Peter Boyce's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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New Jersey 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Since Roe v. Wade, approximately 40 million Americans have been sacrificed on the altar of convenience. These children did not have freedom of "choice". Certainly they would have chosen to live. So-called Pro-Life Congressmen need to exercise the authority vested in them by the Constitution to limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts from ruling on the issue of abortion. This action would return the issue to the individual States to decide. There pro-life groups will have a level playing field to fight it and end it in at least some of the states. | |||
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.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Greatly Increase | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Greatly Increase | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Greatly Increase | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Greatly Increase | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland security | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Medical research | ||
| Greatly Decrease | i) Scientific research | ||
| Greatly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Slightly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Decrease | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| 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? | ||
| I support an increase of military preparedness, but a decrease from our involvement in defense of nations who need to be funding and providing their own national defense. I would vote to bring our troops home from undeclared wars to secure our own borders and then re-organize Homeland Security for the same purpose. I am not against science or education or arts, etc., but these are not the rightful domain of government, but rather for the private sector. There is no constitutional authorization for these activities. | |||
| As a Congressman, I would urge my colleagues to limit their legislative passions to within the constraints prescribed by the Constitution. This would cut expenditures 80-90% and enable all taxes to be greatly reduced - across the board - thereby stimulating economic prosperity and jobs in the private sector. | |||
| Estate taxes rob the children of their rightful inheritance. It is legalized plunder of the bereaved. I am in favor of Congress staying within its budget, but am strongly opposed to a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. In addition, I am in favor of government keeping sufficiently within its budget to begin paying off the National Debt. Even so, that budget must be drastically reduced if both liberty and prosperity are to once again flourish in America. | |||
| 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? | ||
| By reducing government regulations in the private sector, prosperity would return. People could once again provide for their own retirement. To fix a minimum wage accomplishes nothing so long as the dollar is subject to inflation, being unbacked by any precious commodity. Job-training is the domain and responsibility of private industry. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Individuals, businesses and corporations may chose to contribute what they have earned to a candidate; it should be their prerogative to do what they please with what is theirs. Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution: "All legislative Power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress ..." None therefore, even surreptitiously through line item veto, is to reside with the President. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Guilt or innocence of an individual and the punishment are to be determined on a case by case basis by a jury of the person's peers. To support mandatory sentences is to usurp the authority of the jury who is in a position to be better qualified to make that decision based upon the particulars of the case. | |||
| 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? | ||
| There is no constitutional authorization for the federal government to be involved in the business of education or in its funding. The federal Department of Education has flunked the course and ought to be dismissed. Over-bearing federal regulations inhibit conscientious teachers from educating to the best of their ability. Quality education is best achieved through the competitive free-market. If the tax dollars being spent on education stayed in parents' pockets, they could better provide for their child's education themselves. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| 32,000 American scientists (9,000 with PhDs) have signed a petition exposing the faulty science behind the global warming hysteria. To be burdening American businesses with onerous environmental regulations, aimed at resolving a problem which does not exist is fool-hardy. I support alternative energy, but it is not government's place to fund it. I support nuclear energy which America invented, which has been proven very efficient and which has a very safe track record. Nuclear energy has gotten an undeserved bad rap. America must regain its energy independence and do it quickly. | |||
| 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? | ||
| The Second Amendment is quite clear the word "people" means people and the word "infringed" means infringed. A major argument against privately owned firearms is based on the meaning of the word "people." Those who assert the word refers to only military/police personnel and not private citizens ignore the fact that the word "people" in the First Amendment, if so interpreted, would mean that only the military or police would have freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. Such an interpretation is absurd. It is every citizen's right to bear arms, but with every right comes responsibility. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| The less government intervention in matters of health, the more options people have in deciding how to best provide for their own personal health. Tort reform is necessary to limit damages awarded for mal-practice. This would bring down mal-practice insurance premiums being paid by physicians thereby decreasing patients' medical 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No nation can survive without secure borders. America already accepts more legal immigrants than all the other nations of the world combined. For America to remain safe and healthy, proper screening of immigrants for both criminal records and communicable diseases (such as tuberculosis) is imperative. Although 85-90% of those illegally violating our borders are in search of opportunity, the remaining 10-15% (according to INS figures, approximately 1,000 per day) is felons. The volume of illegal immigrants makes it more difficult for America to assimilate the legal immigrants, thereby doing the legals a disservice. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| America does best to mind her own business, yet at the same time be prepared to defend herself from any other nation or group of nations. The purpose of the American military is to defend American lives and American property. That is all. The Constitution is clear that Congress shall declare War yet we have troops in over 130 nations with no Declaration of War for any of those deployments. Our troops should be brought home to secure our own borders and ports. The money saved would be more than sufficient to greatly boost their benefits. | |||
| Yes | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Homosexuality and the high level of military morale are incongruent. Medical research by the federal government is not authorized by the Constitution, not to mention, that stem cells can be harvested from the placenta and umbilical cord, thereby preserving innocent life. Affirmative action is a form of racial profiling and reverse discrimination. God-given rights belong to individuals - not groups. We are all equal regardless of color. We are Americans. | |||
| Stop Reckless Spending - With our nation�s debt over $13 trillion, we cannot borrow our way out of debt nor continue borrowing money to give it away to foreign banks and the United Nations. Federal spending must be drastically reduced. To ignore this issue is a crime against our children and grandchildren. Bring back Jobs & Prosperity - Withdraw from international trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO and GATT which are strangling American industry and driving companies overseas. Repeal the burden of unconstitutional regulations. Bring Our Troops Home to Totally Secure Our Own Borders and Ports |
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