Michael Lorrey's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Michael Lorrey has refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2016 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
New Hampshire State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| I think abortion should be available during the first trimester for any reason whatsoever. I also think that unless the life of the mother is in danger, third trimester abortions should be considered murder (i.e. only self-defensive abortion should be legal then). The second trimester is where the real debate should lie, and it should rely solely on science, particularly in the amount of brain function, cellular and structural differentiation of the nervous system, as to where the boundary lies as to when and whether the fetus becomes a person. Thus my position is stubbornly, solidly, in the middle. | |||
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 New Hampshire's budget.
| Slightly Decrease | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Health care | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Property taxes | ||
| No | a) Tapping into New Hampshire's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| Yes | 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 | ||
| Yes | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Our state and federal governments are fiscally unsustainable in the coming decades unless we make significant changes in both our monetary system, and how we finance government. I propose implementing cryptocurrency blockchains to decentralize government administrative functions, and enable those receiving entitlements to mine such blockchains to generate the currency their benefits entitle them to, so we can shrink the size of the bureaucracy and turn unproductive folks on entitlements into producers. I also want to shift education from brick and mortar into online learning to reduce educational costs and increase educational choices for students in rural areas. | |||
| Corporate taxes are way too high and dissuading businesses from relocating to NH or from being launched here and creating jobs. We need to restructure the corporate tax system away from the business enterprise tax that taxes gross revenues, to focus on profits taxes only, and increasing the profits threshold that small businesses need to reach to become liable for said taxes. | |||
| Medicaid expansion under ACA has created an $800 million hole in our budget that there no way to fill without a massive increase in taxes on everyone. We need to bring insurance companies back to NH to increase choice and competition to reduce costs, and remove the mandate, to force insurance companies to compete against the null option like they do on car insurance already. If we are able to institute a cryptocurrency system to decentralize government administrative functions into a blockchain, I would propose voluntary retirement packages for state and local employees, and increase pension contributions. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | 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 don't think people who do not reside in our state should be able to either vote OR contribute to campaigns here. Money buys votes, indirectly, but it still does. If, however, people, corporations, PACs or parties are based and operate in our state, they should be free to spend as much as they want. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | 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 would raise the evidentiary rules to obtain death penalties. I would abolish victimless crimes. I would also seek to demilitarize our public safety or peace officers, who have been excessively militarized by lots of "free money" from Homeland Security in ways not consistent with the New Hampshire way of life. I would also support Constitutional Carry, and prohibitions on allowing any public accommodation to prohibit the free exercise of our citizens civil rights to defend themselves against deadly threats. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| Minimum wage is a training wage, and should not be raised beyond the productive output of the worker, that only results in less employment for all. I would, instead, place time limits on how long an employer can pay a minimum wage based on the skills required to be trained. Our public educational system does little to train students to enter the work force with any marketable skills, and things like Common Core decimate their ability to do even basic things like make change or other math, use proper spelling and grammar in business communications. This needs changing. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| No | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from New Hampshire high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| The 19th century brick and mortar model of public education is a century obsolete, and is only used for warehousing and babysitting children, not educating them, giving them marketable skills, or the ability to use logic, rhetoric, critical thinking, or scientific principles. We need to free parents to give their children as many educational choices as possible, particularly expanded online education so they can access the best educators on the planet, no matter how rural the student is located. Our society is rapidly accelerating with technology, and those who are most rural are most at risk to be left behind. | |||
| 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 New Hampshire's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Government has no business funding private enterprises with subsidies or distorting the free market (and no, letting people or companies keep more of their own money is not a "subsidy"). | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| I support Constitutional Carry and no local preemption, and despite the claims of anti-gun groups there is no "gun show loophole". | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Auto insurance premiums in NH are the lowest in the country BECAUSE we do not mandate that drivers have auto insurance, requiring insurers to compete against the null option, the same free market principle works with health care. Previous administrations have used regulations to reduce competitive choices in NH health insurance markets by forcing companies to move out of state, and absurd tests to force health providers to show proof of need. The free market decides what is needed and what is not. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in New Hampshire's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in New Hampshire's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| I support the right of people to form families however they see fit provided they are not harming others, particularly children, and prohibiting discrimination against the same. HOWEVER, firstly, no church should be forced to perform any marriage that is against its religious principles. At the same time, the very idea of the government having the power to regulate, license, approve, restrict, disapprove, number, encourage, favor, subsidize or ban ANYBODY's personal relationship is abhorrent. Abolish ALL marriage licensing. | |||
| I want to help restructure our state system of financing budgets, and performing administrative functions, to enable the state to survive the coming century with fiscal sustainability. I want to pass Constitutional Carry. I want to modernize our educational system so students have as many educational opportunities, online or in person, as possible, particularly ensuring they have marketable skills in the 21st century. |
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