Jim Francis' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
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Jim Francis has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2018 Political Courage Test.
Louisiana Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| We should regard the woman as a person and not just as a container for the fetus. We should therefore give great consideration to her rights and needs as well as those of the unborn. Women do not take a casual or callous attitude to the fetus; the opposite is usually true, and most of them acknowledge that. The right for women to make their own decisions instead of Congress dictating their rights is very important. Pro-life would suggest supporting children after they are born which Republicans refuse to support. Therefore, they are pro-birth, not pro-life. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| If we wish to maintain an out-of-control Defense budget, that can't account for nearly a Trillion dollars a decade, we must raise taxes on big corporations and the wealthy. That�s what rational politicians would do if they weren�t in the pockets of big corporations and the wealthy. Many reason we need to lower defense spending but I'll give you just one - infrastructure. Our country's infrastructure is in dire need and we do nothing. We need more efficiency in defense spending - not higher budgets. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Money is the root of our corrupted political system and accounts for 90% of all influence in votes taken by Congress. Want a better system of representation? Take out the money. Big donations = Big favors owed. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| With the massive system that has been put in place over decades to benefit corporations, we now see how the Middle-Class gets the burden while massively profitable corporations use every loophole in their favor and most literally pay a 0% tax rate. This undermines our ability to address infrastructure, education, middle class, and so much more. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| If we can a science-based determination of those education standards, yes. This would also help identify the most under-performing school districts in our country which need serious attention. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| When the government supports clean, renewable energy, it's doing its job as a protector of the public interest. Shifting from polluting energy sources to clean, locally-produced renewable energy protects the health of the American people, keeps our air and water cleaner, and boosts our economy by creating good jobs and new careers. The money we invest in renewable energy is an investment in America. It creates American jobs and keeps our energy dollars at home, instead of sending our earnings abroad. The clean economy already employs nearly 6 million people in this country more than the entire fossil fuel industry. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Americans are not seeking to repeal the Second Amendment. They do not seek to ban the sale of guns. What is needed is sensible gun control laws including increasing the age of gun buyers to age 21, universal background checks to prevent violent people from having guns and banning the sale of military style assault weapons. We can do this if we avoid extreme arguments on the issue. Most Americans already agree on stricter gun control laws. But change will only come from Congress when lawmakers who do not represent the interest of the people are removed from office. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| The Affordable Care Act is improving the quality of our health care while controlling rapidly rising costs. Health care reform requires insurance plans to cover important preventive services, including critical immunizations, numerous health screenings, counseling services, and most importantly - preexisting conditions. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Gaining legal status would likely mean three things for people now living in the US illegally� First, they would no longer be subject to deportation solely because they�re in the country illegally, as long as they are law abiding in other ways. Second, they would be authorized to work. Third, they would have the ability to travel in and out of the United States. At least 60 percent of the illegal population has been in the US for more than 10 years� and are unable to return to their home countries to visit family or for other reasons. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes? | ||
| Legal consistency is important. I can buy huge amounts of vodka or menthol cigarettes nearly anywhere in the U.S., and we can attribute thousands of lost lives to those products. The strength of regulation we apply to our actions has to be proportionate to their danger. We have over a decade of data from Colorado that proves: expanded tax base, lower DUI rates, lower black-market drug dealers, lower opioid addiction, and so many more specific points that warrant legalization. | |||
| Yes | Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| No | Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support? | ||
| The U.S. approaches have run the gamut. There were major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There were limited airstrikes in Libya. America opted for diplomacy and financial assistance with allies like Egypt and Pakistan, and sanctions against rivals, like Iran. Yet there's not a single success story. With so much trouble scattered over such a vast landscape, an alternative critique holds that the U.S. can't possibly keep the lid on a region going through a maelstrom of historic proportions that's beyond the control of any outside power. | |||
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