Arthur Lieber's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
Additional Information: Click on this icon to reveal more information about this candidate's position, from their answers or Vote Smart's research.
Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Arthur Lieber has refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2014 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests.
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 2014.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- On Faith and Freedom Coalition questionaire marked 'no' when asked "If you are elected, will you pledge to oppose the passage of any new Federal taxes?" (www.lieberforcongress.com)
- "believe that every American who wants to work and is capable of working should be able to have a job. If that means restructuring our economy to bring back New Deal projects such as the Civilian Conservation Corps or a massive transportation project as we had in the 1950s, I'm in favor of it." (votesmart.org)
- "The "No Child Left Behind" and "Race to the Top" programs have burdened teachers and students with "make-work," which demoralizes them and often encourages them to "game the system."" (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "I support Medicare-for-all, also known as a single-payer system. The United States is the only industrialized country in the world which does not provide affordable universal health care. However, we have come much closer in recent years with the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) and I support its full implementation, hopefully to be followed by a more efficient Medicare-type system." (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "Issues of civil liberties are complicated. In general when we extend a right to one person it means we are taking another right from a different person. We must make decisions based on fairness and be particularly mindful of protecting the rights of minorities and people who are at an economic disadvantage." (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
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 | 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? | ||
| No | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| There are hazards in words such as "pro-choice" and "pro-life." I believe that with medical consultation a woman should be allowed to make her own choices on reproductive issues. However, indicating that I am not "pro-life" can be distorting; I value life very much and feel that the government has a responsibility to ensure basic human rights for everyone. Re. Part (b), I believe that choice should exist until an apppropriate definition of viability. Science is changing while human rights are not, so this will continue to be a difficult issue. | |||
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.
| Maintain Status | a) Agriculture | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Maintain Status | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Maintain Status | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Greatly Increase | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Maintain Status | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland security | ||
| Greatly Increase | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Medical research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Greatly Increase | k) United Nations | ||
| Greatly Increase | l) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | m) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Other or expanded categories | ||
| No | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| No | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| Yes | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| 6) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Explanation: I chose "Maintain Status" for items a, c-1,c-2,c-3,, c-6, and m because "not sure" or "think that I currently do not have sufficient information" were not choices. With education, I support far more spending on direct services to students and teachers; less on bureaucracy and virtual elimination of the federal government's role in educational testing. I indicated "Greatly increase" for International aid, the United Nations, and Welfare; all of these need what I would call "supportive oversight." | |||
| Explanation: I chose "maintain status" for 2-b, 2-c, 2-d, and 2-e because I don't think that they lend themselves to easy answers. For example, increasing the cost of cigarettes through higher taxes might result in higher crime for several reasons. As for corporate taxes, corporations range is size from one employee to hundreds of thousands. In all likelihood, we should have different standards in part based on the size of the business. | |||
| No | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| No | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| Explanation: Regarding reducing government regulations on the private sector, I believe this is too broad a questions. I believe that some health and safety regulations should be increased while many regs involving excessive or needless paper work should be reduced or eliminated. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| I believe that Part 'D' of this is the most important question, and even that is dubious. It is very difficult to enforce campaign finance regulations; Congress is reluctant to pass them and the courts likely to rule them unconstitutional. In my own campaign, I am not soliciting nor accepting contributions. This works for me; it may not for others, but I do think that a sense of retraint is needed. This will only work if voters shun candidates who spend excessively. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| f) Other or expanded principles | |||
| No | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Explanation: Vouchers have some inherent difficulties, but I think that we need to experiment with them much more because they provide the best opportunity for us to bring fresh blood into teaching. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| No | e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| Explanation: Nuclear reactors have a certain attraction to them; clean and inexpensive in some cases. However, we still have not figured out what to do with nuclear waste and in light of the Deepwater Horizon "accident" in the Gulf of Mexico, I do not think that we should utilize an energy source where the "worst case scenario" can be monumental. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| Explanation: Re. Section (b): I am not a lawyer, but I believe that I can read English. It strikes me that both the Second and Tenth Amendments are ambiguous and open to interpretation (perhaps intentionally). However, guns are part of our culture and we need to strike a balance between the desires of those who value the possession of guns with the safety needs of everyone. We should seriously consider different gun laws for metropolitan and rural areas. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Explanation: I believe that the cleanest and most cost-effective way of achieving the desirable goal of quality universal health care is Medicare for all (this is why I answered 'No' to question 'c;' it becomes irrelevent with Medicare for all.) I do believe that the amount of damages in malpractice lawsuits should be sufficent to cover all medical and related expenses for the victim(s) and then additionally reasonable and not excessive compensation for pain and suffering. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| Explanation: I am not sure about Part (d) because if state and local police are not involved in enforcement then we run the risk of an undesirably large federal police force. However the question may imply that state and local standards can set standards for enforcement and I oppose that. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Explanation: I am least comfortable with my answers to these questions than any other section because there are some in which my level of knowledge is insufficient for a 'yes' or 'no' response and also because all of these issues involve the "law of unintended consequences." On question (c), I think that we should direct foreign aid towards those countries or regions of countries where it can be most effective and where there is the minimal amount of corruption. Afghanistan seems to be a stretch on both of those counts, but I could be wrong | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| No | d) Should the federal government end affirmative action programs? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles | |||
| My three top priorities are: (1) eliminating poverty and not getting side-tracked, (2) engaging the federal government in making education more curiosity driven than fear driven (this has the benefit of in time providing a more knowledgeable electorate) and (3) overhauling our tax system at all levels: federal, state, and local. A progressive federal income tax seems most fair to all and we should seriously study developing a system where that tax provides revenue for as many needs as possible at all levels of government. |
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