Tennessee Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test

Abortion

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I fully support pro-life legislation and I know that life begins at conception.

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?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- In order to balance the budget, we need to evaluate our spending in other categories. A strong military serves as a deterrent. We should also look for fraud waste and corruption in every aspect of spending, including the military spending.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I believe we have to find a balance of fair play. I do not want to infringe on the right of free speech, but let's face it, there are congressional seats being bought on both sides. At the beginning of this campaign, I was told that I would need to raise two million dollars. That is absurd to me. That keeps a certain class of people in Congress and does not allow a middle-class person a fair chance. That kind of money comes with a price that I am not willing to pay.

Economy

1. Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
- No

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

3. Other or expanded principles
- The government should not be involved in the free market process.

Education

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Common core is not working. This is a states' rights issue and broad educational standards throughout the country will only neglect the special educational needs of specific states while others will be promoted. Local and state governments know the needs of their area better than the Federal government.

Energy & Environment

1. Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)?
- No

2. Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- If these renewable sources are viable, the free market should allow them to thrive. The free-market, not the Federal government will encourage innovation and competition which will produce better results. When it comes to greenhouse regulations, I am willing to listen to bipartisan scientific data and make a judgment on the overall facts. We have heard so many exaggerations that has to lead to over-regulation and the inability to discern the truth from fear-mongering. I do not want to stifle American businesses with unneeded regulations.

Guns

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- I believe that we should enforce the laws that we already have. Increasing gun-control legislation is not going to keep the guns out of the criminals' hands. I am a proud patriot life member of the NRA. I do believe that gun safety/handling training is always necessary. The NRA and other organizations offer such classes. We have seen too many cases where a good guy with a gun stopped a criminal with a gun to ignore. We must address the mental health issue at the source, not through gun control legislation.

Health Care

1. Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- We need to move our healthcare system in the direction of the free market. Declaring it a "right" only decreases its coverage. For example, our other rights are not subsidized by the government. If we start treating healthcare as a commodity instead, we will see healthcare expand. Instead, we have only seen coverage expand and premiums have gone up. Healthcare has decreased because middle-class people cannot afford both the premiums and deductibles. I do not want the federal government deciding what happens with my healthcare. The Federal Government controls the VA healthcare system. That's not going so well.

Immigration

1. Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
- Yes

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

3. Other or expanded principles
- I fully support the construction of the wall. Not only for illegal-immigration but also to curtail human-trafficking, drugs, and terrorism. I believe that all immigrants that want to become US citizens should go through the same legal process. As far as returning them to their country of origin while waiting on that legal process, that should be handled on a case by case basis according to their past and current contributions to our society.

Marijuana

1. Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- I do support the legalization of medicinal marijuana.

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?
- Yes

2. Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- I am willing to make exceptions for cases where weapons of mass destruction are being used.

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.
- 1. Abortion clinics should be legally required to offer the woman the opportunity to see the sonogram prior to the abortion. 2. Do a comprehensive evaluation of spending and government-funded programs. Our debt is out of control. Weed out the spending from programs not producing results and the fraud waste and corruption, we apply these funds towards our national debt.3. Build the Wall. This will pay for itself over time by curtailing illegal immigration, drugs, human trafficking. Illegal immigrants and drugs put a strain on spending through healthcare and other government-funded entities.