Andrew Duck's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
On The Ballot: Running, Democratic for State House (MD) - District 4
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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.
Maryland Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Women must be able to control their own health choices. I am the 15th of 17 children, and was raised Catholic. But I believe in the separation of church and state. I will not impose my personal religious beliefs on others. I will always defend a woman's right to choose. | |||
| 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? | ||
| We should roll back the $1.5 Trillion 2017 tax cut for corporations and the rich. We need to address income inequality by closing tax loopholes. We should tax capital gains at the same rate as earned income, instead of punishing work. Defense spending accounts for 57% of our discretionary spending, which is unaffordable. We need comprehensive Defense Acquisition Reform to reduce spending while speeding up the procurement of equipment and materials. I am the only candidate in this primary who has experience with the Defense Budget processes and has the skills needed to accomplish this reform. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I support campaign finance reform. I support over-turning Citizens United, which found that corporations were people and entitled to free speech. I do not believe that corporations are people. More importantly, I support overturning Buckley v. Valeo, the 1976 case where the Supreme Court ruled that money was a form of speech. I believe in the principle of "one person, one vote", not in "one dollar, one vote." Buckley v. Valeo is discriminatory in that it allows persons with more money to have more speech than persons with less money. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Lower corporate taxes do not promote economic growth. We need to close corporate tax loopholes, especially those which encourage corporations to move jobs overseas. These loopholes allow many large corporations to pay almost nothing in taxes. Our tax policies are slanted to advantage the very rich, and we should change that. Reducing income inequality will promote economic growth. Direct federal spending on infrastructure will create jobs and improve economic growth. We needed to increase the deficit during a recession to jump-start the economy, but now we are experiencing economic growth, so we should pay down the national debt. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| The federal government should ensure all students have access to a free, quality education; regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or geographic location. I support Universal Pre-K thru debt-free graduation from a 4-year college or trade school. I do not support Common Core, which was written to benefit one company, Pearsons. The federal government should provide a set of "best practices". Evaluation of school performance should not be based only on multiple choice tests. We should evaluate not just Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, but also include music, art, and physical education, and technical training in addition to college preparation. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Climate change is real, and I have been doing something about it. For 5 years, I have been Director of Operations of a Green Energy research company which has gotten two patents for conductive polymer technology for improved solar panels and energy storage. I support geo-thermal heating and cooling for federal buildings over 3,000 square feet. We must do more than stop carbon pollution. We should clean up the mess already exists. I support an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Carbon (ARPA-C) to research how to reduce atmospheric carbon. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| You have a right to own a firearm, unless you are a criminal or mentally unstable. But with that right comes the responsibility to prevent criminals and mentally unstable persons from obtaining firearms. I have been selected as a Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate. We need host of changes to our laws, including: - Universal background checks, every time a gun changes hands. - Mandatory registration of firearms - Reporting of mental health issues to the background check system - No Fly, No Buy - When issuing a Temporary Restraining Order for domestic violence, remove firearms from the household | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| I support House Bill 676, MEDICARE For All. Health care is a human right, and everyone should have quality health care. The part of our health care system which is working best is MEDICARE, taking care of our seniors. Let's build on what works and expand MEDICARE so it covers everyone. MEDICARE For All should cover prescription drugs, vision care, dental care and mental health care. Currently 35 to 40% of our health care dollar goes to administrative costs. MEDICARE only costs about 3%. I will defend the Affordable Care Act until we can replace it with MEDICARE For All. | |||
| 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? | ||
| We need comprehensive immigration reform which increases legal immigration, to reduce illegal immigration. We should support family reunification and not discriminate based on nationality. Building a 30 foot wall across our southern border is absurd. Most undocumented residents enter legally, but overstay their visa. No wall will prevent that. Any Muslim ban is unconstitutional. I support a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. Persons who were brought here as children should not be punished. We should end the 287g program, which is discriminatory. I am the only candidate who has debated Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins on the 287g program. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes? | ||
| I support the decriminalization of marijuana. Marijuana has legitimate medical benefits. The federal government should remove marijuana from the Class I drug list because it has demonstrated legitimate medical uses. This would permit fuller testing to determine medical benefits, identify what components of marijuana provides medical benefits, determine effective dosage levels, etc. We need to treat all drug use and substance abuse as a medical problem, not a criminal problem. We have too many people in prison for non-violent drug use. We should not be crowding prisons with recreational marijuana users. We should provide treatment for substance abuse treatment. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| I spent 20 years serving in the Army including three deployments to Bosnia and time on the ground in Iraq. We need a Diplomacy First foreign policy. Congress should take responsibility for War and Peace and withdraw the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which is currently being used for multiple conflicts that we should not be supporting. We should intervene economically and diplomatically. Military force should only be used as a last resort. As a trained Korean linguist, I know the North Korean threat. We need a diplomatic, not a military solution there. | |||
| - Healthcare - I support MEDICARE For All. - Living Wage - I support the Fight For $15 as a first step toward a living wage. If you work 40 hours, you should be able to put a roof over your head. - Defend America's Democracy - Russia meddled in our election. We need a thorough counter-intelligence investigation to determine exactly what they did, and who assisted them. I have supervised counter-intelligence operations against the Russians. - Address Climate Change - For five years, I have worked in Green Energy research developing new materials for energy storage. |
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