Sue Caro's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
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Sue Caro has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
California Congressional Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Personally I find abortion tragic and I believe they should be rare and few. I am comfortable with some restrictions on abortion such as no late-term abortions and parental consent for young women who are 13-16 years old. For me the reality is that abortion is a personal, private, intimate decision and government should not intrude on a decision that a woman with her partner, doctor and faith counselor would be deciding. I have financially supported a pregnancy counseling organization that helps women who may be confronting this decision. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| The largest portion of the Federal Budget and growing dramatically, are entitlement programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Right behind those are the many welfare programs. Entitlement reform is needed to contain explosive budgets and to sustain the programs for future generations. They were designed in their present forms, decades ago. Life expectancies are longer now and the supporting population of taxpayers is declining. These programs will break-the-bank in their current form. | |||
| No | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I agree that the amount of money flowing through election campaigns is astronomical, however we have a very large and media intensive-expensive society. Campaign contributions are a form of speech.I would prefer to see arbitrary limits removed and complete transparency about all donors. The current situation where Independent Expenditure Committees and PACs are permitted to collect unlimited contributions without transparent reporting of donors and with campaigns unable to coordinate and influence is worse. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Breaking the law requires the law breaker to pay the consequences. Otherwise we should change the law. We do not have enough counseling and substance abuse services to meet the need in our society, so I would like to see us provide more funding in local communities - block grants to communities for local parties to create the necessary programs. Putting non-violent offenders in jail with violent criminals is a poor prescription for rehabilitation. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Generally wage and price controls by government produce unintended consequences that obstruct growth in the economy. Too many regulations make it hard for small businesses to operate profitably. Often government regulations are written to keep large crony corporations free from competition by new and innovative start ups. If you want less of something - tax it more. High taxes keep businesses from growing and reinvesting in their business and growing jobs. Government does not create jobs and the larger government and government debt becomes, the slower economic growth. | |||
| No | Do you generally support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
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| Education is best when done at a local level customized for the local community. Standards are easily communicated and meeting expected standards should be the goal of all local school districts. One size does not fit all when it comes to education. And, all children can learn when provided the time and attention to their individual needs. Private schools and charter schools do this all the time - making local site-based decisions to meet the needs of their communities of students, to prepare those students for the next stage in life. Their record speaks for itself. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes and No answers are dicey here. The Keystone XL pipeline is one of hundreds of pipelines criss crossing our nation. Without the pipeline, the oil will be moved over the surface - which is more dangerous. As far as renewable energy sources, let private investment develop and sell the technologies. Government picking winners and losers creates misallocations of capital. Private industry is much more efficient at trying innovative technologies and finding the winning solutions. Hydraulic fracturing has been found to be safe and efficient, providing accessible energy cheaply. | |||
| No | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| There is more politics than science going on in the climate change debate. There is no consensus among scientists. There is a lot of harassment and pressure to get on board. We need true transparent scientific evidence looking at all information in an unbiased way. The costs to remake our society to reduce global temperatures in ASTRONOMICAL and if we go it alone in the United States, we will spend trillions of dollars, reduce the quality of living for our citizens, and change the temperatures by less than .ooo5 degrees. To me that is irresponsible. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I support defending our 2nd Amendment rights. I support limited gun control - back ground checks for example. I believe a bigger problem is the privacy protections of individuals with mental health problems. We need answers for how to control mentally disturbed people from getting guns. Responsible citizens should be permitted to own and operate guns. The guns are not the problem. The individual operating the gun may be a problem. Regulating guns to law abiding citizens does not remove guns from the hands of criminals. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| YES - We have a large, diverse society. I do not believe in centrally planned, one-size-fits-all healthcare system. The Affordable Care Act does that. There will soon be a serious doctor shortage as doctors are being pressured to practice medicine as part of a socialized system they do not like. The insurance programs require every citizen to have the exact same coverages, no matter their individual health status or needs. There well be less medical innovation, fewer doctors creating long wait times, rationing, and generally fewer choices for our citizens. A close look at Canada or England proves the case. | |||
| No | 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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| If illegal immigrants recently came over the border, they should go back. Other countries do the same. For those who have been here 10 years or more, the situation is probably more complicated. I would accept a path to legal status but not citizenship as long as they did not commit other crimes, they pay a fine, are up to date on their taxes. They should not be rewarded for breaking the law. Close to half of undocumented immigrants would like work permit status and may not be interested in citizenship. We should bring them out of the shadows. | |||
| Yes | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Same sex couples deserve the same legal protections and legal status as all other law abiding citizens. Seeking the sanctity of the marriage sacrament made their quest more difficult and a civil union protection would have been easier. Many honest and faithful citizens see "marriage" as between a man and a woman, which is a sacrament in all religions. Thousands of years of religious tradition respected by most of our citizens. | |||
| No | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the United States from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| Unknown Position | Do you support increased American intervention in Iraq and Syria beyond air support? | ||
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| The first job of the federal government is to protect our citizenry. We need to do this through multiple channels and not simply rely on military engagement. We need effective intelligence operations; we need effective diplomatic efforts; we need a fully resourced technology offensive and protection. We need a modern and well outfitted and resourced military. Nuclear proliferation is a serious concern - the more countries with nuclear weapons, the greater the chance of rogue operators using them offensively. Hopefully we will not have to resort to military offensive to stop a bomb. | |||
| Yes | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| YES -Although we have a Social Security that is a "pay-go" system, meaning when we pay FICA taxes, the money goes to pay the benefits of other retired taxpayers. There are no personal accounts for anyone. So permitting individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into savings over the long term, would encourage better and more productive savings across the board. It would alleviate some of the pressure for future benefits of the younger generations of today. There is no current compound interest growing on the base numbers of collected FICA taxes. Why not? | |||
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 Increase | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Greatly Decrease | k) United Nations | ||
| Slightly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly 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) | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Eliminate | 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 | ||
| Maintain Status | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| Welfare is an interesting topic. We have spent trillions of dollars over 50 years without reducing the numbers. The current mix of programs is ineffective. In the Black community there was higher employment and higher rates of marriage and family formation before the Great Society and its welfare programs. There are over 40 separate job training programs that do not train people for real work jobs. Welfare programs should lift people out of poverty by assisting their development, providing a temporary safety net and offering the dignity and self respect of being able to do honest work. | |||
| Reducing taxes on capital investment and business production leads to a growing economy, more jobs and more taxes collected in a more productive economy. It's been proven many times. If you want less of something tax more of it. We tax business income at rates that are uncompetitively high. This has real world consequences for our economy and the citizens trying to work and get ahead. Companies move overseas to lower tax environments taking their jobs and opportunities with them. True free market capitalism provides the most prosperity for the most citizens and the most freedom. | |||
| 1) Quality K-12 education including choice of local public schools, to be released from federal mandates. Federal funds to local schools could be handled through block grants for local communities to decide their use. This is the civil rights issue of our time and we are not preparing our children well. 2) Repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with patient-doctor centered, healthcare delivery system providing personalization/customization for individual needs. Create insurance plans that fit individual needs. 3) Reform entitlement programs for long term sustainability. Growing government debt is a drag on GDP growth and all citizens' incomes. |
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