Eric Hite's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Kansas State Legislative Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Should it be illegal to perform a late-term abortion for mental health reasons? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | h) Do you support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods? | ||
| Yes | i) Do you support abstinence-only sexual education programs? | ||
| I believe the states should decide the laws about abortion, not the U.S. government. I do not believe abortion should be preformed except in the case where the mother's life is seriously endangered (not just mentally). I believe the sex education classes in schools today promote promiscuous life styles and teach kids that they should not have to worry about consequences. | |||
1) State SpendingIndicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State TaxesIndicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) Budget StabilizationIndicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Kansas' budget.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Environment | ||
| Eliminate | d) Health care | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Law enforcement | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Transportation and highway infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Eliminate | d) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | e) Property taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Yes | a) Establishing a "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Instituting a tax on sugary beverages | ||
| No | c) Eliminating the sales tax exemption for residential water, electric, and natural gas bills | ||
| No | d) Issuing the early release of certain non-violent offenders | ||
| No | e) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| Yes | f) Instituting mandatory furloughs and layoffs for state employees | ||
| Yes | g) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Yes | h) Privatizing certain government services | ||
| Our state government spends more per student than the best private schools. These private schools' test scores far exceed the public schools' test scores. We keep throwing more and more money at the problem and it continues to get worse. Maybe we are doing the wrong thing. I do not believe that government needs to be involved in health care, but it has created the current system. I want to try the free market approach to health care. Let individuals deal with doctors and insurance companies without government interference. Law enforcement and transportation are under funded and poorly managed. | |||
| I support the FairTax. The FairTax eliminates ALL other taxes and replaces them with a sales tax. All the "hidden" taxes built into the price of goods will be eliminated because the companies that are paying taxes on their profits will not have to pay the taxes. This will cause the prices of goods to drop. Sin taxes target the poor. Corporate taxes hurt the growth of business which hurts job growth. A sales tax is fair because everyone buys goods. If someone does not want to pay more in taxes, they do not have to buy them. | |||
| Kansas has a spending problem. If the past several years when we had a surplus, the legislature decided to spend nearly all of it expecting the good times to keep rolling. When the economy turned, they were not prepared. We need to reduce the size of government. We need to find agencies and departments where there are too many people to keep them busy and send some home permanently. I would only support sales taxes on utilities IF the FairTax is implemented. Medicaid is a huge drain on our finances and the system is broken. Spending must be cut. | |||
c) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions to candidates for state government?
| Yes | a) Do you support limits on the number of terms for Kansas governors? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support limits on the number of terms for Kansas state legislators? | ||
| No | 1) Individual | ||
| No | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| No | 3) Corporate | ||
| No | 4) Political Party | ||
| No | d) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| I believe that candidates should be able to get funds for their campaigns from any entity that they will be representing. The important thing is that their records be open to the public and easily accessible. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| No | c) Should the possession of small amounts of marijuana be decriminalized? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| Yes | e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| No | g) Do you support a ban on smoking in the gaming areas of state-owned casinos? | ||
| No one talks about 1 thing in regards to capital punishment. I believe that capital punishment's best argument is that it prevents that person from ever committing similar heinous crimes like the one they were convicted of. It protects would be victims. I do not like smoking bans and I do not believe the government should be telling any business how to run their business. Smoking bans are just another way for the government to control the citizens. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increasing the number of electronic gaming machines permitted in Kansas? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | d) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | f) Do you support increased spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | g) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| Government regulations are difficult for companies to comply with. To do so, they spend a lot of money hiring extra staff or outsourcing work. This money is wasted. It cannot go into growing the business. Businesses that cannot grow as much may find it hard to stay in business. Government funded building projects are short term jobs that do not benefit the economy long and they drain more taxpayers to support the project which threatens other people's economic stability. Someone has to pay for the extra funding of unemployment benefits or job-training. Let's free up businesses to grow instead. | |||
| No | a) Do you support national education standards? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support using a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| No | f) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Kansas high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| I believe all k-12 education should be controlled at the local level. Too many bureaucrats have destroyed our country's public education system. The State level school boards do not listen to the parents. The people in charge at the Federal level are unknown and therefore, we have no one to complain to there either. The education system works when local parents can knock on a school board member's door at talk to them face to face. Charter schools in Kansas need to be controlled by another entity besides the local school boards, since a charter school competes with district schools. | |||
| No | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| No | c) Do you support providing financial incentives to farms that produce biofuel crops? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for improvements to Kansas' energy infrastructure? | ||
| No | e) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| No | f) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| 1st, I believe that our planet experiences normal cycles. There is plenty of evidence that supports this. There is no reason to believe that our current climate is in danger of making the planet unlivable. 2nd, I believe that the private sector can research new technologies and support itself assuming, 1) a level playing field, 2) that the technology is attainable and in demand. People do not want to drive a car powered by a lawn mower engine. Why spend taxpayer's money to push technology that people do not want? Subsidies prop up industries that are inefficient or in demand. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | b) Do you support requiring background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring a license for gun possession? | ||
| People need to have access to guns to keep from becoming victims. Regulations on guns only affect the LEGAL gun owners, not the criminals. Criminals do not buy guns legally so these regulations have NO effect on them. In states where the gun laws are relaxed, crime drops. Remember, people were killing other people before the invention of guns. A gun is a tool just like any other. Tools can be used for crimes whether they are guns or not. The people using the guns are the problem. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| No | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| No | d) Should individuals be required to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| No | f) Do you support legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Kansas? | ||
| No | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| Many of our health care problems are because the states mandate that every policy has X number of standard coverage items. As an example, you may not need cosmetic surgery, but they are required to provide it in the standard policy. This costs more, because when people perceive something as "free", they use more of it than they would if they had to pay for it. So, as more people use it, premiums must increase to cover the costs. Also, to prevent malpractice, doctors order tests to rule out every possibility; more money than a patient needs to spend. | |||
| Yes | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| No | b) Should Kansas allow same-sex couples to form civil unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support state funding for stem cell research? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the state's use of affirmative action? | ||
| No | f) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Kansas' anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Kansas' anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| The only way to get embryonic stem cells is to kill an unborn baby. Adult stem cells are the only ones that I have heard of that actually have a proven ability to repair damaged organs without major side effects. | |||
| 1. Cut the size of government. Start with ordering a department by department audit looking for fraud, waste, and comparing staff levels with work loads. Implement a bonus for managers that come in significantly below budget. Cutting government regulations on businesses will reduce the size of government and free up money, but it will also free up businesses to focus on growing their business rather than focusing on compliance issues. 3. Cut spending. Along with #1, find and cut programs that do not promote growth. 4. Cut taxes. Kansas can decide better where to spend their money and government can. |
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