Jim Spurlino's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Jim Spurlino submitted the 2016 Political Courage Test after the official deadline.
Ohio Congressional Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| As a father and a Christian, abortion is abhorrent to me. Life begins at conception. I'm passionately pro-life. Planned Parenthood shouldn't get a nickel of taxpayer money. Congress needs to more aggressively investigate the selling of baby parts by Planned Parenthood and federal prosecutors should vigorously prosecute everyone involved. Without adding another government program, we need to do more as a society to support and encourage adoption. I have two adopted daughters. They've been a blessing to us. Many Americans go abroad to adopt. With more domestic adoption options, we can reduce the number of abortions in America. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| No, look at the Koch brothers. Their contributions are supposed to be secret, but they're slammed by the liberal media on a daily basis. That's the beautiful thing about our Republic, everyone is held accountable one way or another. I believe campaign contributions are protected as political speech under the First Amendment just as the U.S Supreme Court ruled. | |||
| 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? | ||
| We need to reform the criminal justice system. Arbitrary sentencing hinders justice and ignores context and facts of specific cases that vary from locality to locality. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Under President Obama, the mega-rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. His policies penalize entrepreneurship and keep generations of people shackled in poverty. Since President Johnson's Great Society programs, our poverty rates remain unchanged. The way to reduce the gap between the rich and poor comes not from government but from the people. When we are free to economically thrive, we will rise. To accomplish this task, we must strike an end to corporate welfare in government, starting with the Export-Import Bank and a host of other sweetheart programs for big business. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| We must get rid of Common Core and the over-reliance on standardized tests. Education should be determined at the local level, where taxpayers and parents can monitor what's happening. Second, we need policies at every level of government to support the right of parents to choose the best learning environment for their children. That means supporting parents' right to home-school or send their children to charter schools, parochial schools, or any other school. The federal Department of Education takes local tax dollars from Ohio and spends them on bureaucrats and regulations in Washington. It's wrong. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Fracking is an emerging Ohio industry. It's breathing life back into rust-belt cities decimated by steel mill shut downs. Arbitrarily regulating fracking in the interests of "fairness" will halt its growth and it will deny economic opportunity to hardworking Ohioans. I don't support that. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| If we don't stop the hysteria about what Al Gore calls global warming, EPA regulations will punish Ohio farmers and job creators in a misguided attempt to somehow calibrate the earth's climate. | |||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Our God-given constitutional right to keep and bear arms must be defended. When the founding fathers wrote, "shall not be infringed," they meant what they said. I own long guns and pistols and I hold a concealed carry permit. So does my wife. We like and support our local police, but we know that we must be our own first responders while we wait for help from 911 to arrive. I will fight each and every attempt to erode gun rights. We ought to focus on keeping mentally ill people and criminals from getting guns, not disarming law abiding Americans. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| It all starts with this: repeal Obamacare. All of it. Immediately. Then we replace it with free-market, patient-centered solutions. We should allow any health insurance company to sell policies anywhere in the USA, which will increase private sector competition and drive down or cap prices. Encourage all Americans, not just a select few, to open Heath Savings Accounts so more people can take personal responsibility for their own health care. And increase penalties for greedy lawyers who sue doctors and hospitals when nothing was done wrong. Those frivolous lawsuits add billions to the cost of health care. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| When illegal immigrants come into contact with law enforcement, they must be arrested and deported. Those that remain must be held responsible for breaking the law through a fine punishment and public reprimand. Finally, we must secure our border once and for all. That will solve many immigration, national security, and drug trafficking problems. | |||
| 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? | ||
| With any conflict, we need to apply the timeless principles of Generals Schwarzkopf and Powell: 1. Is the conflict in America's best interests? 2. Are there clear objectives and goals? 3. How can we achieve those objectives and goals with overwhelming force and minimal casualties? Those questions are best answered by our military leaders. I will support them without applying a political agenda to their decisions. | |||
| Yes | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| Everyone who paid into Social Security should have the power to determine how and where THEIR money is spent. Our government has failed on this program. | |||
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.
| Maintain Status | a) Agriculture | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Arts | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Education | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Maintain Status | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical Research | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Decrease | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| If elected, I will push for the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. In business, if I spend more than I have, my company will go bankrupt. Professional politicians act like they are somehow immune from these basic principles of economics. It's got to stop. If we find a program that really works they way it should, then we ought to give it more funding. At the same time, the programs that don't work should be cut or defunded altogether. To make those determinations, we need to review the specific programs. | |||
| Taxes are way too high. Right now, only people who can afford high-priced attorneys and accountants can take advantage of all the loopholes. We need to reform the entire tax code by instituting a fair and simplified flat tax that removes the need for the IRS and reduces our tax burden across the board. Government has to spend less and agencies should have to justify spending by showing regulations won't kill jobs or add to the tax burden of working families. In business, we focus on return on investment. The federal government should as well. | |||
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