Matthew Whittington has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2014 Political Courage Test.
Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
No | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
No | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
No | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
Yes | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
Yes | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
Yes | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
Abortion is a contentious issue. Everyone has a point at which they believe that the baby is a person. I personally draw the line at 20 weeks. At that point, we have the technology for that child to live a normal life. Making it illegal will not stop abortions. Alternatives will. Voluntary charity supporting adoption, parental assistance and personal responsibility are more effective. I personally find abortion to be monsterous. Government involvement makes it worse. |
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State Taxes:Using the key, indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Texas's budget.
Slightly Decrease | a) Education (higher) | ||
Slightly Decrease | b) Education (K-12) | ||
Maintain Status | c) Environment | ||
Slightly Decrease | d) Health care | ||
Slightly Decrease | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
Maintain Status | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
Slightly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
Greatly Decrease | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
Greatly Decrease | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
Slightly Increase | c) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
Maintain Status | d) Property taxes | ||
Greatly Decrease | e) Sales taxes | ||
Yes | a) Tapping into Texas's "rainy day" fund | ||
No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
Yes | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
Yes | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
Yes | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
Yes | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
I answered slightly decrease on answers that should be greatly, but need to take time. A market / school choice solution could solve our educational issues without increasing the 40% of our budget that it currently consumes. Healthcare also takes about 40% of our budget. Able bodies adults should not be receiving tax payer support on day to day medical needs. Law enforcement should not be enforcing victimless crimes. Narrow their mission to stopping force and fraud. End the war on drugs. It does more harm than good. | |||
Gas and oil is for roads. Believe it or not, roads would be built without the government, but until we get there, we have maintenance costs. I do not like property taxes, but until there is a better system in place for education (such as vouchers) it has to stay. At least keeps the funds local instead of in Austin. There are private schools that run with funding similar to what the state pays per student in public school. It can be done. | |||
The rainy day fund is for balancing the budget in unforseen circumstances. So yes. The gross mismanagement and overspending that our state does should not be considered unforseen. I consider misdirected earmarks to be mismanagement. I would also support increasing the bar on amending the state constitution. If there are ten or twenty amendments every session, what is the point in having one. Governments should not have pensions. they should have personal retirement accounts. layoffs and furloughs should be used as the scope of government is decreased. Governmental income should be limited to fees for services performed for voluntary recipients. |
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
No | 1) Individual | ||
No | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
No | 3) Corporate | ||
No | 4) Political Party | ||
No | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
Yes | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
I do not support spending limits of any kind, but I do support full transparency on contributors. I generally lean against mandatory governmental IDs, but you are participating in government when you vote, so in this case, it is not too much to ask. I support independent commissions. Bipartisian anything excludes me and my peers by definition. |
No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
Yes | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
No | e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | ||
No | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
I support death for certain crimes, but not the governments involvement with killing our citizens. They aren't that trustworthy. End the war on drugs. The solution is worse than the problem. And doesn't solve the problem. Depending upon the crime (and age of minor) , they should be tried as an adult. The state shouldn't be enforcing immigration, but non citizens should be subject to the same laws as citizens and should not get special treatment. |
Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
Yes | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
No | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
No | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
No | e) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
No | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
No | g) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
Yes | h) Do you support a guest worker program in Texas? | ||
Good people should not lose the right to do something because bad people might abuse it. Regulations should not raise barriers to entry to protect existing businesses. If something better/cheaper/faster comes along, remove the barriers. Regulations should protect from force and fraud. nothing else. State funded job training is a maybe. Charity would be better, but I would need more information. Give people a legal way to come here and they will. a guest worker program could help. |
No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
Yes | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
No | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
Yes | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
No | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Texas high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
The federal government should not be involved in education. If we have a voucher system and weakened teachers union, schools will pursue good teachers. That will increase teacher pay as a by product of pursuing vouchers (students). It would also attach funding to performance instead of weighted attendance. We have an excellent weighted attendance system. Governmental financial aide is part of why tuition costs what it does. If an immigrant lives in Texas, they are paying the same taxes you are for tuition purposes. |
No | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
No | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Texas's energy infrastructure? | ||
No | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
No | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
The free market can solve all of the above issues if the state will get out of the way. The government is the biggest polluter around and generally not subject to its own laws. |
No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
No | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
The State has no right to restrict gun use. The state agreed to this when it joined the United States. It also put it in its own constitution. I support constitutional carry. I am not going to argue with someone having their guns taken if they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy with a gun around their fellow citizens and I do support gun safety education. We should teach it in our schools like we used to. |
No | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
No | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
No | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
No | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
No | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
Charities should be funding healthcare for people that cannot afford it. Government intervention is why these charities can no longer carry the load. We need to slowly move back towards charity before it breaks us financially. The government should get out of the insurance regulation industry, but SHOULD hold insurance companies to a high bar on ethical treatment of its policy holders. No small print funny business. Monetary limits on lawsuits give the bean counters a metric to gauge whether they should fix problems or swallow the capped damages. Unintended consequences. |
Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
No | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Texas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
No | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Texas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
The Government should not be allowed to discriminate for any non merit reasons. Private organizations should be able to run as they see fit AND face the public backlash for any unpopular decisions that they may make. The power that the government exercises to define marriage as one man and one woman is the same power to define marriage as anything it pleases. You can't have it both ways. The government should not be in the business of morals as long as no one is being directly harmed through force or fraud. |
Civil Asset forfeiture needs to stop in this state. I understand why it started, but it incentivizes corruption and that is happening. If it is being abused, end it. Water price deregulation. If price increases sharply due to supply, caps aren't needed and it makes solutions cost effective. Educational freedom with no strings. The country is too large for centralized control of education. So is Texas. Hand control down to the districts. Or even better, the schools. All the schools. Even home schools and religious ones. No new funding needed. (4 and 5, constitutional carry and marriage equality.) |
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