Ernest Rivera's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Issue Positions
For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2016.
- Endorsed platform stating, "We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendmentâs protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion or fund organizations which perform or advocate it and will not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life." (ernierivera.com)
- "Extend the 2001 and 2003 tax relief packages-commonly known as the Bush tax cuts-pending reform of the tax code, to keep tax rates from rising on income, interest, dividends, and capital gains" (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating,"To that end, we support mandatory prison sentencing for [â¦] repeat drug dealers." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed a platform stating, "We endorse State and local initiatives that are trying new approaches to curbing drug abuse and diverting first-time offenders to rehabilitation." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "Backed by a Republican Senate and House, our next President will propose immediate reductions in federal spending, as a down payment on the much larger task of long-range fiscal control." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "It is long past time for the federal government to get out of way and allow private ventures to provide passenger service to the northeast corridor. The same holds true with regard to high-speed and intercity rail across the country." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "Reform the tax code by reducing marginal tax rates by 20 percent across-the-board in a revenue-neutral manner; Eliminate the taxes on interest, dividends, and capital gains altogether for lower and middle-income taxpayers; End the Death Tax; and Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "Parents are responsible for the education of their children. We do not believe in a one size fits all approach to education and support providing broad education choices to parents and children at the State and local level." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "The Keystone XL Pipeline â which would have brought much needed Canadian and American oil to U.S. refineries â would create thousands of jobs. The current Presidentâs job-killing combination of extremism and ineptitude threatens to create a permanent energy shortage. We are committed to approving the Keystone XL Pipeline and to streamlining permitting for the development of other oil and natural gas pipelines." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "Unlike the current Administration, we will not pick winners and losers in the energy marketplace. Instead, we will let the free market and the publicâs preferences determine the industry outcomes. In assessing the various sources of potential energy, Republicans advocate an all-of-the-above diversified approach, taking advantage of all our American God-given resources." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "We also call on Congress to take quick action to prohibit the EPA from moving forward with new greenhouse gas regulations that will harm the nationâs economy and threaten millions of jobs over the next quarter century." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "We condemn frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers and oppose federal licensing or registration of law-abiding gun owners. We oppose legislation that is intended to restrict our Second Amendment rights by limiting the capacity of clips or magazines or otherwise restoring the ill-considered Clinton gun ban." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "Obamacare has been struck down in the court of public opinion and is falling by the weight of its own confusing, unworkable, budget-busting, and conflicting provisions. It would tremendously expand Medicaid without significant reform, leaving the States to assume unsustainable financial burdens. If fully implemented, it could not function; and Republican victories in the November elections will guarantee that it is never implemented." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act â Obamacare â was never really about healthcare, though its impact upon the nationâs health is disastrous. From its start, it was about power, the expansion of government control over one sixth of our economy, and resulted in an attack on our Constitution, by requiring that U.S. citizens purchase health insurance. We agree with the four dissenting justices of the Supreme Court: "In our view the entire Act before us is invalid in its entirety." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked. The pending Department of Justice lawsuits against Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, and Utah must be dismissed immediately. The double-layered fencing on the border that was enacted by Congress in 2006, but never completed, must finally be built. In order to restore the rule of law, federal funding should be denied to sanctuary cities that violate federal law and endanger their own citizens, and federal funding should be denied to universities that provide in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, in open defiance of federal law." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "We will create humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily, while enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorses platform stating, "We reaffirm our support for a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "We will employ the full range of military and intelligence options to defeat Al Qaeda and its affiliates who threaten not just the West but the community of nations." (ernierivera.com)
- Endorsed platform stating, "While no changes should adversely affect any current or near-retiree, comprehensive reform should address our societyâs remarkable medical advances in longevity and allow younger workers the option of creating their own personal investment accounts as supplements to the system." (ernierivera.com)
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