David Hughes' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Minnesota Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I'm 100% Pro-Life. Life begins at conception and should end at natural death. Procured Abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of the mother. Roe v. Wade remains one of the worst examples of jurisprudence in American history, and should be overturned as soon as possible. I'm not willing to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to get it right. If elected U.S. Representative, I will immediately sponsor an amendment to our U.S. Constitution to end Abortion in America. | |||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| No | Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| Many federal social welfare programs (e.g. SNAP, WIC, School Lunch) should be transferred to the states to run (or terminate) as they see fit, and phased out permanently at the federal level. Social Security is not sustainable in its present form, with longer lifespans and lower birthrates we see today. I favor privatizing the program, but I would NEVER support legislation that would alter the benefits of current recipients. I would only support a plan that phased in over time, so everyone has time to plan. Medicare is likewise unsustainable and must be reformed dramatically even sooner. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Politics today is much too much about the "horse race". Rather than focusing on which candidate has the best political philosophy, public policy positions, and character to serve, the major parties, activists, consultants, and political journalists care only about how much money has been raised. As a result, good candidates are dismissed and lost in the process. | |||
| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| We don't need to spend more on Defense, but we do need to spend more wisely. And if we do, we can probably spend less than we presently do, and have a more lethal and agile Military. We should close bases we don't need, end the many endless, expensive wars we shouldn't be in, restructure a very bureaucratic, top-heavy Defense Department, and spend some of those savings on recapitalizing our aging weapon systems. 80-year-old airplanes, ships, and tanks is embarrassing and unacceptable. We can and should similarly reform the Intelligence Community. | |||
| No | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Farmers, Ranchers, business owners, and corporations are suffering greatly at this time directly due to the foolish decisions of governors and other elected officials regarding COVID-19. Government should immediately provide direct payments to farmers and ranchers, and aid other business owners as a result. Long term, government must immediately end all lockdowns and allow commerce to resume - allowing individual businesses to take whatever precautions they see fit. Government must implement new reforms to reduce regulations, lower taxes, and get government out of the way of the new entrepreneurs who will rescue our damaged economy and restore American prosperity. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| The U.S. Constitution grants no authority whatsoever to our federal government regarding education. I support abolishing the US Department of Education as soon as possible. Education is much too important to allow the federal government to meddle in it. It is arrogant, foolish, and silly to suppose any of our 50 states need help from the federal government establishing sound education standards. I reject the entire premise we need a national education standard. If certain states do it better than others, I'm confident those others will emulate those shining examples in due course. | |||
| No | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| No | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I'd prefer emission standards be left to the states. States and businesses can form commissions that could deal with any cross-state issues that will arise. The EPA is much too powerful, has run amok far too long, and must be reigned in dramatically, if not abolished altogether. | |||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| If elected U.S. Representative, I will work to completely abolish the National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968, and at least the "Hughes Amendment" to the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. I will oppose any and all new infringements to our Second Amendment rights, including Red Flag Laws, Universal Background Checks, Assault Weapon Bans, and the like. We must keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the mentally ill, but the rights of law-abiding citizens ... shall not be infringed! | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| Businesses are free to offer this and other benefits to their employees. Government has no right to require this of employers. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| Yes | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Dreamers may be provided a path to permanent legal status (i.e. green card), but only AFTER the southern wall is constructed and completed, E-Verify is improved and universally implemented and required, and all President Trump's 2017 70-point Plan for Immigration Reform is implemented. If Dreamers want citizenship, they must return to their country of origin and get in line like everyone else. I support ending the current government legal malpractice of Birthright Citizenship - of granting US Citizenship to children born here of mothers who entered the US illegally. | |||
| Yes | Should the United States use military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a weapon of mass destruction (for example: nuclear, biological, chemical)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts? | ||
| Congress should remove most of our conventional forces from the Middle East, leaving perhaps a small special forces contingent in select locations. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| Tariffs and quotas are sometimes an effective short-term tool to achieve long-term change and gains in permanent trade agreements. But in the long run, tariffs are a big loser for the American consumer, making everything artificially expensive. Barriers to international trade should be reduced and removed as much as possible. If the US Trade Representative can negotiate a level playing field, American Farmers, Ranchers, Ag Producers, and Business can compete and beat everyone else on the planet. And American Prosperity will be greater for it. | |||
| 1) Make Agriculture Profitable Again by creating new foreign markets and expanding existing ones, reducing regulations and removing hindrances that make it so difficult, and implementing many of the policy priorities of the American Farm Bureau Federation. 2) Balance our Federal Budget every single year and pay off our crushing National Debt. These are an existential threat to our nation. 3) Incentivize 2-Parent Households and Gainful Employment by dramatically reforming our Welfare programs that for too long have devastated the American family and led to the national catastrophe of fatherless homes. 4) End Abortion in America via Constitutional Amendment. |
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