Karen Baker's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Karen Baker is currently being tested through the 2024 Political Courage Test.
Virginia Congressional Election 2024 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| No | Do you support the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade? | ||
| Women's choices should be respected. A woman's body is no less her own than a man's is. | |||
| Yes | Do you support expanding federal funding to support social safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| No | Do you support a decrease in income taxes in order to balance the budget? | ||
| Yes | Do you support a wealth tax in order to pay for public programs? | ||
| Social Security is non-negotiable. Social Security is not part of the federal spending budget. We must eliminate the Social Security withholding threshold to make the Trust Fund solvent for the foreseeable future. Medicare and medicaid are also nonnegotiable because healthcare is a human right and should not be a profit opportunity. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations, unions, and individuals? | ||
| Citizens United has enabled the rich and powerful to lock voters out and lawmakers in. One person-one vote loses its meaning when corporations and the ultra wealthy can spend unlimited resources to buy the influence legislators really owe their constituents. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth (e.g. grants, tax incentives)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal government increasing funding for affordable housing programs? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal government taking action, beyond those of the Federal Reserve, to alleviate inflation? | ||
| The role of government in a modern economy is to ensure that every person has an opportunity to reach their full potential. That means investing in education and childcare, job training and broadband for everyone. We have to put an end to corporate welfare and invest in workers who are the lifeblood of our economy. We have to revise our tax laws to reflect that priority. The fact is that many corporations have taken advantage of inflation to increase prices well beyond the effects of inflation. They need to be called out for profiteering. We need to enforce the anti-trust laws that we already have on the books, because industry concentration facilitates price gouging on the backs of American families. Competition is good for our economy and our consumers, and too often these days it no longer drives prices. A thriving middle class is the American promise, and we are losing our middle class to corporate greed. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the forgiveness of federal student loan debt? | ||
| As we work towards making college and trade school training accessible and affordable for everyone who needs or wants it, freeing working families from the weight of unmanageable debt should be part of that process. All the money they save will be put directly back into local economies. That is building a strong middle class. The student loan forgiveness program presently being utilized is for Americans who have either devoted their careers to public service or who have long ago paid off their loans' principle. This is not "free money." | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring a government-issued identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| As long as that ID is issued for free and with no unreasonable documentation requirements. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation (e.g. red flag laws, boyfriend loopholes)? | ||
| The 2nd Amendment is a right guaranteed to every citizen. In rural areas, such as the 9th Congressional District, firearms are tools used by farmers to protect flocks, hunters to provide for their families, and for remote homes' protection. Many weapons popularly considered as "assault weapons" are functionally equivalent to weapons that are not so considered. Any regulation of firearms must be carefully evaluated to determine whether that regulation would be effective in preventing violent use of a firearm. | |||
| Yes | Do you support a government-run (e.g. single-payer) healthcare program, such as Medicare-for-All? | ||
| Yes | Do you support expanding paid family AND/OR medical leave benefits (e.g. maternity leave)? | ||
| Yes | Should the government be able to regulate the cost of prescription drugs? | ||
| What we are after in the immediate future are options that make quality health care more accessible and affordable. A medicare option for all Americans is what we need to work toward. We are the only industrialized nation that does not consider healthcare a basic right. It's time. The government should be able to negotiate prescription drug prices and invalidate patents that allow drugs that are not genuinely novel to receive inappropriate market protection. Paid maternity and paternity leave invests in families and helps them to nurture their families without the added stress of lost income. If we truly believe in families, we have to address what is basic to their economic and social wellbeing. | |||
| Yes | Do you support increasing security along the southern US border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship, regardless of their immigration status? | ||
| I support the legislation proposed by conservative GOP senators and joined by Democrats, which passed the Senate in 2024, which legislation the House of Representatives abandoned at the direction of Donald Trump. Many immigrant families have fled violence in their countries of origin and made arduous journeys in difficult and dangerous circumstances to arrive at the border. These families may well be entitled to asylum. To require return to a home that was not and is not remotely safe is to condemn these families to violence and even death. Inhumanity like this should be unthinkable to any American who remembers that we are all immigrants. | |||
| Yes | Do you support economic intervention as a means of resolving international conflicts? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the US providing increased offensive military aid to Ukraine? | ||
| Realistically, using economic sanctions as a deterrent against aggressive or malevolent governments is a tool that has proven its worth over and over again. Likewise, having supportive economic relationships with allies and governments who are expanding democracies and standing against tyranny has also proven critical to U.S. interests at home and abroad. Bullying on any level should not be tolerated. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support increased regulations on social media companies (e.g. Tik Tok, Facebook, etc.)? | ||
| We live in the Technology Age. The pace at which that landscape is expanding and becoming more and more a part of our daily lives needs to be monitored. The ease with which we can access and disseminate information can and does run afoul of our privacy expectations. Data breaches and cyber attacks are part of the international terrorist arsenal. Responsible leadership means being able to objectively assess risk/reward and act accordingly. | |||
| Increase funding for pilot programs to decentralize and improve the quality and accessibility of rural health. The combined challenges of rural geography and the closing of rural hospitals means that access to quality healthcare overall, as well as critical and maternity care, are of paramount concern. Healthcare is a basic human right and until that right is fully realized in our rural communities, we are a nation of two-tiered services, where zip code is determinant. Direct Federal Funding for Rural School Districts. Block Grant programs that are allocated through State Government often underfund rural school districts and leave their graduates unable to compete for jobs that pay a living wage. We need better salaries for rural teachers so that they do not leave after becoming fully competent, we need cutting edge technology taught in our schools, as more affluent districts have had, and we need robust trades education in these schools, taught be competent, well-compensated professional tradespeople. Quality public education is a critical role for government in a modern democracy. Jobs: The 9th District has lost the well-paying jobs that support small businesses, schools, and family growth. We are losing our young people because these jobs are not here. We need trades education to prepare our people for the kind of jobs that can be had with a trained workforce. This can be accomplished by extending Pell Grants to trades education, federal funding for higher level technical education in our community colleges, and federal tax credits for technical internships. We can support returnees from prison with training for good jobs. We need to increase SBA funding of new business that will provide higher-paying jobs and revitalize local merchants who have always been the backbone of rural economies. We need major funding from the federal government to incentive investment by major corporations outside the retail sector. It should be noted that unions are as critical now to the establishment of the middle class as they were a century ago. The right of the working public to organize and bargain collectively for a square deal is fundamental in our modern economy. |
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