Pat Foster's 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| If women do not have the right to make decisions about their own body, then they are only individuals used by that society. A free democracy should give any woman that right. The most that others can do is to give consul. If you disagree with her decision, and can offer a legitimate alternative, then you should be given the right to make that offer on behalf of the unborn child. | |||
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 | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Eliminate | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Eliminate | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Maintain Status | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | f) Homeland security | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical research | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Scientific research | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Increase | m) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Eliminate | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | 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? | ||
| No | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| While I would eliminate large corporate agricultural subsidies, I would like to see "sustainable agriculture" be given a shot in the arm to help produce whole foods that are healthier than the Genetically Modified Organisms produced by chemical companies like Monsanto and Dow. | |||
| I would like the federal government to nationalize the Federal Reserve Banking system so that money created that reflects the goods and services of the citizens of our country should be controlled by a public body rather than individuals behind closed doors who refuse to allow anyone to audit them. Ellen Brown in her Web of Debt shows how the governments use of the 5% increase in the money supply plus low interest income earned by Americans who borrow could do away with all taxes. | |||
| Our current economic system has put great wealth into the hands of the privileged few. I see the estate tax as an equalizer that better distributes that wealth to society as a whole. The estate tax exemption should be raised to $25 million, and small to medium size family companies should be totally exempt from taxation. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| At least 50% if Social Security investments for anyone's account should be in guaranteed investments. The other 50% should be up to the individual to invest in any account that would meet the government's minimum standards for investment quality. Regulations on any business that would affect the quality of the environment should be the responsibility of the government. Small business people should be allowed to enter or exit the business world without loads of government requirements. | |||
| 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? | ||
| We do not need a president who becomes a king by creating his own laws using signing statements. Our founding fathers created two houses of congress to create and establish laws for us to live by. These laws should be hashed out by individuals coming from different viewpoints that hopefully can come to a compromise that will satisfy the majority of our citizens. | |||
| 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? | ||
| The United States is 5% of the world population, yet we have 25% of the world's prisoners in jails and prisons. 80% of those prisoners are there for non-violent crimes. This is a tremendous waste of human beings and a terrible tax on the citizens of our country. We maintain laws against marijuana to support the tobacco and pharmaceutical lobbies, which increases prison populations. The shut down of our mental care facilities have moved these patients into prisons and jails. We need to provide for the sick in mental care facilities and stop catering to the lobbyist's. | |||
| 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| Education is the determining factor on the success of any economy. We are so low in comparison to the rest of the world, and dropping more each year. I would like to see any group of teachers that feel they have a better plan be able to side step the bureaucracy of local school boards. If someone can come up with a better system, then it is government's responsibility to rule on what works and what does not work. It should not be up to that board to create their own plans. They should just rule on what is available. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Our agriculture subsidies create more green house gases than all the trucks and autos running on our roads. I have two diesel powered vehicles that run on vegetable oil that I get from restaurants. These vehicles have better performance than the petroleum powered vehicles. We do not need to destroy our earth by mining and drilling for more oil, when there are very credible, sustainable alternatives to oil. The oil lobby keeps us using their products by having Congress pass laws like the Clean Diesel Act that forces diesel automakers to build vehicles that can only use petroleum products. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| If we were not subsidizing an agriculture system that makes people sick and shortens their life expectancies by as much as 75%, then we would not have a need for a public debate on health care. The best health insurance you can buy is "real food". Listen to Michael Pollan in his In Defense of Food. If you want to be healthy, eat food, not chemicals. I just do not see our government that is subsidizing poor health through agriculture want to help people by creating a government run health care system. Someone has to say "no" to them. | |||
| 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? | ||
| If you are not an American Indian, than you and your ancestors were at one time or another immigrants. What is your argument? It was alright for us, but not for you. My mother was an Irish immigrant who settled in Chicago. There were so many Irish there, she just thought that we all must have been citizens just by the fact that we came from Ireland. Mexico is certainly a lot closer than Ireland, and many have ancestors that were American Indians. Borders are just another way of isolating yourself from the rest of the world. | |||
| No | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| If someone can tell me how a Boeing 757 with 8 tons of engine under each wing about 60 feet apart from each other made a hole less than 20 feet wide in the Pentagon, than maybe I would support all those wars. I don't believe it was a jumbo jet that hit the Pentagon. It was probably a cruise missile. I do not think that any of the people we are fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan had anything to do with the attack on 9-11-01. It is time we got some straight answers to these questions. | |||
| 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? | ||
| If you suppress someone as a slave for years limiting their ability to receive an education, thereby creating an uneducated family. It is not beyond the scope of government to offer a helping hand to such a family as a way of making amends for a prior injustice. To me that is affirmative action. If someone puts their life in harms way to protect me, I don't care what they do in bed. I really question people that do. If people love one another, what does sex have to do with it? | |||
| Creating honest, verifiable elections is my major priority. I now have evidence that ballots in Allegan county may have been manipulated by local clerks. There is a simple test that the state police could conduct to either affirm or deny that allegation. Right now, even with evidence of probable manipulations, they will not move unless the county prosecutor or Attorney General would approve such an action. A request has been made to each, but to date they have not made a move to do it. Right now, we are a long way from honest, verifiable elections. |
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