North Carolina Congressional Election 2012 Political Courage Test

Abortion

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Abortion should be legal, safe, widely available, and rare. The best way to make it rare is through effective sex education and affordable contraception.

Afghanistan

1. Do you support United States' combat operations in Afghanistan?
- No

2. Do you support a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- We should exit Afghanistan, rapidly, starting yesterday. We ought never to have gone to war in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The appropriate response to 911 was a police action, like the one that eventually took down Osama bin Laden.

Budget

1. do you support reducing defense spending?
- Yes

2. do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- Yes

3. do you support reducing Medicaid spending?
- No

4. do you support reducing Medicare spending?
- No

5. Is balancing the budget a legislative priority?
- No

6. Other or expanded principles
- I support efforts to streamline Medicare and Medicaid, such as the shift from payment for "procedures" to payment for "outcomes." I support curbing pharmaceutical expenditures, via the stipulations in the Affordable Care Act, and through negotiation with manufacturers. So I support thoughtful cost savings, but not the GOP approach which amounts to slash and burn.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I am the only candidate in either party in my race who has pledged to accept no corporate or corporate PAC donations. Any politician who claims that campaign finance reform is impossible is lying. We can all reform our own campaigns.

Capital Punishment

1. Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- We are not wise enough to mandate death for any crime. And for the worst of the worst, life without parole is far cheaper.

Economy

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

2. Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation?
- Yes

3. Do you support spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation?
- Yes

4. Do you support the temporary extension of unemployment benefits?
- Yes

5. Do you support the 2010 temporary extension of tax relief?
- No

6. Other or expanded principles
- I believe the 2010 extension referred to here is the payroll tax reduction. That only serves to weaken Social Security. I would prefer to have implemented an equal reduction in income tax for lower income people. If this is meant to refer to the "Bush tax cuts" for the rich. They should have expired at the end of 2010.

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- Specific education reforms should not be mandated from the federal level. Principals and teachers come up with many creative ways forward, so there should be freedom to experiment. Some programs, like Race to the Top, are appropriately administered to reward success with improved performance, but should not impose specific "reforms."

Energy

1. Do you support reducing restrictions on offshore energy production?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Environment

1. Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change?
- Yes

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

3. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Guns

1. Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- Background checks, waiting periods, limits on the number of guns purchased within certain calendar periods, are all completely rational.

Health Care

1. Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act?
- No

2. Should individuals be required to purchase health insurance, as mandated in the 2010 Affordable Care Act?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- The ACA is leading us toward the ultimate goal of single payer for all. It was the best deal possible given the current power of the insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital corporations. Eventually we will arrive at "Medicare for all."

Immigration

1. Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
- No

2. Do you support allowing illegal immigrants, who were brought to the United States as minors, to pursue citizenship without returning to their country of origin?
- Yes

3. Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration law by state and local police?
- No

4. Other or expanded principles
- Our current immigration laws have created a black market in labor. This only benefits employers who are willing to flaunt the law. We need foreign workers, we need to streamline the path to work permits, green cards and citizenship for those who meet reasonable requirements.

Marriage

1. Do you support same-sex marriage?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- Basically, the government's interest in marriage concerns property. Who owns what? Who owes what? Who gets what? Marriage preserves the rights of individuals and protects children. I really don't understand conservative opposition to increasing the number of married persons.

National Security

1. Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict?
- No

2. Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Social Security

1. Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- Wall Street banksters must not be permitted to play their games with SS money. It would lead directly back to the impoverishment of most elderly persons that we saw before the beginning of the SS system.

Spending and Taxes

1. Agriculture
- Maintain Status

2. Arts
- Maintain Status

3. Defense
- Greatly Decrease

4. Education
- Greatly Increase

5. Environment
- Slightly Increase

6. Homeland Security
- Greatly Decrease

7. International aid
- Maintain Status

8. Medical Research
- Slightly Increase

9. Scientific Research
- Slightly Increase

10. Space exploration
- Maintain Status

11. United Nations
- Maintain Status

12. Welfare
- Maintain Status

13. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer

1. Capital gains taxes
- Slightly Increase

2. Corporate taxes
- Slightly Increase

3. Excise taxes (alcohol)
- Maintain Status

4. Excise taxes (cigarettes)
- Maintain Status

5. Excise taxes (transportation fuel)
- Slightly Increase

6. Income taxes (low-income families)
- Slightly Decrease

7. Income taxes (middle-income families)
- Maintain Status

8. Income taxes (high-income families)
- Greatly Increase

9. Inheritance taxes
- Slightly Increase

10. Payroll taxes
- Maintain Status

11. Other or expanded categories
- Greatly Increase

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.
- Jobs: infrastructure - nationwide broadband, smart grid, teachers, first responders, new CCC to retrofit public buildings.Education: pre-K through 4 years of college ought to be affordable if not free, if other nations can do this, the richest in the world can afford it too.Social Safety Net: preserve SS and Medicare, raise the cap, implement outcome vs. procedure billing Sharply reduce U.S. military, close many foreign bases, raise taxes on rich, impose tariff on Chinese goods if they continue to suppress value of yuan.