Jim Lewis' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
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Jim Lewis has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
Ohio Congressional Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I would make exception to save the life of the mother, for rape, or for incest. | |||
| 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? | ||
| In order to balance the budget all spending must be decreased including military, entitlement, and discretionary spending. The best start would be to eliminate the unconstitutional departments and agencies such as Education, Energy, HHS, HUD, EPA, FCC, NLRB, etc. There is tremendous waste in the military budget including unnecessary weapons systems the military doesn't want or need, but is protected by congressmen whose district manufactures the system, and excess brass in the pentagon. | |||
| No | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| I support a flat tax where all pay their fair share. Tax incentives and government spending amount to the government picking winners and losers at the expense of not only competitors but tax payers as well. It is too often a form of corruption rewarding friends and donors for their support. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| The Department of Education is unconstitutional and should be eliminated. Education should be locally controlled where the community knows what their needs are. The tax money should remain in the state and local community where they understand the needs. Sending money to the Department of Education just siphons off the majority of the funds to provide cushy, overpaid jobs to bureaucrats too distant and out of touch to make intelligent decisions for local communities. Currently we have a system where the overlords dole out a pittance to schools to do stupid things usually harmful to education. | |||
| Yes | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| No | Do you support 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 Department of Energy and EPA are both unconstitutional entities that should be eliminated. The experience we have seen from government involvement in funding renewable energy has been fraught with fraud and corruption with Solyndra just one example. Wind and solar are neither viable and are both harmful to plants, animals, and the environment. The Keystone XL pipeline is being blocked for strictly political reasons to appease to the environmental extremists and as a favor to Warren Buffet who benefits because he owns the rail lines that transport the oil. It is considerably more dangerous to surface transport the oil. | |||
| No | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Man-made global warming/climate change is a political hoax intent on redistributing American wealth. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, it is a necessary gas in the life cycle of all living things on earth. If the environmental extremists truly believed in man-made climate change, they would turn to nuclear energy which emits no greenhouse gases. They would also cease flying, (how many private flights were made by those extremists to Paris for the most recent climate change conference), cease driving, and forego all modern conveniences including permanently built homes with central air. Not adopting that lifestyle proves their insincerity. | |||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Gun control is a knee jerk reaction by ignorant or nefarious people. It sounds so reasonable to unreasonable people. All it does is remove guns from the hands of law abiding citizens and make them more vulnerable to criminals who don't follow the law. (That's why they are criminals.) Registering guns provides a database with the potential to be abused by tyrants. Medical records are private and cannot be accessed to determine criminal activity, but gun control activists would have them public for those with any sort of mental problems. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Obamacare is unconstitutional, despite the rulings by the supreme court, and should be eliminated. It is destroying the economy by adding unnecessary costs and regulations to businesses. It hurts employees by causing more to have part time jobs so employers can avoid providing Obamacare. It has greatly increased the cost of medical insurance. More people lost insurance than gained insurance due to the act. It caused people to lose their doctors and to lose insurance they wanted. It is destroying the best health care available in the world and will eventually cause improvements in medical procedures and instruments to cease. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Not only must they return to their country of origin, they must go through the same process that all other legal immigrants follow. | |||
| No | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| By definition a same-sex couple cannot be married. If states want to provide simple legal paperwork that homosexual couple can use to provide for the same basic communal rights enjoyed by married heterosexuals, such as inheritance and power of attorney when one is incapacitated, that would be acceptable. Marriage is a religious union and should be returned to the purview of the various churches, not government. | |||
| Yes | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| Yes | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the United States from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| There is no way we should sit by and allow terrorist nations like Iran to develop nuclear weapons that will be used against us by terrorists. Mutually assured destruction doesn't work with those intent on committing suicide to hasten armageddon. | |||
| Yes | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that make Bernie Madoff look like a piker. Social Security needs to be phased out over an extended period of time. Encouraging other forms of preparing for retirement only makes sense. Government's role is not providing people with retirement income. | |||
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.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Eliminate | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Eliminate | h) Medical Research | ||
| Eliminate | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Eliminate | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Eliminate | l) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Decrease | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| Defense and security are the only constitutional powers listed above that are the responsibility of the federal government. All others should be private or state functions | |||
| We should institute a flat tax that requires everyone to pay their fair share. I would permit deductions only for dependents and charitable contributions. Any corporate tax breaks only encourage corruption and nonsensical short term business decisions. | |||
| 1. Tax reform to a flat tax with no person, corporation, or industry getting special treatment. 2. Eliminate all cabinet departments except Defense, State, and Treasury. 3. Eliminate all federal agencies whose purpose is not one of the enumerated powers listed in the constitution. |
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