Les Townsend's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Les Townsend has refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2016 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.
Michigan 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Congress should use it's power per Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution to remove the issue of abortion from the Appellate Review Jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. This action would overturn Roe v. Wade and return the abortion issue to the states. | |||
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.
| Slightly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Maintain Status | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Slightly Increase | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Slightly Increase | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Slightly Increase | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Medical research | ||
| Greatly Decrease | i) Scientific research | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Space exploration | ||
| Greatly Decrease | k) United Nations | ||
| Eliminate | l) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Eliminate | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Other or expanded categories | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Non-defense research should be eliminated. Our funding of the U.N. should be limited to our percentage of the world population. | |||
| The 16th Amendment should be repealed and the Income Tax replaced with a Revenue Tariff on all imports of goods and services. This is necessary to stop the outsourcing of our manufacturing base and the related jobs. | |||
| The Estate Tax should only apply to estates in excess of 10 million dollars ( indexed for inflation ). This action would operate to keep a very small number of families from accumulating all the wealth of the country. This concentration of wealth in a small number of families is the reason for our immigration problems with Mexico. The average Mexican can not better the lot in life for himself or his children and as a result the move to the U.S.. | |||
| No | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| The Social Security System must be restructured so that Congress can not spend the money. For details as to how this can be done go to my web-site at www.voteforles.info and read the page on Social Security. There is also a link which will let you download a free e-book with details. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| Corporate entities such as unions and corporation should not be allowed to make contributions to political campaigns, since they can not vote. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory prison sentences for selling illegal drugs? | ||
| Marijuana is an herb and should not be treated as an illegal drug. Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 29: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food." Since god has made herbs for man to use, no government should make any herb illegal. As far as I am concerned, a higher authority has spoken and there is nothing to debate on the subject. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Education is the responsibility of parents and should be a state issue. The Federal Government should not be involved. | |||
| No | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| (a) Man made global warming is a fraud. (e) Development of our own resources is an essential part of my program to properly fund Social Security and end our dependence on imported oil. Go to my web-site at www.voteforles.info for details. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Where guns are outlawed, the outlaws still have guns and crime skyrockets. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| ( a ) Medicare is a publicly administered health option and is essentially the same as health insurance coverage provided by the large defined benefit pension plans. This should continue in a restructured Social Security System where the funds are held in a pension style trust fund which Congress can not spend. There is a page explaining what the problem is and what must be done on my web-page at www.voteforles.info. | |||
| 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 must control our borders. There is a page explaining what the problem is and what must be done on my web-page at www.voteforles.info. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| We were attacked by Islamic Radicals who were based in Afghanistan. Radical Islam is a threat to the entire western world and appeasement is not an option. There is a page on my web-site at www.voteforles.info about Sharia law with more information. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Congress has the power to block the current attacks on marriage by the homo-sexual activists. There is more information on my web-site at www.voteforles.info. This same Constitutional authority can be used to correct the recent court injunction on the military policy of Don't ask don't tell. | |||
| We can and must fix the funding problems if Social Security and Medicare. This can be done without raising taxes or cutting benefits and a pdf file of an e-book with details can be downloaded from my web-site at www.voteforles.info. We can also end our dependence on imported oil. It the actions detailed in my book are not taken we will see tax levels which will destroy our economy and way of life. |
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