Matt De Heus' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Michigan 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? | ||
| No | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| As a matter of pragmatism, abortions need to be legal, reasonably available and safe. Mothers have been making childbirth decisions since the dawn of man and that does not need to change now. Modern technology means many parents are making the decision to end a pregnancy when it is clear the child will have severe birth defects. The alternative - a prohibition against abortion - diminishes women's rights and increases the risk associated with illicit procedures. | |||
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 | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Eliminate | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Eliminate | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland security | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) International aid | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Medical research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Slightly Increase | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Decrease | m) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Other or expanded categories | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| I support an immediate 15% decrease in discretionary spending at the Federal level. | |||
| Income taxes on individuals and most business taxes function as a disincentive for hard work. There is no shame in making money. I prefer consumption taxes, which allow us to tax at the point of spending. They are naturally progressive and can be staggered so staple items have relatively low rates and those goods that are luxuries, energy inefficient or hazardous could carry higher rates. | |||
| What I don't support is government handouts or bailouts to corporations. The free market will pick the winners. Government should also stop trying to justify its expenditures with "two birds with one stone" thinking. We get jobs and roads. We get better healthcare and lower costs. We get to save more by spending. One bird, one stone. If you are trying to create jobs, hire people. If an idea is a good one, it doesn't need a laundry list of supporting features. "But wait, there's more" doesn't work in politics than it does in advertising. | |||
| No | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| Government education funds should only be spent with public educational institutions, not on private or for profit schools. | |||
| 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? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles | |||
| 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Education is best when it is locally driven and schools work best when they are small. The Federal Government also has little real value in this process. It makes no sense to send tax dollars to Washington, only to have them send a fraction back, earmarked with their priorities. I would also discontinue public funding for charter or for profit schools. They divide the available resources and diminish our overall educational results. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Any Federal funds for energy research should be through their own institutions - like NASA - or through public universities. We should not pass taxpayer funds to individual corporations, as these grants often amount to nothing more than a payback for support during a campaign. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| The right to bear arms should be protected. All indications is that limiting gun ownership by the general public actually leads to an increase in handgun crime. Reasonable registration requirements and removal of the right to own a gun from violent offenders are acceptable limits and are fairly easy legislation to craft. We need simplified gun laws. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Our health care "crisis" isn't one of quality, it is more of a "billing issue." There is plenty of money in the system - we spend more than any other country in the world on health. The real problem is the concept of "insurance." You insure cars or houses or boats - items you bought with cash than can be replaced with more cash. Good health is a foundation for good citizenship. A modern society wil take care of its people in this way. A single payer system with competition at the provider level makes the most the most sense. | |||
| 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? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles | |||
| 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| No | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| j) Other or expanded principles | |||
| 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? | ||
| I also believe in the principle of pay equity to help fix the imbalance between the wages of male and female workers. | |||
| My primary campaign issues are employment, energy, education and the environment. We a more conducive environment for manufacturing businesses to continue to operate in the US. And we will need skilled workers to staff these businesses. We need to take a look at business tax rates and expand the education of workers at all stages of their working careers. |
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