Jim Holbert's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Kentucky Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
1) SpendingIndicate what federal funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.2) 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 Increase | a) Agriculture | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Maintain Status | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | f) Homeland security | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Medical research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific research | ||
| Greatly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Slightly Increase | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| No | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| No | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| Yes | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| The fact is that we must decrease Federal spending virtually across the board. Our spending priorities must be oriented to those projects which will move America into a sustainable future. We must invest in developing future energy sources and an educated population to enable America to attain and maintain technical superiority in the field of energy. We need to eliminate aid which props up foreign corruption, and we must defend America through better trade, economic, and energy policies, rather than engaging in endless foreign wars and maintaining military bases and troop concentrations worldwide. | |||
| Another uncomfortable fact is that tax revenues must be increased. This, along with decreased Federal spending, is absolutely necessary to deal with the level of national debt we've allowed to accumulate. I believe the proper economic policy is a full-employment economy, with better pay for Americans. Increased taxes will not be seen as a burden by people who have secure, stable, well-paying jobs. | |||
| History has shown that Federal stimulus spending is necessary in times of recession. I am not in favor of deficit spending in general, however it is and will be continue to be necessary under certain economic conditions. The best way to eliminate Federal deficit spending for economic stimulus purposes is to enact financial regulation of the economy to help prevent recessions caused by irresponsible and reckless activity in the banking and financial sectors, and to lessen the impact of recessions if they should occur. | |||
| No | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| No | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| Social Security retirement and Medicare are the anchors of retirement-age planning for the vast majority of Americans. These vital programs must be secured and strengthened. Our economy is suffering because for decades now we have favored investors over working people. We must act to promote the interests of America's workers, to return stable and secure jobs to America, and to put the millions who are unemployed as the result of our economic mistakes back to work. | |||
| No | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should candidates for federal office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support giving the President the power of the line item veto for items concerning appropriations? | ||
| No | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| Money has absolutely corrupted American politics. I favor some form of public financing for Federal elections in order to help level the political playing field and encourage working Americans to run for office. Line item vetoes and Presidential evasion of law through "signing statments" are nowhere to be found in our Constitution. Line item vetoes encourage laziness and cowardice from Congress and should not be enacted, and a President who breaks his or her oath of office in refusing to comply with laws passed by Congress through "signing statements" should be impeached. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related training and job-placement assistance when released? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support reduced prison sentences for non-violent offenders? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory prison sentences for selling illegal drugs? | ||
| We incarcerate too many people for too long, and for too many offenses. Confinement without absolute safety for inmates from rape and other violence and without true rehabilitation in the form of education and job training, followed by effective efforts to integrate the individual into society after their release, is a sure recipe for alienating and brutalizing people and turning them into a permanent criminal underclass. We can no longer afford to do this either financially or in terms of the hard it is doing to American society. | |||
| No | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| No | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| I support the concept of public K-12 education administered and funded by the states. At the Federal level, there should be incentives enacted into law which encourage a new system of American education to meet the needs of all students and the needs of our society; specifically, more vocational and specialized technical training. Professional training at the college level should be re-structured. We should adopt the educational methods of other countries which, frankly produce students who outperform Americans academically. Congress should pass a new "land-grant college" act establishing institutions of higher learning which are modeled on these principles. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| Energy and climate change (the two are intertwined) are the most critical issues of the present and of the future. We have lost a generation of time in which we should have been moving toward energy efficiency and conservation, and the development of alternative energy sources. For the sake of our national security and economic prosperity, we must mobilize and utilize all our resources to liberate ourselves from foreign oil and develop American technological leadership in alternative energy production, and American energy self-sufficiency. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual citizens to own guns? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| Current gun legislation in America strikes a good balance between individual Constitutional freedom and public safety. I support 2nd Amendment rights and freedoms. In Congress I will vote against gun or ammunition bans or prohibitive taxes. The existing Federal restrictions on ownership of fully-automatic weapons and other weapon-related devices are reasonable and have worked well for decades. It must be pointed out that true "assault rifles" are fully-automatic, not semi-automatic, and as such are already severely restricted by Federal laws. I believe there is no Constitutional basic for banning or restricting private ownership of semi-automatic firearms. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| No | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| No | c) Should the federal government expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts? | ||
| No | d) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support relaxing regulations on the importation of prescription drugs? | ||
| I support national single payer health care, such as would be enacted by H.R. 676. National single payer health care works well for many industrialized democracies around the world. It would benefit working people and it would make American businesses providing goods and services more competitive in the world marketplace. National single payer health care should be funded by a payroll tax matched by employers, exactly as Social Security is funded. This would result in universal health care for all American citizens at an overall reduction in health care costs. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| No | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| For the sake of full employment and to promote rising wages for American working people, we must enforce our existing immigration laws. Employers of illegal aliens should be vigorously prosecuted. We must educate and train our own citizens to do the jobs required in a technical society now and in the future. | |||
| No | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing economic development assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | ||
| Yes | f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support increasing sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy United Nations mandates? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq? | ||
| No | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| We must begin to defend America through trade, economic, and energy policies which liberate us from Middle East oil dependence and the Middle East political entanglements that accompany that dependence. We will not secure the peace and freedom of the United States through endless foreign warfare. The U.S. should eliminate any aid that enables or prolongs corrupt foreign governance that oppresses the people of other nations in determining their own policial future. America should turn away from maintaining troops and military bases around the world and direct our resources toward the things we need to do here in America. | |||
| First: Defund and end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and defund the vast majority of American troops deployments and bases throughout the world. Second: Reverse "free trade" policies and enact laws to rebuild American self-sufficiency in key manufacturing sectors, returning jobs to America. Third: Develop a twenty-year national plan of energy efficiency and conservation and alternative energy production which will establish American energy self-sufficiency. |
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