James Mitchell, Jr.'s Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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James Mitchell, Jr. did not provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2024 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
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.
Presidential Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| If ?black lives matter,? why is Pro Choice supported at all? All lives matter regardless when the idea of life begins. If anecdotal death by guns is reported and grieved by living relatives, why isn?t unborn life, witnessed by technology rejoiced by some vicariously, not give the same value and intensity of outrage by 'black lives matter' advocates? What criteria are we supposed to use to determine our respective human value? I believe there should be an absolute unequivocal value for human life at any age. | |||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| America needs to increase its defense funding budget to support an increased number of active duty members. This cost is off set with reduced funding for safety net programs for military age eligible civilians. The income tax laws need to be repealed and replaced by a tax on consumption by all consumers. Foreign made goods need a social security component added to their respective value to replace lost contributions because of foreign manufacture and tax code manipulation. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Campaign donations should have no restrictions for quantity. HOWEVER all donations over $100.00 need to be recorded within 24 hours with complete disclosure. Elected or appointed office holders must disclose who, how much and what legislation or position is being supported. Automatic fines at 100% should be collected within 48 hours. | |||
| Yes | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| We need a complete overhaul of the justice system, due process and comprehension of responsibility by individuals at the end of eighth grade and then reinforced every year in high school. It starts with the family, one or two parents; the child understanding societal right from wrong ? health, behavior and criminal activity. Bench trials for people caught in the act of a crime. We need to rework due process to make this happen, reducing evidence mistakes and providing for faster executions. MORE INFORMATION ON WEB SITE | |||
| No | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| The tax code needs to be overhauled. There are too many loop holes that don?t really foster sustained development and growth. Critical infrastructure is a shared expense from the local level into the Federal government and across state lines. All transportation systems, sewer, potable water and communications are critical for life, commerce and healthy communities. My answer becomes YES when corruption is removed and local and state leaders are held personally accountable. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| The Federal government should not be either a direct or grant provider in education. The role should be to gather statistics, publish reports and make policy recommendations. It is up to states and their local communities to solve all educational matters. Health care field and any other kind of corporation have the best opportunity to influence improved curriculum in all levels of schools. Improved standards of education can be dictated at the federal level by requirements for appointment and acceptance into all of the military academies. | |||
| Yes | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| Yes | Do you support funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| Our economy and life style has an insatiable need for energy. We need to manage without hindrance our access to energy ? research, development, consumption and remediation of its production to protect our air, land (surface and subsurface) and water resources including the oceans. We need to hold corporate executives, venture (speculative) capital accountable and not tolerate ANY delays in production remediation or accident remediation. Bad management and corruption and deceit do not get a pass from personal fines and incarceration. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| We need to better manage our sloppy personal habits and corporate behavior. Federal guidelines and rules have a better opportunity to be more uniformly applied, monitored and enforced. Responsible stewardship is necessary with licensing of extraction, production, delivery and consumption of natural resources. | |||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I support the 2nd amendment. I support concealed carry and am now leaning towards open carry. I believe parents are responsible for their children, their children's medications and their children's restricted access to fire arms while they have a medication dependency and still living under parental supervision/care. Emancipated adults using mind altering medications have an extra responsibility regarding fire arm ownership and usage. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| We all have a need for clean water, effective responsible sewage treatment, protection of our air, land and water resources, so too with health care. We should have individual responsibility for better health behavior and consequences for bad health behavior just like we do for traffic violations or criminal activity. We need to clean up the stupidity associated with the ACT, tax code favoritism, variable rates for medicines, health care treatment and more. SO we need something in place that is more efficient and effective when OBAMA SCARE IS repealed. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| The answer should be yes but this hemisphere is experiencing a humanitarian crises. The first step should be to militarily clean-up Mexican corruption, drug business and the gangs. The illegals might be inclined to stay put in safer communities. Since they are here, we should start the path to citizenship and integration into our communities. Proper identification, bio metric record (DNA, fingerprints and eye scans) federal photo ID, separate social security number for employment purposes and tax collection, mandatory citizenship classes with English as first language. | |||
| No | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| I respect life style choices and lifetime unions between partners, a pair. I resent the hijacking of the term MARRIAGE. I believe it was done to obtain spousal benefits. I have no problem with similar partner benefits but the law should be written to state those items for that relationship. I will have additional comments on my web blog. | |||
| Yes | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| Yes | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the United States from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| Terrorists are a threat to humanity everywhere! The only rule is survival by whatever means. So it applies equally for all. Since hostile does not mean friendly, up to a point we can agree to disagree, but there may come a time when it is time to act when a threat is imminent. Then the survival rule applies. America should never take a second position militarily with any nation. Peace is always preferable but stalling the inevitable military action while some other nation or group strengthens its position is foolish policy and an increasing threat to our security. | |||
| Yes | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| Financial corruption needs to be crushed, painfully. Honor those already on Social Security payments. Anyone within 5 yrs of retirement has an irrevocable choice either accept Social Security or receive all of their payments and all employer payments in variable maturity date securities with variable interest rates. These items already exist in financial markets. Any one else not ready for retirement would get all of the contributions returned as indicated above. All new employees would have their own private plan. Tax all imports for a ss contribution. | |||
SpendingIndicate what federal spending levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category; you can use a number more than once.TaxesIndicate what federal tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category; you can use a number more than once.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Education | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Slightly Decrease | k) United Nations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Eliminate | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| Increase greatly spending for infrastructure replacement and or new construction, including: Potable water, sewage treatment, roads, bridges, harbors, river dam and locks, flood protection, nuclear power. Partnerships with state, local and corporate. | |||
| Government cannot continue to feed on itself by promising welfare with no return on investment and it cannot continue to outsource production to overseas and tax the salaries for the remaining employed. We all consume. So pay taxes on what we consume. Don't consume aren't taxed. Pay for what you use - roads, sewers, water, etc. Speculation robs the wages of the employed and prevents more dollars in the hands of consumers. Privately held businesses and employee stock owned are different than publicly traded and should be treated differently. | |||
| Reverse some of the OBAMA executive orders that do not automatically expire. Starting a debt reduction plan. America needs to reduce its debt so it can have more disposable capital for infrastructure and defense spending. My web page describes a debt reduction plan. Perhaps for a line item veto. Send all trade treaties to states for ratification as amendments to the constitution. Eliminate planned parenthood. |
| Debt reduction; rebuild all branches of military; 100 % participation in military; move VA oversight and management to DOD; immigration management reform; provide free drugs at federally supervised facilities to reduce crime, recidivism and improve chances for rehabilitation; improve health consciousness and personal responsibility beginning in high school; crush government and corporate corruption; crush terrorism based on religious philosophy, anywhere; create uniform policing standards; faster track for criminal prosecution not relying on mental illness as an excuse for crime; requiring welfare recipients to achieve health improvements and live drug, tobacco and alcohol free. |
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