Gary Kauther's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Gary Kauther submitted the 2010 Political Courage Test after the official deadline and release of results to the media. The candidate's late responses are provided here as a public service.
Wisconsin Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| No | b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| No | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| f) Other or expanded principles | |||
1) SpendingIndicate what federal funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.2) 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.
| Maintain Status | a) Agriculture | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Greatly Increase | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Maintain Status | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Maintain Status | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Maintain Status | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Education | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Medical research | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Scientific research | ||
| Slightly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Eliminate | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Eliminate | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| No | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| I support H.R.25 & H.S.25 twin bills indroduced with 54 co-sponsors in the 108th Congress and also indroduced in the 109th Congress. These bills are called the Fair Tax and call for elimnation of the entire U.S. Federal Tax Code. This ineffcient, confusing, and costy Tax Code would be replaced with a single national sales tax. Everyone except the truly poor would pay taxes when they purchase new products or services. By eliminating the corporate and individual income taxes, we would encourage the 11.2 TRILLION dollars of off-shore tax sheltered money to return along with millions of living wage jobs. | |||
| As you can see from my answers, I favor changing the way we fund the federal government. We need to tax the spending side of the planets biggest consumer economy, not the income side. We can use the same technology that is currently being used to collect state lotteries at C-Stores. We can get all the money everyday and nobody would ever owe the government money. If you don't want to pay taxes, be a saver. | |||
| We can solve most of our fiscal problems by fully funding the government without BORROWING money from the Chinese or anybody else. | |||
| No | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| No | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| I'm in favor of cutting burdensome red tape and needless regulations that make life difficult for truly small businesses. WE do need to pay attention to the big Wall Street Bankers, Hedge Funds, Insurance Co.s and very large illegal monopolies like Wal Mart and the other big box retailers. I do not support card-check for union organizing. | |||
| No | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should candidates for federal office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support giving the President the power of the line item veto for items concerning appropriations? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| My campaign is starving the staff by not taking any campaign contributions of over $25. My poor helper is begging for money from an ever diminishing supply of freinds and associstes. These people now run when they see him coming. His ragged clothes no longer fit properly because he's lost so much weight. If more people would work for me, there would be far less overweight people waddeling around. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related training and job-placement assistance when released? | ||
| No | c) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support reduced prison sentences for non-violent offenders? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support mandatory prison sentences for selling illegal drugs? | ||
| Prision is meant to discourage professional crooks. It should always be thought of as a deterrent to crime. We do, however, have to be careful not to overfill our prision systems to the point where we're paying more than we can afford to feed and house these people. | |||
| No | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| No | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| I support fianancial aid for QUALIFIED college students who have worked hard to get accepted to the various secondary colleges and universities. K-12 education is a state's issue. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| No | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| I believe that many of these issues need to be addressed with care. We need to be certain that the science is correct. I have doubts about some of the assumptions that are being made with regard to the causes of global warming for instance. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual citizens to own guns? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| I believe 2nd Amendment rights are very important to the people in the &th District. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| No | c) Should the federal government expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support relaxing regulations on the importation of prescription drugs? | ||
| I've long believed that the enourmous fraud, waste, duplication, deceptive billing practices, collusion between Giant Health Care Companies and Insurance Companies is the main cause of un-affordable health insurance. We should recind ObamaCare and take the 1.5 TRILLION dollars of waste out of the system and reform the system - if necessary. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| WE already have lots of immigration laws and quotas. We need to enforce them. If we gaurd our borders and enforce sound immigration policies that punish employers as well as illegals we can get back to a stable situation here in America. | |||
| No | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing economic development assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | ||
| No | f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | ||
| No | g) Do you support increasing sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy United Nations mandates? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq? | ||
| No | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| I think we need to get out of the Nation Building Business. Our primary enemies are non-state sponsored enemies that are aligned along various ethnic, religious and historical lines. We can not change these biases by throwing money around the world. | |||
| Yes | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| No | b) Do you support allowing openly-gay men and women to serve in the United States military? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the federal government end affirmative action programs? | ||
| These social issues are largely issues to be discussed in forums other than the U.S. Congress. Church is a good place to dicuss these types of issues. | |||
| As I stated above many of our most pressing problems are caused by the way we fund the federal government. My support of the Fair Tax is largely based on the notion that it is revenue nuetral and may even produce wanted or un-wanted surpluses. My top three priorities are 1) balanced budget 2) Job Creation 3) a robust and expanding economy far into the future. The Fair Tax brings back jobs, balances the budget, and provides a stable economic base for our children and grandchildren. |
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