Lily Williams did not provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2024 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2024.
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Morally, I am pro-life. This is a difficult issue because there are two lives, the mother's and her baby's, and they both have rights. As a Libertarian who believes in self-ownership and self-responsibility, I am hesitant to use force against women who choose abortion early in their pregnancy, thus using force to deny them their right to privacy and self-determination. A woman without freedom to choose is a form of servitude since she would be forced to care for the baby. At viability, however, the role of government acting on our society's behalf in protecting unborn life is justified. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| I believe our Federal government is out of control with respect to spending, debt, and taxation. I support a "Balanced Budget Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution; the budget should be balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures, and not by raising taxes. I would like to repeal all Federal government programs and services that are not authorized by the Constitution. The Federal government should not incur debt, which misallocates resources in the short run and burdens future generations without their consent in the long run. I will not vote for any debt limit increase. | |||
| No | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| We do not give up our free speech rights when we form into groups. This included churches, businesses, unions, non-profits, etc. Churches, for example, should not be afraid of loosing tax exempt status if they speak out politically. The right of association and of political speech is fundamental. To regulate who gets to spend money, how much they spend, when, and where spending on speech is done, is a very powerful and dangerous form of control on speech itself. | |||
| No | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| No | Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| I am reluctant to support capital punishment precisely because our society has executed too many innocent people. Most drug offenses are civil in nature and are victim-less. Because individuals own their own bodies and have rights over them that other individuals, groups, and governments should not violate, I believe many drug laws are unconstitutional. Previous generations knew this, which is why alcohol prohibition (Volstead Act) required a constitutional amendment. Just like today, prohibition creates crime. Did you know that Al Capone is estimated to have made $60 million in alcohol sales in just 1927 alone? ($800 million in 2016 dollars) | |||
| No | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation is nothing more than paying people to dig holes and then to fill them up again. Money used for this purpose must first come from somewhere else, usually from people who did something useful. Force by the government to tax is a disincentive on those taxed and has unintended consequences that ultimately hurts the economy. | |||
| No | Do you generally support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| I am not opposed to voluntary standards, but I am opposed to Common Core, a "top-down one-size" fits all architecture. The Common Core State Standards Initiative (Common Core) is a way for special interests via the Federal government to control education. We have been trying to fix education for more than a hundred years. What we really need is competition in our existing public schools and choices in education including more private and alternative schools. If you want to see massive advances in education, don't federalize the dull sclerotic paradigm we have been using these last hundred years, unleash it. | |||
| Yes | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| No | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| No | Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| The oil and gas industry in Colorado provides almost 100,000 jobs. With the use of modern technology and clear awareness, companies who engage in fracking can extract gas and oil responsibly. I am against unnecessary policies that hurt the poor the most, killing jobs and raising energy prices. I am for all forms of energy production. I am against subsidizing energy schemes. I would promote a free market in energy production. I know that pollution must be controlled. We need to hold polluters responsible, including government agencies. | |||
| Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | |||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
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| More scientific research is needed. The largest greenhouse gas is water vapor; this is not mentioned very often, but water contributes to 95% of all greenhouse gasses. There are other gasses too, such as methane. It is not clear to me that the amount of man made CO2 (3% of all greenhouse gasses) makes any difference worth worrying about. Mankind contributes slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through activities such as farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. Compared to emissions from natural sources there is little we can do without expending huge sums of money to limit what we do produce. | |||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I am a firm supporter of a citizen's right to keep and bear arms. When I first held my gun in my hands, I felt empowered and free. If elected, I will sponsor legislation to repeal all gun control laws. I am opposed to any "Gun Free Zones" which I believe are targets too easy for criminals to exercise their dominance. I support school districts that choose to train and enable their teachers to arm themselves. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| As recently as the 1960s, low-cost health insurance was available to virtually everyone in America - including people with existing medical problems. Doctors made house calls. A hospital stay cost only a few days' pay. Charity hospitals were available to take care of families who could not afford to pay for healthcare. (LP.org) The Affordable Care Act is another step towards socialist health care. I lived under socialist medicine for 24 years and it did not work: long waiting lines, poor quality, no incentives for the providers, and corruption. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
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| I am a legal immigrant who has come to America to be free. Other freedom-loving people want to come here too, but we need to reform the current broken system where legal immigrants must wait sometimes for over a decade, while other immigrants can enter illegally ahead of them. If elected I would propose a points based system (like used in Canada) for immigration instead of the system we now have, to incentivize people to come here legally and quickly to take jobs that the free market offers. | |||
| Yes | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Government does now have limited authority to define, license, or restrict types of personal relationships. However, consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships. Marriage is an arrangement in law but also the Church or other entities. These organizations and Government should not mandate who a Church will or will not marry. | |||
| No | Do you support increased American intervention in Iraq and Syria beyond air support? | ||
| Yes | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the United States from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| I would support use of force if we knew that these countries were planning to use them against us if they got them. This is a decision that must be made jointly by the legislative and the executive branches, not unilaterally by the executive branch. Only Congress has the Constitutional authority to declare and fund war. | |||
| Yes | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| I would support allowing people under age 30 to divert all their Social Security Taxes into personal retirement accounts as long as we make provisions for the poorest and most unfortunate among us to be cared for. | |||
SpendingIndicate what federal spending levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category; you can use a number more than once.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 | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Medical Research | ||
| Greatly Decrease | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Slightly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Slightly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| m) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Greatly Decrease | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Eliminate | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Eliminate | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Eliminate | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| I oppose forcing employers to withhold wages and serving as income tax collectors for the government. All citizens are entitled to the fruits of their labor and it belongs to them first. If feasible, I propose replacing income taxes with a consumption tax and repeal of the 16th amendment. Until then, I support a simple 10% flat personal income tax and 10% business tax that would unleash the economy for job growth and investment. | |||
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