Marilyn Singleton's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Marilyn Singleton has demonstrated Political Courage by telling citizens where she stands on the issues she may face if elected.
California Congressional Election 2012 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| If we want strong families and a society with individuals who respect themselves and others, we have to value life while maintaining compassion in difficult circumstances. | |||
| No | Do you support United States' combat operations in Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | Do you support a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan? | ||
| Conflicts must have a definable goal. The mission was to drive out Al Qaida. That was done. The government is corrupt and incompetent, and shows no signs of changing. Pakistan is of no help as they are providing safe havens. | |||
Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing the federal budget.In order to balance the budget,
| No | do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| No | 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 a legislative priority? | ||
| I support block grants to the States for Medicaid rather than federal matching which disincentivizes saving. Medicare and Social Security should be decoupled, so retirees can keep private insurance and not lose their Social Security. Allow tax-free saving for retirement health care (like an IRA at about 4% of income), enabling retirees to pay for their own health care with Medicare as a safety net. Allow physicians to accept private payment for Medicare-covered services. | |||
| No | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Free speech is a core value of our country. Freedom of association and the right of people to join together to magnify their political voices is also at the core of the First Amendment. But now when laws are written, we don?t know if they are coming from the minds of our elected representative or directly from the pens of a special interest group. Even though it hurts a non-incumbent (like me), I fear the government picking winners and losers of whose speech to shut down. Let's redefine that a "person" is an individual for purposes of campaign donations. | |||
| No | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| If we want our society to value and respect life, the State should not sanction killing. Additionally, the justice system is fallible and death is irreversible. | |||
| No | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | Do you support spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | Do you support the temporary extension of unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | Do you support the 2010 temporary extension of tax relief? | ||
| Tax: Decrease the corporate tax overall and businesses will be more likely to keep money in the U.S. Projects: Infrastructure needs work, but as part of a plan, not temporary make-work for a chosen few. Benefits: At this point, it has been 2 years and it keeps people from taking a job with lower pay. But even a lesser paying job is a better stepping stone than doing nothing. Tax Relief: Decreasing the payroll deduction is now serving to decrease the funds available for Social Security. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| Clearly innovations are needed, but I don't think the federal government is the best arbiter of what works in each state. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| There is significant overlap in human and natural greenhouse gas production (methane, CO2, water vapor). There should be periodic reviews of regulations with a cost/benefit analysis, assessment of the effectiveness and unintended consequences, using specific criteria. The regulations should have no loopholes or liability shields. The regulations must ensure the actual polluter is held responsible for harm done and not impose financial burdens on those who are good stewards. | |||
| No | Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| I changed my position after studying the facts and let go of the emotional outrage factor about guns. Studies show that gun control laws don't decrease crime. Registration does not solve crime because guns aren't at the crime scene and they aren't registered to the criminal. Police are the biggest factor in reducing crime. The 60,000 man-hours spent on registering guns could go to placing boots on the ground. Crime in DC fell after the gun ban was lifted. It's the most vulnerable (women, elders) who benefit from having protection. The real issue is stopping the flow of illegal guns. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| The Law does not decrease the cost of health care and decreases patient choice, e.g., no catastrophic, high-deductible, low-cost policies for people over 30. A new law should focus on transparent pricing, increasing amounts in Health Savings Accounts, allow everyone the option of catastrophic insurance, higher premiums for those who abuse their bodies, high-risk pools for pre-existing conditions. Half of healthcare is delivered by government programs. Defensive medicine costs between $100 - 210 billion a year. If evidence-based medicine is presumed the standard of practice by the government, then it should be a defense to malpractice in government programs. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration law by state and local police? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
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| It would be counterproductive to make people who have jobs and are contributing to the economy leave. Have them pay a fee and get legal status. | |||
| No | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| I support civil unions and making a civil union a valid premise for Social Security survivor's benefits. The bonus is no marriage income tax penalty. I think marriage is a religious sacrament, not something for the federal government to grant. | |||
| Yes | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| Yes | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| If targeting mean killing on sight, No. But suspects should be tracked. The Shoe, Underwear, and Times Square bombers weren't in war zones, but nonetheless could have killed hundreds. Only if absolutely necessary. War is a prudential matter and must be for a just cause, i.e., all peaceful means have failed, have an endpoint, and save more lives than are lost. Clearly, I don't have all information available to the State Department, but it appears other peaceful means are still available. If a time for force comes, Congress must reclaim its Constitutional duty and be the entity to declare war. | |||
| Yes | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| This has been successful and had higher yields in local plans and in other countries. | |||
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.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Arts | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Education | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical Research | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Greatly Decrease | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | m) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Slightly Decrease | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | i) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Payroll taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | k) Other or expanded categories | ||
| We need to consolidate agencies and programs and eliminate waste. Maintain Welfare as it is only 13% of budget. We have to work on Medicare and Medicaid first. | |||
| a) There should be a means-tested increase h) It is hard to comment with a nebulous term like "high income". Family with greater than 500,000 income. People will start to hide money out of the stream of the economy if taxes are too high. j) The payroll tax limit should be raised to greater than $106,000. | |||
| 1. Eliminate ineffective regulations and overlapping agencies. Examine all regulations for less restrictive alternatives and unintended consequences. 2. Sponsor a new health care bill emphasizing personal engagement in the process, no government commissions involved in patient care decisions, broaden insurance choices, personal (not employer) ownership of policies, high deductible plans and Health Savings Accounts. 3. Take educational policies out of Washington and let locally-based innovations get the schools back on track. A good education will lead to good jobs, social responsibility, and safer secure communities. |
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