Gary Josephson's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
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Gary Josephson has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2022 Political Courage Test.
Ohio Congressional Election 2022 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I believe that the right to determine whether to carry a pregnancy to term and the right to use contraception are essential for women to live free, equal, and self-determined lives as guaranteed by the constitution, which endeavors to secure the blessings of liberty for all the people. The focus needs to be on making the world safe for raising children. | |||
| Yes | Do you support expanding federal funding to support social safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| No civilized country would allow its oldest citizens to live in grinding poverty or deny medical care to them. Safety net programs actually reduce costs in the long run, allowing people to live in dignity rather than allowing small problems to become catastrophes. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations,unions, and individuals? | ||
| Yes. The quality of civic and political discourse has become significantly worse since SCOTUS published their Citizens United decision. However, limiting campaign contributions disadvantages small campaigns with no way to tap into the vast fortunes that are used by media-centric candidates and consultants that serve to keep citizens un-informed and deluged with controversy.�� | |||
| No | Do you support the protection of government officials, including law enforcement officers, from personal liability in civil lawsuits concerning alleged misconduct? | ||
| Qualified immunity is necessary for Judges and Prosecutors, but not for other public officials. Civil Rights Section 1983 allows any citizen to sue if their civil rights have been violated by state government employees. Qualified immunity for other than Judges and Prosecutors takes away this right. | |||
| Yes | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| I support spending to improve the life and safety of our troops, to allow our defense infrastructure to adapt to the realities of climate change, and to created the resources to allow democracies around the world to defend themselves. However, the Defense Department budget needs review and careful accounting to not waste the taxpayers money. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal government taking action, beyond those of the Federal Reserve, to alleviate inflation? | ||
| Public-private partnerships to promote economic growth work to grow America better than either private or public individually. These (national emergency for Covid-19) funds should be distributed on a case-by-case basis for large companies and accounted well. Economists have known for many decades that countercyclical investment can mitigate the worst boom-and-bust cycles inherent to modern capitalism. Tax cuts for billionaires and stock buy-backs are not good use of countercyclical investment resources. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the forgiveness of federal student loan debt? | ||
| I support forgiveness if it is earned through public service, for example taking the time to mentor America's youth. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring a government-issued identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Those who do not have ID can be allowed a provisional ballot that will be cleared absent fraud. These provisional ballots should be available in any district of the home state. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Protecting the environment works better with incentives than will regulations. Regulations have a role if incentives don?t work. Governments (directly, or via colleges and universities) advance technologies to be cost-effective, and then industry takes it from there.? | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes, legislation to control guns not designed for self-defense. No, legislation for self-defense weapons. Except right-to-own can be lost through due process of law. Meaning, people who mess-up can lose this right. Constitutional interpretation begins with exact words; the Second Amendment has no mention of any individual right to own a gun. The focus on militia for state security and common defense seems clear and ownership of high-powered weapons belongs only to state regulated purposes. A right to own arms refers only to the self-defense weapons. Other weapons must be carefully regulated to prevent dangerous misuse and to �suppress insurrections.� | |||
| Yes | Do you support a government-run (single-payer) healthcare program, such as Medicare-for-All? | ||
| Yes | Do you support expanding paid family AND/OR medical leave opportunities? | ||
| Yes | Do you support lowering the cost of prescription drugs? | ||
| The current system is inefficient and ineffective compared to other developed nations. Medical leave allows sick workers to stay home rather than infecting others. Higher paid workers have paid sick leave, but often lower paid workers do not and they cannot afford to skip work. Paid sick leave is the answer. American universities provide the fundamental research upon which modern pharmaceuticals depend. We should not also have to pay higher prices for the drugs. Lower prices may produce distortions which injure workers and domestic producers. Pricing reform with protections for workers, consumers, and companies is needed. | |||
| Yes | Do you support increasing security along the southern US border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Security is more than policing and border guards. Security includes work with families, and spreading the burden beyond local and state officials to the Federal government. Most immigrants and asylum seekers want to work, pay taxes, and be responsible members of the community. Only those who willingly fail to meet their responsibilities should be deported. They want what all Americans want - jobs, homes, safe communities, and educations for their children. They pay in and contribute to the richness of this country. Most are long-term assets, not burdens. The solution or Congress to step up and create a grand compromise. | |||
| Yes | Do you support economic intervention as a means of resolving international conflicts? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the U.S. providing increased offensive military aid to Ukraine? | ||
| The U.S. economy and dollar remain fixtures of stability, and a resource for rescue. Interventions often increase long-term economic relations of benefit to both countries. Like returns on investment in business, but measured on a long-term scale. Russian retreats in Ukraine have revealed mass graves full of tortured bodies. Ukrainians have been forcibly transferred deep within Russia. Russia is threatening to use starvation as a tool of mass murder. This is an evil on the scale that Europe has not seen since WWII. Still, Ukraine should be cautious not to use offensive weapons beyond the barriers of the contested districts. | |||
| Yes | Do you support raising taxes, on any income or on any entity, to promote economic growth? | ||
| I support raising taxes on those who can most afford it, because that?s how a civilized society works. Smart investment by government can ? and does ? promote economic growth, and taxes are just necessary for that to happen. Furthermore, economic growth itself is not the goal; the goal is for Americans to have Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.? Economic growth is merely one tool in the toolbox. I support extra taxes on super profits with breaks if that industry invests heavily in the green economy and the U.S. infrastructure. | |||
| No | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| In an ideal world, I would support removing such barriers. But we currently live in a world in which workers in some countries have workplace protections and other countries don't. Similarly, some nations have strong environmental protections and others don't. It is fundamentally unfair to allow corporations to sidestep the protections America provides by simply importing from other countries.�� | |||
| We need to restore the rule of law including prevention of any repeat of the January 6th sacking of our Capitol. We need to do everything we can to mitigate the damage inflicted by the Dobbs decision and use federal facilities throughout the nation to provide medical care to all Americans, regardless of what states they live in. I advocate a public service program that reduces or eliminates student debt. Additionally, we need to provide one-on-one mentoring for every youth. |
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