Randall Hayes' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Louisiana Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| No | b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| No | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| Abortion should be regulated at the state level. Abortion should be available on request during the very early stages of the pregnancy (e.g., the pre-fetal stages and the earliest weeks of the fetal stages), but afterward should only be available for a very limited set of medical reasons (e.g., to save the life of the mother). The stage at which an abortion is no longer available on request should, as closely as science can determine, coincided with the stage at which the fetus develops a consciousness or an ability to feel pain. | |||
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.
| Eliminate | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Maintain Status | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Maintain Status | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | f) Homeland security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Eliminate | h) Medical research | ||
| Eliminate | i) Scientific research | ||
| Eliminate | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Eliminate | l) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Eliminate | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| i) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Yes | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| No | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| 6) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Defensive spending is necessary and valid. However, most of our military budget in these times is devoted to offensive spending. The U.S. military should be returned to its original purpose. It should be a defensive force, not an imperial force or an international police force. U.S. troops should not be used as pawns in global politics and should not be sent to fight in foreign wars. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| No | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| f) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| No | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles | |||
| 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? | ||
| Much of our crime problem is the result of our failed "War on Drugs." Drug prohibition has created a market that is too profitable for criminal gangs to resist, has encouraged those criminals to commit the most brutal crimes to protect their profits, and has burdened our criminal justice system with a flood of non-violent drug-users. We should legalize drugs and treat drug problems similarly to the way we treat alcohol and tobacco problems -- as a health problem rather than as a criminal problem. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| The federal government has no constitutional role to play in education. | |||
| No | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| No | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | |||
| No | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| I do not support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas, but I do not support a ban on such exploration. | |||
| 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? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles | |||
| No | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support relaxing regulations on the importation of prescription drugs? | ||
| I would need to know the details of a plan to reform commercial health insurance before I could know whether I would support the plan. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles | |||
| 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? | ||
| e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | |||
| f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | |||
| I would support granting aid to countries when it is truly in the security interests of the U.S., but I cannot think of any situation where that is likely to happen. The U.S. should be neutral about the creation of a Palestinian state. I generally support free trade, but would have to look at the details of a particular agreement before I could know whether I would support it. Unites States troops should not be sent to fight in foreign wars. | |||
| No | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support allowing openly-gay men and women to serve in the United States military? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the federal government end affirmative action programs? | ||
| The federal government should not define marriage. Marriage laws should be made at the state level. To the extent that the federal government is involved in the issue (e.g., through the awarding of Social Security benefits), the federal government should recognize a marriage if it was legal in the state in which it was performed. A marriage should be a private relationship between the people involved. States should regulate marriage only in the most minimal ways. | |||
| Government is too big and its power is too concentrated at the federal level. We should return that power to the state level, the local level, and (most of all) the individual level. Government should stay out of our personal lives. Our involvement in foreign wars has been a disaster. The personal suffering that it has caused for innocents, both in America and abroad, is almost too horrible to imagine. It has also cost us much of our reputation in the world and has created more anti-American sentiment than it could have prevented. We should bring our troops home now. |
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