Joe Kneiser's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Joe Kneiser has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2014 Political Courage Test.
Tennessee State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | |||
| Yes | b) Should abortions be illegal after 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| Abortion is a tough subject for me being raised Catholic I do believe in the sanctity of life butI remember the back alley abortions and coat hanger abortions of the 60's. A friend of my mother?s became pregnant from a rape and had a back seat abortion. She died three days later. As a believer in principals put forward by Thomas Jefferson citizens should never allow any right granted by government to be taken away. As soon as we do little by little we will lose all of them. Perfect example is the current fight over gun ownership. | |||
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 Tennessee's budget.
| Maintain Status | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| No | a) Tapping into Tennessee's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| No | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| I have a new school funding bill it increase the amounts the schools save our state 33%. We needs to fund education before any other budget item. The excessively high standards of the hope scholarship needs to be lowered allow more of our children attending college receiving it. We need special state wide Meth task force of 8 districts to track down and destroy any and all meth operations in our state. To man the task force I suggest the hiring of veterans returning from duty in Afghanistan who have been trained in the latest seek and destroy tactics. | |||
| Everyone hates paying taxes but they are a necessary evil for government to survive and provide for its citizens. I am completely against a state income tax of any kind as I have lived in a state that has one. No matter how small a percentage state income tax gets passed eventually it will climb and climb until it is out of control and very discriminatory towards the states citizens just like the federal government income tax is now. | |||
| Why is it that every time a politician wants to make cuts in its budget they always go after items that effect the well being of those who are on the bottom rung of society or those who teach our children or those who are clinging to the bottom rung of society. Currently the federal government has over 400 million it wants to GIVE Tennessee for its medicaid program but our state refuses to accept. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| No | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| I believe the current run away anything goes kind of campaign funding we now have lets the corporations, lobbyists, PAC's and the ultra rich control the legislative process in our state and our country thus taking away from the founding fathers belief that this is a country of the people by the people and for the people. The requiring of full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information in my opinion lets the voter know who owns their elected officials legislative vote. As far as Redistricting I believe a county should be the county's boundaries when it comes to elections. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| I support the use of the death penalty. I think the legalizing of marijuana would not only help the state finically with taxes (Colorado received over 1 million a day from marijuana taxes) but it will help fight illegal drugs, cut down on the overuse of narcotics and help many state residents who deal with pain on a daily basis. Sending sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone should be illegal with stiff penalties for both involved. Allowing alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders would help and possibly eliminate our jail overcrowding situation Tennessee is currently dealing with. | |||
| No | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| Small business crate 2 out of 3 jobs so 2/3 of the incentives corporation get for job creation should be shifted to small business. As long as voters allow tax breaks to corporations to ship jobs overseas state funding for job-training to re-train displaced workers is necessary. Homeownership is part of the American Dream, due directly to de-regulation of the mortgage industry we are facing out of control foreclosures. As a nation we need to provide direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure until we as voters stop the laws that feed the current greed of the mortgage industry. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| Yes | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| No | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Tennessee high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Common Core State Standards will lead to teachers forced to teach children how to take the common core tests. Common Core State Standards will increase testing. Tenure protects teachers from being fired for personal or political reasons and allows teachers the freedom to support controversial causes like prayer in schools. School Vouchers will destroy public schools. They don't tell private schools do not have to hire certified teachers, do not have to meet current educational standards, do not have to give out report cards and do not have take all children who apply as public school do. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Tennessee's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Energy no matter what kind means jobs but we also need to protect our environment we don't sooner or later the earth will die and so will our species. Open space preservation is important to help control urban sprawl and increase the number of parks for people to use. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| I support the second amendment to the constitution. I currently own guns. I lost a grand child to gun violence because a person with a history of mental problems bought a gun at a show with no background checks. I think citizens should be allowed to carry concealed guns as long as they can pass a rigid background test and are forbidden from carrying them in schools, parks and bars. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Obamacare aka the affordable health care act. I do not understand the fight over this one. We all agree healthcare is necessary. The only way to get non-emergency room based healthcare in America today is to have a insurance policy. Personally I think the biggest problem with our healthcare system is insurance companies. Look at the numbers healthcare insurance company are headed by a million dollar plus salaried executives and they have a board and investors so they have to make profits. . As long as profit motivated high executive salaried insurance companies control health care it�s will be un-affordable. | |||
| No | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Tennessee's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Tennessee's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| I agree that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman, but I also think civil unions are different than a marriage. I do not understand the outrage over same sex civil unions if they want to get hitched and pay the increased marriage tax why not. If you paid attention as to who started the outrage over same sex marriage was actually big business who did not want to provide the additional benefits they would have to cover if same-sex couples were allowed to form civil unions and it snowballed from there. | |||
| 1) Jobs - State contractors need to have 60% TN residents. Small business creates 2 out of 3 jobs so 2/3 of incentives currently given to corporations for job creation need to be shifted to small business. 2( Education - I have a new school funding bill that saves the state 30% and provides more money to schools. 3) Stopping Meth Production - Tennessee needs a Meth task force of 8 districts tasked to track and destroy all meth operation. To man the task force the hiring of veterans returning from Afghanistan and trained in seek and destroy tactics |
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