David Blackwell's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
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David Blackwell has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
Missouri Congressional Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Decisions concerning abortion should be made by a woman in consultation with medical professionals with minimal interference by the state. Limiting abortions after the point of fetal viability is a reasonable, appropriate and common compromise. In order to further reduce demand for abortion, we must address its reported causes; these include economic insecurity, the challenges and social stigma of single motherhood, and lack of access or an understanding of birth control. Therefore, I support public funding for prenatal and infant care, early childhood programs, access to contraceptives and sex education. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Our defense budget exceeds that of every contemporary rival, combined. Reducing defense spending is an easy choice, the first cuts should be made to programs our own Defense Department has recommended suspending. I support increased taxes for those who benefit most profoundly from our public infrastructure. I also support a simplified tax code, and reducing complexity in our revenue system. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I support the American Anti-Corruption Act, which greatly expands transparency in campaign financing, places much stricter limits on lobbyists, closes the revolving door between lobbying concerns and congressional staff, and empowers small donors. The act can be reviewed at anticorruptionact.org. | |||
| 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? | ||
| While I do support the use of lethal force in defense of life, if responding to an immediate threat of violence; capital punishment can be permitted only with absolute certainty. The expense of capital cases exceeds any perceived benefits of deterrence, and most criminologists agree that executions are not an effective deterrent. I support a program of decriminalization for drug use and possession, where drug users are referred for treatment. This model was successful in Portugal, and has proven effective since its adoption in 2001. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Investing in infrastructure can have far reaching economic effects. Present efforts to boost our economy by lowering taxes have largely disproved the strategy. Compare Kansas and Minnesota, the former lowered taxes on corporations and the wealthy and has an economy faltering so badly they have been forced to increase regressive sales taxes and still may not remain solvent, while the latter increased taxes and the minimum wage engendering a booming economy. I support using our tax code in ways that reward businesses for acting responsibly, treating their employees well, and when they have created new jobs, but not blind incentives. | |||
| No | Do you generally support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
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| I support states making their own decisions on how to improve public education. By allowing states to try different approaches, we can collect data supporting programs that work and documenting flaws in other approaches. We should use federal grants to promote the production of curriculum materials in the public domain. When we offer grants for education, we can certainly place restrictions on those funds, but the restrictions should be limited by the scope of the program. | |||
| No | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| Over the long term, the necessity of reducing our dependence on oil means that the risks and benefits of the pipeline must be weighed in a broader context. The project has substantial economic and even safety benefits, pipelines are safer than transportation of oil by rail, but the economic benefits contribute to the long term problem. We need to support not just renewable sources, but also economically sound energy storage. Fracking is poorly understood; it may be contaminating aquifers and ground water, and could be directly causing geological activity, until its impact is understood we should proceed with caution. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| The preponderance of research supports climate change as a direct consequence of the Anthropocene. Research in opposition generally focuses on the utility of particular methods and measurements, show flaws in our understanding but not altering the overall picture. Reducing carbon emissions is important, greenhouse gases would include water vapor and a variety of other gases, appropriate regulation could be implemented with a more narrow focus. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I support training, certification and licensing requirements, along with expanded background checks. Title I and Title II classification of firearms should be retained, and some weapons might need to be reclassified. Microstamping and ballistic identification legislation has problems, a cost benefit analysis would be required as these approaches may falter in the face of changing technology. This is a watershed issue between rural and urban America. Compromise is necessary to meet the needs of both. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| I support adding a federal public option, like the one cut from the ACA. I would also support replacing the ACA with a single payer system like Medicare. Mandatory coverage laws, like the ACA, and single payer systems have both worked in other nations. Single payer has the advantage of greatly reducing administrative overhead. When this country was founded, the limits of medical science provided little comfort and extended life marginally. Providing quality medical care as a human right becomes essential as our capabilities continue to expand. Life expectancy should not be dependent on wealth or social privilege. | |||
| 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 an illegal alien is eligible to apply for citizenship, an immediate, simplified evaluation should be part of the process. If citizenship is likely to be granted, then deportation is an unnecessary expense that serves only to complicate matters for our civil servants as well as the affected persons. The United States is a nation of immigrants, with the exception of Native Americans, all US citizens are immigrants or descended from immigrants. | |||
| Yes | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Every person, whether cisgender and heterosexual, or somewhere on the LGBTQIA spectrum, has the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Who they love and how they choose to marry is one of those rights, and equal treatment under the law is a first principle to which our government must adhere. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| The purpose of Social Security Insurance is to provide for the financial stability, of the blind, the disabled, and the elderly. While I support incentives to encourage personal retirement accounts, weakening this essential program is a flawed plan. Some would choose to divert their taxes and be tempted into high risk investments, some of those investments will inevitably falter. Private concerns offering high risk investments will benefit, at the expense of workers who will be left with a diminished quality of life in retirement. | |||
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 | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Maintain Status | g) International aid | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| In 2015, the United States accounted for over a third of defense spending worldwide. We spent more than the next seven nations combined, and those seven spent more than the rest of the world combined. Defense spending cuts should focus first on programs our Defense Department has asked to end. Increases I support in other areas can be supported using these cuts without additional taxation. I favor lean government, and prefer to remove unnecessary administrative waste whenever possible. Deficit spending should be reserved for grave economic conditions or national emergencies. | |||
| I support a financial transaction tax, primarily to reduce the dangers of automated high frequency algorithmic trading, whether used to offset public college tuition or otherwise. Inheritance taxes should have a a sufficiently large exemption to permit family farms, homes and businesses to be handed down to each new generation, but should be increased for the wealthiest. Corporate taxes need some form of dramatic change to reverse trends toward tax avoidance, it is too easy for large corporations to understate their income, or claim their profits in off-shore tax havens. | |||
| I support automatic universal voter registration, and the American Anti-Corruption Act. Both have a cost, but I believe that cost to be easily manageable. We should either expand the ACA, closing the coverage gap and provide a public option, or shift to a 'Medicare for All' single payer system. The cost for single payer could be offset with an expanded payroll tax, replacing current employer provided health care at a substantial savings, and should be revenue neutral. Single payer would greatly reduce costs and administrative overhead for our health care system, and be a boon to small businesses. |
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