets used in crimes can be traced back to the purchaser. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| I do not support a repeal of the Affordable Care Act that would take us back to the status quo ante. But I would support the replacement of the Affordable Care Act with an act that creates a single, government run, universal health insurance provider that keeps costs down by its large scale, low administrative costs, ability to negotiate prices with drug companies, and coverage policies that do not subsidize unhealthy behavior. This would not eliminate private insurance companies, it would simply compete with them, and if it did a better job, so be it. The choice would be yours. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration law by state and local police? | ||
| Besides Native Americans, we're all immigrants and most are only legal by virtue of having been born here -- not by an act of will. Illegal immigrants contribute far more to the economy than they receive in services -- particularly by paying taxes and producing inexpensive products, including our food, but not using any services. I would sign a bill that created a functional worker visa program, preferably one that didn't penalize people who have already put down roots in the US. | |||
| Yes | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| It is not the place of government to regulate mutually consensual personal relationships. I believe the best solution is to deregulate marriage entirely, including removing any reference to marriage in the tax code so that all people are treated equally in law. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| I think of Social Security as basically an insurance policy, the point of which is to give people the financial ability to sustain themselves if, for one reason or another, they are otherwise unable. In the case of social security, if people are allowed to divert a portion into personal retirement accounts, and those accounts underperform, then it is other taxpayers who end up having to support the people with failed or inadequate accounts. Social Security has extremely low administrative costs compared to other insurance products and is extremely good value for money. Raise the retirement age -- problem solved. | |||
| 1) Create a national clean energy program that frees of the electric grid so that anybody can sell clean energy into the grid; subsidies to individuals and businesses that finance the purchase of solar panels (from US companies); and pays back the subsidies with monthly payments of no more than what would otherwise have gone to buy fossil fuel energy. 2) Create a national Free Marketplace of Ideas, an internet-based government accountability system -- a public forum that enables constituents to communicate directly with their public servants; watch, share and discuss live and archived video of public servants in action. |
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