David Dotson's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Virginia Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| No | b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Although I am pro-choice, I believe that Roe v. Wade is bad constitutional law, and that abortion rights should be decided by the states, not by the federal government. I also believe that no tax money should be used to fund abortion. Whether one believes that the life created at conception is a person, or is a fertilized human egg with the potential to become a person, it is morally wrong to force people who believe abortion is murder to help fund abortions. | |||
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 | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| 1) Intelligence operations | |||
| 2) Military hardware | |||
| 3) National missile defense | |||
| 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | |||
| 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | |||
| 6) Research and development of new weapons | |||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Eliminate | 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) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | 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? | ||
| Federal funding should be strictly limited to those things that the Constitution requires/allows, of which the only item listed above is Defense, which may include some parts of what is now taken care of under Homeland Security. Defense should be reduced to what is necessary to maintain defense or our country - after bringing home all the troops we have stationed overseas and/or are fighting in our current unconstitutional wars. Homeland Security should be reduced to what is necessary to protect our borders, and manage immigration, and should eliminate all aspects of the surveillance state. | |||
| The 16th Amendment should be repealed, and all other taxes eliminated except, possibly (at least for the immediate future) a flat tax on business revenues. I support an Amendment that would require Congress to, not just balance the budget, but to pass a budget that spends a set amount (e.g. 10%) less than the tax revenues collected the previous year. That 10% would be used to pay down the debt, and, eventually, build a surplus that would be available in economic downturns. Also, I would include a provision to prohibit the federal government from borrowing money. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Virtually all federal regulations should be eliminated, and the government should only be concerned with protecting individual rights and free-market, laissez-faire capitalism. Workers should be allowed to form unions, in a free and open manner - i.e. no "card check" type of law - but they should not be required to join a union in order to work. | |||
| 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| Signing statements and line-item vetoes illegally give the President too much power, and reduce Congress' ability to provide checks and balances to the executive branch, and its Constitutional mandate to legislate and control spending. Candidates should be allowed to raise and spend as much money as they want to try to win an election, and no individual or group should be prohibited from supporting any candidate with advertisements, no matter how close to an election it is. Otherwise, only the media corporations will be allowed free speech during part of an election. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Drugs should be legalized, and all non-violent drug offenders should be released from prison. Programs in state and local prisons that work to reduce the likelihood of recidivism and free inmates from drug addictions are good ideas, but are the responsibility of state and local governments, and should not be federally funded. | |||
| 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 should not be involved in education, which is a state and local concern. | |||
| 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? | ||
| The federal government has no Constitutional right to mandate environmental regulations or fuel efficiency, or to fund any kind of energy development. Instead, the government should remove all federal regulations regarding energy production, including those that prohibit or prevent domestic oil exploration or the development of nuclear energy. If we allowed businesses to develop sources of energy in the U.S., we would not need to make treaties with oil producing nations, or fight multiple wars to assure our access to foreign oil. | |||
| 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? | ||
| As the Second Amendment says, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The Founding Fathers understood that only a citizenry that is willing, and able, to fight for their freedoms can protect our nation, not only from foreign domination, but also from domestic tyranny. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| The federal government has no Constitutional right or obligation to be involved in health care. All federal health programs and laws, such as Medicare, Medicaid and the recent Health Care "reform" should be repealed or abolished. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | ||
| No | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| We should secure our borders, and control who enters the U.S., with state and local police helping to enforce the law if necessary. But we should also work towards a policy of open immigration, and reestablish programs that allow temporary workers to enter and leave the country. The U.S. needs immigrants, both those with skills and education, and those who are willing to work the unskilled jobs that many immigrants now fill. With an aging population, and with Americans not reproducing at a replacement rate, we need a steady influx of younger immigrants to maintain and grow our economy. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| As part of a withdrawal of all American troops from abroad, and the elimination of financial and military aid to all foreign countries, the U.S. should give its moral support to the creation of two states in the Middle East, Israel and Palestine, with Jerusalem as an international city that serves as their shared capital. To reduce the possibility of war between the Israelis and Palestinians, the U.S., as it withdraws from the United Nations, should invite the U.N. to reestablish itself in Jerusalem, and let the entire world be responsible for maintaining the peace there. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Marriage should not be a rite controlled by the government. If two people want to vow to spend their lives together, in either a religious or non-religious ceremony, that should be their right. Meanwhile, any two people should be able to enter into a legal contract that describes their relationship with each other, which the states and federal governnment should recognize as legally binding. Regarding gays in the military, they should be allowed to serve; but not in combat units unless (or until) the military leadership determines that it would not adversely affect the ability of those units to fight. | |||
| My top priorities would be to: (1) audit and then End the Federal Reserve, and return to a system of sound money based on gold and silver; (2) bring all the troops home from foreign lands, to protect and defend the United States within its borders, and not send them abroad to fight and kill and die in undeclared, unconstitutional, unending wars of empire; and (3) work to repeal the 16th Amendment, and free the American people from the income tax laws that allow the federal government so much control over our individual lives. |
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