Missouri 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
- I think pro-life and pro-choice are much too late. I would like to reduce, if not eliminate abortion as much as possible, but the arm of the law is too short to extend to what happens on the black market and what happens in the bedroom. We need to invest our efforts in creating a culture which is motivating to accountability if we really want to see the rate of abortions reduced. All we have done so far is moved abortions out of state and to the black market. We need to do better than that.

Budget

1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- No

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

3. Other or expanded principles
- We are a bit excessive and wasteful with our military expenses. Thinks like our naval aviator shows are extremely costly. Those talents could be better invested in actual defense activities.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Indirect campaign contributions enable astronomical contributions by a single candidate and are then used as a means to control the legislator's vote in congress. This is not a fair representation of one's constituency and, as a result, encourages corruption.

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?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- Corporations utilize more public resources and create greater need for regulation and expense than any one individual. We pass the expense off to the unrightful party by lowering taxes for corporations. Additionally, the citizen's purchase power is necessary for the economic stimulation intended.

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- We need to have a baseline of education standards to enable upward mobility for our youth, young adults and beyond. Schools can certainly teach above those baseline standards. I do not agree with a punishment based form of implementation though. Behaviorally, we know these are inappropriate for this setting and may lead to misappropriation of funds.

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
- Whether you agree with global warming or not, it is simply a smart fiscal move to reduce waste and ensure that we are utilizing the smartest, best technology so we may stay ahead in the technological and economic space.

Guns

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- Unknown Position

2. Other or expanded principles
- We have our attention in the wrong place if we focus on guns alone. We have a cultural problem involving mental health concerns that needs to be addressed if we want to see a change to our public violence issues. Certainly there needs to be training and smart sense around how guns are utilized as well.

Health Care

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- We most definitely need to make some major revisions to the Affordable Care Act, but at this point, too many citizens rely on the exchanges to completely repeal it without an immediate replacement.

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?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- We already have laws about how overstay is treated. It does not make sense to reinvent the wheel! Also, creating a law that requires deportation for the nonviolent, noncriminal existence of an immigraant is both extremely difficult to reinforce as well as very expensive. The return in cost saving or criminal expense on the investment for deporting noncriminal, nonviolent immigrants is just not sufficient to justify the expense.

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Much like the examples set abroad, we know that we can see good economic stimulation and better control over currently illegal substances by legalizing the substances and enabling their consumption to stimulate our economy.

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
- No Answer

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.
- No Answer