Gary Stein's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Issue Positions
For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2016.
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This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Compromise. Split the baby; no pun intended. For the Republicans: my side gets no taxpayer funded abortions. For the Democrats: they get, abortions in first two trimesters, or life of the mother when in jeopardy. Both political parties ... and especially special interest groups ... raise gobs of money on this issue. And it's one of those "litmus test" issues too. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Part 1: I'd support cutting 1000's of programs, not only defense. Defense because there's ubiquitous/cliche waste, fraud and abuse, including way too many Generals and Admirals. Part 2: My middle-class-friendly proposal raises rates on very wealthy. No IRS on first $50,000 income. No Social Security deductions, etc. Everyone pays an 10% NST. Corporations pay nothing. The poor pay the NST but could get a rebate initially in form of a credit. EVERY AMERICAN WOULD HAVE SKIN IN THE GAME. The rich might accommodate the discriminatory the $500,000 income tax threshold if evryone, including the poor, paid National Sales Taxes. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Personally speaking, I'd love some of those indirect campaign contributions. The current Congressman -my opponent- takes money from Payday Loan Industry AND vocally supports those shylocks. Btw, there is no way to send contributions directly, never mind indirectly, to my campaign yet (as of 7/28/2016) and may never be. We're budgeting $1000. Self-funded. Would love dearly to have to file paperwork ... get donations ... expand the campaign. | |||
| Yes | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| No | Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| Part 1: Capital punishment ... quickly adjudicated ... for killing police officers and for domestic terrorism ... that's it. DNA evidence, if relied on, must come from reputable lab. AND THERE ARE OTHER PROBLEMATIC CONCERNS AS WELL. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| I answered yes to 1 and 3 with caveats: audit the money; prosecute fraud; direct the money where it's really needed. As for lowering taxes, my tax plan lowers on two key groups: the middle class and corporations. | |||
| Do you generally support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | |||
| I'll answer this way. I'm for the wholesale elimination of great swaths of gov't, with the Dept of Education at or near the top of the list, in return for my Republican party getting on board with Single Payer Universal Health Care (combined with Health Savings Accounts and my tax plan). Total fantasy since I'm very unlikely to get elected and if I did, nothing interesting ever gets through committee. | |||
| No | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| No | Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| On Keystone: USA must lead. Bad signal from USA to world, going forward if built. I change views on Keystone all the time. On fracturing: already in place and the national security implications of USA leading world in energy production is incalculable despite downsides. On "renewables": HUGE potential to be even greater job creator than already is. On nuclear: AMAZING, but not trusted by Americans, but TOTALLY safe now (and carbon free) when compared to oil and gas. And electric cars fueled by nuclear are TREMENDOUS. The transportation future. Nobody supports nuclear more than ME, Donald Trump the 2nd. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I beleive 100% that climate change is caused mostly by human activity. Mike Pence and Trump believe it too in their heart of hearts! | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Would support a ban on semiautomatic weapons. Would ban them all if was doable! I will be a major thorn in the side of my Party if I'm elected. Next question ... | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Obamacare was a first step. I delight in the "slippery slope" theory many opponents of the ACA used when they argued against it. Obamacare remains the imperfect solution on the road to Single Payer. In the bad old days, insurance companies denied coverage and/or jacked up rates, multiple times, for anyone who used their health insurance for anything more than a chest cold. Theodore Roosevelt, a trust-buster would see the Health Care industrial Complex for exactly what it is. Ike too. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Concerning Mexico - i.e. most frequent "country of origin" - I've said for years as a candidate, and facebook devote, something similar to this thread of mine from other day: "Our hard fought, very experienced military, many of them bilingual, at the invitation of the Mexican gov't. join with the Mexican army and police, in protecting political candidates willing to run on an anti-corruption platform. In exchange, we offer all ..... as in all the citizens of all countries here illegally....amnesty. The economic benefits and national security benefits of a Canadian like Mexico outweighs any of the negatives. | |||
| Do you support increased American intervention in Iraq and Syria beyond air support? | |||
| Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the United States from possessing a nuclear weapon? | |||
| 2nd part: It depends. I'd ask myself what would G. W. Bush and Cheney do and I'd probably do the opposite. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| I've been a candidate now (and always a willing participant in Vote Smart) for sooooo many years. Losing the motivation most days. I plod on. Go to www.chasingalceehastings.com see my tax plan. Social Security benefits would come from the 10% National Sales Tax (and we keep the income tax only on very rich only, and raise it). No payroll deductions, just an NST etc, etc. | |||
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.
| Slightly Increase | a) Agriculture | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Education | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| m) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Eliminate | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Eliminate | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| 10% National-Sales-Tax, no IRS on incomes under $50,000. 50% flat tax on first dollar over $500,000. No Corporate tax. No payroll tax. No unemployment insurance or SS deductions. Workers keep 100% of paychecks. Corps keep 100% of profits, some of which will be distributed back to top management, then taxed at 50% of personnel income over $500,000, 50 cents on 500,001. Middle-class pays nothing, just an NST. We'll buy stocks, pushing values higher, making the rich (income taxed at 50% over half million) richer, despite being only folks paying income tax. Some monies credited back those poorest the NST. | |||
| Nothing gets one by new House members. If elected I'll serve one-term, I can do that. The six-terms-and-out "pledge" in 94 proved worthless. Voters and House members get too comfortable. The phenom is called Fenno's Paradox. If i surprise and turn out to the greats, I break my pledge! My next opponent can jump on that, less later on, as I'm ensconced forever more....untouchable. If Sun-Sentinel sees questionnaire which i answered -and my opponent most likely didn't -and does't endorse me, HELLO, given my opponents history on Federal Bench! IT'S RIGGED, FOLKS. |
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