Terence Strait, Jr.'s Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Terence Strait, Jr. has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
Maryland Congressional Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I believe that we need to move to publicly funded elections in order to facilitate more people getting involved in the political process. The perceived need to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to run intimidates many qualified candidates out of running. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Any tax incentive would need to have a logical and long lasting ties to job creation. Simply providing blanket tax credits as bribes for companies to move into an area create a race to the bottom where the tax base is comprised almost entirely of individuals and small local businesses, which is not sustainable. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| No | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| Yes | Do you support funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| I believe we need to end the process of hydraulic fracturing entirely. It causes demonstrable harm to local communities in a number of ways, from earthquakes to flammable tap water. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Long term, we need to move toward a zero emission society. That means green energy generation and an electric transportation system that draws from that clean grid rather than from fossil fuels. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| We live in a country where 2/3 of gun deaths are suicides and it is easier (and cheaper) for someone to get a gun and take their life than it is for them to get the help they need. Loaded guns are left out, resulting in toddlers getting them and shooting people, with nobody held criminally responsible for those shootings. Parents shoot their children, thinking they are intruders, because they shoot first, ask questions later. These things are not the price of living in a free society, and we need to stop pretending they are. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| The Republican position of "repeal and replace" is laughable and ultimately redundant. I believe the Affordable Care Act is an important transitional step, but that we ultimately need to implement single payer health care. Once you have replaced something, repealing it is not necessary (but I suppose could be done as a way to clean up paperwork). | |||
| No | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| No | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| No | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the United States from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| Military force can not prevent a government from possessing a nuclear weapon. It may be able to prevent them from building their own, but with the number of nuclear countries in the world, obtaining one is simply a matter of money. For this reason, using military force in that way would be counterproductive. It is worth noting that we are the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons against another country. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
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 | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Maintain Status | g) International aid | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| Long term, I believe we need to move to a universal basic income to counteract the influence of outsourcing and automation on the labor force. We cannot afford to have tens of millions of people unemployed, homeless, and desperate. | |||
| In any discussion about taxes, it is important that we talk about what exactly qualifies as "low income" or "middle income" - median household income is roughly $50,000 a year, but that is due to a high number of two income households, as the median individual income is about $28,000 a year. We have politicians claiming that families making $30,000 and $250,000 a year are both "middle class" and that is just fundamentally dishonest. If you can not afford to go to the doctor or pay for child care, that's not middle class. | |||
| My top priority if elected is to push government to adopt a more long term view in governance. That means planning for how we take care of our people after automation starts creating major structural unemployment, and ending global warming rather than just slowing it down for our grandchildren to deal with. The cost of taking any action must be weighed against the cost of not taking it, and that is something that is currently completely ignored. My preferred method of obtaining the funding necessary is somewhat controversial, but constitutional - Article I, Section 8, Clause 5. |
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