Michael Caddell's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Michael Caddell has failed to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2020 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
Kansas State Legislative Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| No | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| Abortion is a medical procedure like any other medical procedure. There is no scientific or medical reason to pass legislation regarding abortion as anything other than any of a number of routing outpatient procedures. | |||
1) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Kansas's budget.2) State Spending:Indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) State Taxes:Indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.
| Yes | a) Tapping into Kansas's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Decreasing funding for public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | d) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | e) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Small business taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Property taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Sales taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | k) Do you support applying sales taxes to all online purchases? | ||
| Yes | l) Do you support reducing the sales tax rate on groceries? | ||
| Tax laws need to be revised. A 13.5% income tax on the personal income of the top earners (over $380,000/year) will replace losses due to the Brownback administration tax cuts for the wealthy top earners, which has caused roughly $750,000,000 state revenue loss per year. The LLC exemption, a loss of roughly $250,000,000 revenue per year, should be reviewed to close the "pass-through" loophole, while retaining the exemption for legitimate Kansas businesses, if possible. | |||
| Kansas must accept the "Medicare expansion" Obamacare plan, and restore funding cuts for the disabled, children and the poor. Expansion of Medicare will help individual citizens with the greatest need for care, and will help to save some of our rural hospitals, which are not only a vital source of emergency medical care, but are often also the largest employer in a community. Rural hospitals are key to keeping our rural communities viable. This is a win-win-win that should be implemented without delay. | |||
| The guiding principle for taxation should be to encourage local business and community resilience: "Main Street, not Wall Street." Sales tax on food should be decreased. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Secretary of State Kobach's war on voters and the legislation introduced to restrict voting rights should be reversed immediately. "Voter fraud" is a non-issue. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| No | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support delaying the seizure of assets by law enforcement officials until after a conviction? | ||
| Prosecution of a minor as an adult should be conditional on the age and maturity of the offender and other circumstances as determined by a complete professional (medical/psychiatric etc.) assessment. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| Yes | i) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| j) Should employers be able to ask about applicants' criminal history before interviewing them? | |||
| Any program to fix our serious economic challenges must take a "systems approach." Corporations should be taxed at a much higher rate; the Glass-Steagall Act should be reinstated. An employee must be able to earn a living without working 60-80 hours a week or relying on food stamps to put food on the table. Government should not subsidize the energy sector or corporate agriculture; this leads to more problems down the line, such as waste and poor food quality. The middle class must be restored. In a wealthy industrial nation 1 in 5 children should not go to bed hungry. | |||
| a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | |||
| No | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| Yes | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| No | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| No | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Kansas high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| The Common Core State Standards initiative is well-intentioned and may turn out to have been the correct choice in the long run, but other possible approaches to improving the education of our children should be reviewed. Sacrificing education in the arts, literature, and physical education seems a high price to pay. Finland, Australia and New Zealand have very high student performance without implementing such a drastic approach. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Kansas's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support increased regulations of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| Fracking is a "negative ROIA" activity, meaning that the "net energy" from it is actually less than you gain, once the costs of extraction and environmental damage are factored in. This is even more true of shale oil extraction. These novel petroleum extraction is only financially possible because the financial sector has invested heavily in it. The damage caused by fracking and disposing the toxic waste is irreversible and severe. There is no rational scientific support for fracking, just like there is no "clean coal". They are both too expensive to do safely or economically over the long run. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| No | e) Do you support allowing concealed carry on public college campuses in Kansas? | ||
| All gun transactions should be registered, regardless of the source or type of transaction. You need a license to drive a car because of the potential for harm to others. Gun ownership carries a risk of harm, therefore licensing their ownership is in line with existing legal principles of allowing ownership, while still promoting owner responsibility for limiting potential harm to others. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| The requirement to maintain insurance should be waived for low-income individuals. Current law doesn't allow reasonable exemptions from income tax penalty; for example, having no income to pay for insurance is not considered an acceptable reason for not carrying insurance. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Kansas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Kansas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | d) Based on the religious beliefs of the owners, should businesses be allowed to refuse services to their employees and/or customers? | ||
| While it makes zero sense from a "business" perspective to arbitrarily discriminate against customers on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, if an owner wishes to behave in such an unbusinesslike manner it is not the business of government to interdict it. Generally the "marketplace" will address it through adverse public attention and boycotting. | |||
| 1. Getting Kansas budget back in the black by reversing tax cuts on the highest income bracket, and increasing personal income tax for the top 1% (over $352,000 AGI per year) to 13.5%. Maintain the tax exclusion for LLCs as long as they are legitimate Kansas businesses, not just using the exclusion as a "pass-through" loophole. 2. Restore school funding to the old "Rose formula", which worked well for years. 3. Restore and expand investment in critical infrastructure repairs through the Kansas Works program, and possibly other similar initiatives to expand the number of higher wage jobs. |
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