Zach Raknerud's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
On The Ballot: Running, Democratic-NPL for State House (ND) - District 5
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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.
North Dakota Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| This decision should lie between a woman and her doctor. We can reduce the amount of abortions by making economic investments in the American people. Today, having a child comes with significant financial burdens, from healthcare costs to the lack of paid family leave and affordable childcare. If we better invest in these things, more would choose to carry a pregnancy to term. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| Both Social Security and Medicare should be expanded. It is time that the United States joins our peer nations in utilizing Medicare as a single payer healthcare coverage provider. Social Security provides us an excellent path to provide paid family and sick leave. Congress should eliminate the taxable income cap to pay for that expansion. Both of these investments would go a long way to improving the standard of living for our poor through middle class. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizen's United decision was one of the worst in our nation's history. It opened a floodgate of dark money that has corrupted the democratic process. It is time that we publicly finance our elections system. Every eligible voter in the United States should receive an elections dividend that they can contribute to the candidates of their choice. This would significantly increase the bargaining power of the American working class at a time when the priorities of wealthy special interests are front and center. | |||
| No | Do you support the protection of government officials, including law enforcement officers, from personal liability in civil lawsuits concerning alleged misconduct? | ||
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| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| Our men and women in uniform deserve to have their pay continually increased as new defense spending packages are vetted. However, there needs to be a serious re-prioritization of defense spending to ensure taxpayer funds are being used responsibly. The influence of special interests lobbying on defense spending issues is a large part of the problem. If we work to fix that, we can work to fix a bloated defense budget. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Relief funds should be applied with greater oversight. Funds should be dispersed on a priority of need. Small business owners needing to be on hold for up to 22 hours to access the process is fundamentally flawed. Congress should have also looked at a moratorium on non-essential debt collection to ensure businesses could survive the economic fallout of the pandemic. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| In general, the educational culture of high-stakes testing is fundamentally flawed. While standards should be met, training students to take tests is not leading to desirable outcomes. This is especially true in cases where school districts lose resources upon performing poorly. Those instances should result in more investment, not less. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Given the urgency of climate change as a result of man-made CO2 emissions, the United States should look to provide incentive for corporations to not pollute. This can be achieved with a modest carbon tax. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| The Second Amendment is extremely important. Americans should have the right to purchase weapons for cases of self defense and recreation. We should work to enact common sense reform that prevents bad actors from attaining these dangerous weapons. Those passionate about firearm safety in their communities should be part of that process. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| I believe that Social Security should be used as a mechanism for universal paid medical leave. | |||
| No | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| The United States should make expansions in legal residency. Many immigrants are able and ready to help this great nation and try to become a part of it. We should create a pathway to citizenship that includes legal residency for those who want to contribute to our nation. Law abiding immigrants should not have to live in fear. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| It is so very important that we do everything we can to bring our men and women in uniform back home to their families. We must also ensure the security of our nation, but it is clear to me that the endless wars we are witness to have been a result of poor decisions in Washington. | |||
| No | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| Protecting American jobs should be our first priority. If that means trade barriers that protect their dignity, then I support it. | |||
| 1.) Expanding Medicare to cover all Americans. We can do this by increasing the Medicare tax from 3% to 8%, split between employee and employer. This would cover all Americans at all times while also delivering significant savings to the American people. 2.) Publicly financing our elections system with an elections dividend for every eligible American. 3.) Implementing a federal jobs program to employ Americans in work of value in their communities. The cost of not doing so would be far higher than to do it. |
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