Washington Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test

Abortion

1. Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
- Unknown Position

2. Other or expanded principles
- While I believe that life begins at conception, I also believe the government should not be held responsible for a life until they can survive outside their mother's womb. I understand that this will leave a gap between what I believe and the laws of our nation, but it is not the government's responsibility to save our souls. I would work to provide options to minimize the moral cost that we would incur, e.g. facilitating neo-natal care and adoptions, and contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Budget

1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- Unknown Position

2. In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending?
- Unknown Position

3. Other or expanded principles
- We need to balance our budget; otherwise, we saddle future generations with excessive debts that we have accrued. I would seek to find taxation that doesn't choke off growth, yet yields enough to fund the services we collectively agree on providing ourselves. I would be open to reviewing all incoming funds and expenditures to find a balance that will not limit the options of those who come after us.

Campaign Finance

1. Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- I do not equate money to speech. Money is just a means to amplify one's voice. As such, I would accept limitations on individual and groups in order to prevent the voices of those without large sums of money from being heard. If an amendment to the Constitution is required to clarify such a distinction between money and speech, I would support that.

Economy

1. Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes

2. Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- There are areas where we should pool together to create an environment that is fertile for growth and innovation, e.g. infrastructure and research. I am open to this kind of collective investment going to where we will net the greatest benefit, whether through public or private entities. I support minimizing the burden on corporations where they generate widely distributed benefits, e.g. good paying jobs, research and innovation. I am less inclined toward focused cuts that benefit only a narrow portion of the populace.

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- Educational standards are best left to state and local governments. If local districts decide to adopt a standard that has been accepted in other jurisdictions, e.g. Common Core, that is fine by me, but I wouldn't look for the federal government to direct those initiatives.

Energy & Environment

1. Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)?
- Yes

2. Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- I believe that taking billions of tons every year of anything from the ground and releasing it into the air, at a minimum, carries risks with it. I would support federal efforts to factor in costs to hedge against those. If those risks, whether we know about all of them or not, start to become costs, then the sooner we take steps to address them, the better. I also do not believe that it is in the United States' best interests to go against broad international consensus, such as the Paris Climate Accord.

Guns

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- I believe our system of government requires a powerful citizenry, with a right to arms being a part of a hedge against tyranny. Having said that, I still support efforts to close loopholes in background checks, to restrict the sale of weapons, modifications or accessories that have or enable automatic fire capabilities, and to research firearm uses and impacts. I would also support a federal framework for interstate recognition of firearm permits, as respective state governments see fit.

Health Care

1. Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- The fight over the ACA/Obamacare has been primarily about who pays for health care, with the competing sides being: "We should chip in together" vs "We should stand on our own." I would like to see us move past the question of "Who pays?" to "Why do we pay so much?" In the United States, we pay some of the highest per capita costs for the care we receive, with people in most other countries paying a fraction of what we do. I would work towards efforts to rein in those costs.

Immigration

1. Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
- No

2. Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
- Unknown Position

3. Other or expanded principles
- My family, not too many generations back, were immigrants. Our nation has benefited from an inflow of new people from various backgrounds and I would expect this to continue with new immigrants. Unfortunately past policies and enforcement priorities have gotten us to where millions of contributors to our society do not have legal status. I would work to lessen that imbalance by prioritizing the enforcement of our borders, while creating paths to citizenship for many of those who contribute to our society and economy.

Marijuana

1. Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- States should have the ability to weigh the cost and risks of marijuana being legal or illegal, and then decide for themselves which designation best fits their citizens. The federal government should then work to ensure each state's choices are respected, from assistance in enforcing any state's continued restrictions to helping set national standards for those states that choose to legalize.

National Security

1. Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon?
- Unknown Position

2. Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support?
- Unknown Position

3. Other or expanded principles
- The United States should exhaust all diplomatic and economic means of discouraging hostile states from gaining nuclear weapons. This would include pressuring other states that assist these governments' efforts by providing technological aid, as well as circumventing our attempts to find diplomatic and economic solutions. I would also work to ensure that our military is prepared for massive and decisive action should force become necessary. As best as we are able, we should keep these interventions short, even if higher intensity, with clear, achievable goals. Be brief, be brilliant, be gone.

Administrative Priorities

Please explain in a total of 100 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.
- My top priorities focus on enabling upcoming generations to achieve success and prosperity. This would include getting our nation's revenues and expenditures back in balance. Expenditures would be mainly reined in by limiting their growth, while continually looking for efficiencies that may be available. I would support revenue increases that least constrain wider economic growth, with an expectation that those with higher wealth and income bear a higher burden. My other priorities relate to creating a more open, less divisive political environment: pushing for term limits, forbidding partisan gerrymandering, and constraining money flowing into our political process.