Dan Freilich's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
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Dan Freilich has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2018 Political Courage Test.
Vermont Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I vehemently support a woman's right to choose as per Roe v. Wade. It�s time for politicians in Washington to stop playing politics with women�s health and I will defend women�s access to contraception and right to choose � and strongly oppose any legislation or executive action that would allow insurance companies to discriminate against women. I also believe that Planned Parenthood is an essential service provider of quality healthcare to near 20% of women and will fight to protect its continued federal funding through Medicaid. | |||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| Regarding taxes, one of my four core platform priorities is wealth inequality which I will address by fighting for return to fair progressive taxation. I will fight for increasing marginal tax rates for the ultra-rich (NOT working and middle-class taxpayers), elimination of Tax Max which caps Social Security taxes at ~$120,000 of earned income, application of Social Security taxes to unearned income (capital gains), equilibration of unearned and earned income tax rates, revitalization of robust estate taxes, and elimination of corporate tax loopholes (e.g., delayed repatriotization). And of course, repeal of Trump's regressive Tax Cuts and Jobs Act first! | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| All-out-effort should be expended for comprehensive campaign finance reform including repeal of Citizens United, McCutcheon, and Buckley among others - a constitutional Amendment is needed (I support both Congressional and convention-of-states approaches). We also need stricter disclosure and contribution limits laws. Finally, we need a grassroots political revolution to support these legal/legislative changes as most transformative societal changes in our history have occurred after cultural changes (civil rights, gay rights). Specifically, I'm leading a movement of a standard-of-conduct for politicians whereby they lead more ethically and professionally by not taking special interest money in the interim while awaiting legal/legislative progress. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Absolutely not. Many corporations have been getting away with murder. I advocate for all out effort to close tax loopholes that have resulted in the effective corporate tax rate plummeting over the last decades. I will fight for immediate repeal of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and then elimination of the delayed repatriotization loophole that encourages American corporations to move operations overseas at the expense of American workers and taxpayers. I will also fight for a financial transaction tax. More details are in PowerPoint slides on the bottom of the Wealth and Income Inequality page on my website: http://www.drdanforcongress.com/issues/economic-fairness/. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I advocate for a green energy revolution of our economy to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions because climate change is an existential threat to our planet and our country. Because climate change is an existential threat, it should be fought at a level commensurate with the threat, aiming for transformational rather than incremental progress. Hence, I advocate for massive investment in mass transit and renewables, a fair progressive carbon tax, and strict incentives and penalties (e.g., high CAFE standards). This effort would be paid for by increasing taxes on the ultra-rich and tax-evading corporations, and eliminating tax deductions for fossil fuels. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I advocate for comprehensive gun control legislation at federal, state, and local jurisdictions. Some of my policy priorities include: assault weapons ban, high capacity magazine ban, bump stock ban, long waiting period, universal comprehensive background checks, enforceable relinquishment, outlaw gun possession by those with serious mental illnesses and on the no fly list, increasing the minimum age for gun ownership, increased gun transaction taxes, and repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. For more detail, please see Gun Control on my website: http://www.drdanforcongress.com/issues/gun-control/. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| I support proactive effort to transform from our current multi-payer employment-based health insurance system to a single-payer Medicare for All system. This is the only morally correct (provides a universal healthcare safety net for all Americans - a human right), economically sustainable (would save $600-700 billion annually in administrative, pharmaceutical, and other costs), business promoting (would remove the yoke of employment-based health insurance from the back of businesses saving thousands of dollars per employee, increasing competitiveness), and lifestyle enhancing system (would result in portability eliminating 'job lock' whereby people stay in 'bad' jobs due to fear of losing health insurance). | |||
| No | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| No | Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| No | Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support? | ||
| For humanitarian reasons, there are times when I could support American intervention if part of a multilateral coalition sanctioned and supported by the UN, NATO, etc. An example might have been effort to stop the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria in the last decade. | |||
| My platform is based on four core issues: campaign finance reform, wealth inequality, universal healthcare, and green energy revolution. I am propagating a standard of conduct for politicians whereby they minimize conflicts of interest by not taking any special interests contributions; in addition, I support repeal of Citizens United. I advocate for return to fair progressive taxation by increasing taxes on the ultra-rich and tax-evading corporations. To address healthcare disparities, I advocate for a single-payer Medicare for All system. To address climate change, an existential threat, I advocate for massive investment in renewables and mass transit and a carbon tax. |
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