Steve Carlson's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
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Steve Carlson has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
Minnesota Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| My focus in this primary (and always) is on women's health care. I focus on helping women in the federal breast cancer program survive the treatment when local and state governments are seizing their treatment funds to spend on other purposes. I focus on extending the initial eligibility age for that program to 69, now it's 65. It's time to overturn Roe v. Wade. There are four votes right now and a powerful dissent in the Russo case. I want health disparities programs to stop killer diseases, not more money to abort conceptions through Obamacare and Medicaid. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| Social Security and Medicare are insurance programs, not "entitlements". They are not created by statute but by self-funding. For all Americans we must honor that self-funding and achieve its purpose. In an America First economy we can work longer and smarter. We can build strong families, with estates, increased economic activity can generate more income tax revenue and increased benefits. Leverage Medicare and Medicaid markets to maintain more health services. And keep corporate and business taxes low. Don't take so much for unwise programs that there's no incentive to create or expand businesses and the jobs they create. | |||
| No | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| More campaign advertisements are flowing onto the internet. And if politicians work to block political advertisements on Facebook or campaign presence is blocked on Twitter, nonetheless the move to social media is unmistakable. There is even less reason to stop full participation by corporations or even uinions. However I favor right-to-work. If unions have the right to organize, the workers also have a right to work. And they should not be forced to pay for unrestrained union political activity that does not even represent them, but just uses them. They should benefit from improved work conditions brought by unions. | |||
| Yes | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| Of course. Donald Trump has shown that we can respect and grow our military strength, including training and leadership, without seeking to project military power into aggression. We need to update and improve our defensive and offensive weapon systems while we work with other nations to stop expansion and aggression. One of those areas is China. Another is Russia. Another is Islamic expansion in the Middle East. We are still a remaining superpower. We cannot undercut our military, while at the same time we must build peaceful relations and safety against biological disasters like the current Covid 19. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Covid has shown the benefit of helping employers and employees, unleasihing our financial strength--our immense productivity, and strong consumer spending based on a free market--a resource the rest of the world does not have. While I do not believe the federal government should spend just to spend, it is a great customer when it is in its proper role. We need to restore our state and regional banks, and state and private spending must remain the central engine of our economy. Individual and families, and the private providers and producers that serve them must remain our economy's greatest engines. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| It is dangerous to allow federal "education standards" to use federal money to essentially brainwash children against Western values. I believe in the great Western values most especially our Constitution and founding documents. The best way to teach this is to live it, through local school boards with a healthy portion of Christian values and history as the core. We feared a strong central government that could tyrannize communities and teach promiscuity and disdain for human rights. The danger that this could occur through government schools has been seen already. Make Education Great Again! | |||
| No | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| No I believe the private sector should lead on energy development. I would support legislation to stop energy companies from buying up rights to develop alternative energy just to quash the development, because we need a fair and open free market on this. We already have a lot of competition from China and ohter nations in the development of solar energy. I would support the development of America First producers and make it better not just cheaper. Don't want to give people a license to pollute. Laws should be local and state and effective. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes I do, but not if it violates the 2nd Amendment. We already have the laws on the books that allow screening, and restrictions of gun ownership of certain individuals convicted of a dangerous crime, and harsher penalties for crimes involving firearms. We need courts to enforce the rights people have to self-protection like the St. Louis couple. I do not support federal laws like the Natl Firearms Act of 1934 insofar as they target the firearms industry with a tax intended to curtail the gun rights of private citizens. I would work to change that. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| Absolutely, and we have to replace it. We need to replace it with a federal concentration on health disparities, like the NBCCEDP and Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act (however with the states paying to continuing the COMPLETION of the cancer treatment, not stealing the money). This federal program needs to concentrate on killer diseases giving states the capacity in cancer, heart disease, diabetes (exgtending the Alec Smith program). I wouldn't make business pay the leave, I support Trump's support to employers and employees and then opening up. The individual mandate is gone, employer mandate must follow. | |||
| 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? | ||
| I support Donald Trump on this border issue. I have my own plans to develop the border region. But they require a secure border area. I would like to work with Mexico bilaterally on human rights conditions and security so that leading companies from both Mexico and the U.S. can coopoerate to manufacture and export, and provide services worldwide. Trump has been very moderate. He still wants to sign an order to help DACA recipients be appreciated for what they contribute. But economic growth in the border region has got to be the key, and security. | |||
| Yes | 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)? | ||
| No | Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts? | ||
| Just "hostile to the U.S." is not the right criteria, that can mean many things. But the world must protect ourselves. If anyone unleashes something like the Chinese virus, it's a worldwide disaster. Obama and Fauci developoed ebola that with other pandemics could be weaponized. WHO is not protecting us. This is a weapon of mass destruction. Nuclear can follow the same pattern. The world needs to help the Korean peninsula, and all of East Asia from avoiding WMD catastrophe, encouraging cooperation not conflict. We need to intervene in Middle East not only military but diplomatic, economic. | |||
| No | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| No, our greatest economic growth rate occurred when we collected tariffs as our main source of revenue for the federal government, when England was exercising powerful protectionist policies. In today's world we want to be able to make deals with individuals nations, especially when China is expanding, India is nascent, the NAFTA 2.0 has specific reductions in trade barriers, etc. I agree with Trump we have been taken advantage of. We have many Americans who if they thought jobs would be there, would educate themselves. Developing the Mexican border as I have long proposed is the best way to grow. | |||
| Battling Covid, building strong economic growth that gives opportunity, national security. Ironically because of a pandemic we're sloshing in federal spending. That is to sustain us during the deadly threat and then to safely re-open. Now is the time to shift discretionary funding back to Minnesota and the 50 states. Shifting the spending and taxing to states will build economic activity through ownership and control, not federal dependency. The federal government must carry the burden on national security and defense against the killer diseases covids. More American production will build more federal revenue. State success needed in education, health, development. |
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