Anthony Meschke's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Anthony Meschke has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2014 Political Courage Test.
Minnesota State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | |||
| d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | |||
| e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | |||
| f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | |||
| Yes | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| I believe all life is sacred. I do not believe tax money should be used for abortions. | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate 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 Taxes:Using the key, indicate 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 Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Minnesota's budget.
| Eliminate | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Eliminate | c) Environment | ||
| Eliminate | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Decrease | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Eliminate | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| No | a) Tapping into Minnesota's "rainy day" fund | ||
| Yes | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| Yes | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| Yes | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| Yes | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| Yes | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Higher education is not a right. The K-12 education system is dysfunctional. Give school boards and parents control of the child's education. No child left behind and Common Core are over reaches of the federal government. Society can educate people and preserve MN's natural beauty. Government is ineffective at supplying healthcare,(VA). This should be a free market where the people decide who provides the best care. Stop putting people in jail for victimless crimes and start protecting people. Roads instead of stadiums. Welfare should be a safety net and not a life style. I support drug tests for welfare recipients. | |||
| I believe property taxes means you are renting your property. A flat sales tax with no loop holes or exemptions for corporations or rich people is the true definition of fair. The rich buy more so they pay more tax. They poor buy less so they pay less tax. Everyones wages will go up because of no income tax and people can choose if they want to save their money, buy something, or invest it. Flat sales tax will eliminate the governments ability to pick winners and losers and it will stop corporate welfare. | |||
| We can not get out of our problem by spending more or taxing more. We need to cut spending. The government should be limited in scope and each line of the budget should be gone through. The rainy day fund is for emergencies or natural disasters, not governments failure to live within its means. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| No | 1) Individual | ||
| No | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| No | 3) Corporate | ||
| No | 4) Political Party | ||
| No | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| If voters are being swayed by media and political ads we are in deep trouble already. Each voter should look into and talk to each candidate so that they can make up their minds on which candidate they are voting for. Voting is a constitutional right, like the 2nd amendment, and should not be taken away because of non-violent felonies. Constitutional rights should not require photo identification. I believe an ink stamp of some kind that is similar to when you enter an event or bar should be applied when you vote so that you can not vote twice. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | |||
| Yes | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| 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? | ||
| b) This depends on the non-violent offender. d) A violent crime is a violent crime. There is no magic age when you are an adult. e) Are these pictures of themselves? Who are they sending them to? Is anyone hurt? This question is not clear. f) Legal immigration should be sped up and made more efficient. Illegal immigration should be stopped. If people want to come here to work we should let them. We do need to keep this country safe and the southern border is not safe. Our government is spending more time protecting other countries than our own. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| No | g) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| The government takes money from people- runs it through a bureaucracy- then overpays for something it thinks the people want. Why don't we let the people choose what they want and we would save the people a lot of money and stop wasting money by paying the government to handle our money. Homeowners signed a contract of their own free will. Tax money should not be spent to cover their loss. The government also should not bail out companies that can not manage their funds and do not invest wisely. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | |||
| No | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| Yes | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| No | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| No | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Minnesota high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Control over our schools should be given back to school boards and the parents. The government has no right to tell our schools what to learn. I believe that people should be able to choose what schools they send their children to and should not be forced to pay for other children while they are sending their own children to school. | |||
| 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 state funding for improvements to Minnesota's energy infrastructure? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Society as a whole can decide which energy forms and which technologies to use. The government should not be involved because they can just be lobbied and bought out by the richest companies. This should be a free market where the people choose by opening up their wallets and buying the things they support. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| If you support the constitution and you do not support voter ID laws then you should not support firearm ID laws. There are already laws that keep people from killing people so how are more laws going to help. More laws only limit the law abiding citizens from defending themselves and their families. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | |||
| c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | |||
| No | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| I believe health insurance should be treated like vehicle insurance. You pay for the check ups and tune ups and the normal wear and tear but when there is an accident you use your insurance. Health insurance should be able to be bought across state lines like any other commodity. I do not support monetary limits on lawsuits because how can the government lay a blanket statement over everyone and say you can never have this much damage done to you? The judge and jury should be the ones to choose the damage. | |||
| a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | |||
| b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Minnesota's anti-discrimination laws? | |||
| c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Minnesota's anti-discrimination laws? | |||
| Government should not be involved in defining marriage. Every person has the right to life, liberty, and property and it is the government?s job to protect those rights. Freedom and liberty extends to all matters involving religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Freedom can be defined as someone?s ability to do whatever they wish as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others. People have the right to sell anything, buy anything, or join into a contract as long as there is a willing exchange between two parties and no fraud or coercion is used. | |||
| I would eliminate these laws: forced injections of children, fireworks, raw milk, weed, hemp, Sunday car sales, Sunday liquor, 2am bar closing, cigarette ban, government stadium building, senate office building, state income tax, property tax, eliminate much of Dept of Revenue. I would get the police to focus on protecting people and crimes that have victims. I would support stronger sentencing of violent pedophiles and stop releasing them into society. I would support 5 year trial of drug testing welfare recipients. The drug testing would be paid for by eliminating the senate office building and viking stadium subsidy. |
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