Texas Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test

Abortion

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- People should have autonomy over their own bodies without intrusion by the state. The powers of police, surveillance, jails, and judges has no proper place in people's most personal decisions.

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
- I believe we need a tax shift away from wages and other productive activities and onto monopoly privileges of all types. In particular, natural resource privileges are the best place to put taxes. Taxes on monopoly privileges will gie labor a stronger bargaining position and will discourage the waste of resources. Other forms of monopoly power such as patents need to be reconsidered as they are mostly used to extract monopoly gains at workers' expense. I oppose taxes such as sales, value-add, and wage taxes that reduce most people's real income.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I support a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood. Citizens united and the corrupt judicial philosophy implied by it must be cleansed from our system. The judicial false equivalence of free speech and campaign spending must also be reversed.

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
- I support intelligent infrastructure spending that has a record of helping the economy function better. I also believe funding should be more closely tied to those who benefit the most such as landowners whose property increases greatly in value due to public expenditure. Corporate structures enjoy many privileges and should be taxed at rates higher than individuals. The claim that lowering corporate taxes is broadly beneficial is a farce.

Education

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- The key point is the "requiring" part. There will always be some tension between federal standards and local wishes. It is reasonable for some forms of federal funding to be contingent on compliance with standards but there should be some flexibility about what states choose to do. On a balance, I believe the federal level can be very positive for education as it can sponsor broad research that is not possible for the states.

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 it makes more sense to tax the extraction of carbon than to regulate it. The federal government should put the proper incentives in place to help market solutions emerge. I also support greatly increased research into renewable energy such as algae/oil and biomass/gass processes. Where the feds sponsor research we should also require patent sharing among the participant companies to discourage monopoly bottlenecks within these emerging industries.

Guns

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I think there is a great deal we can do within our current gun laws. We need to have background checks and some triggers for law enforcement to engage. The gun show loophole should be closed. We also need to challenge the gun lobbies to take more responsibility. We clearly have a mis-match between rights and responsibilities at present.

Health Care

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I support universal health care with a Medicare-for-all approach as the most expedient way to get there. There is no free market in medicine and there will never be one. We should plan accordingly. Health intersects with many other pressing issues. If people aren't healthy then they can't work. Unhealthy people tend to make other unhealthy. We need to look at healthcare holistically and as a community.

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
- There is no easy Yes/No answer on immigration. For DACA kids and young adults we need to lay out a path to citizenship. It makes no sense to push them out. For real long-term immigration reform we need consistent carrots and sticks to force employers, as well as immigrants to follow the law. If serious sanctions are enforced on illegal hiring, then the illegal immigration will reduce itself. The end state needs to be a system in which all parties are strongly incented to stay within the law, pay taxes, and account for costs such as health insurance.

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I believe people should have autonomy over their own bodies, including the right to make foolish choices. Of course, commerce is subject to regulation and taxation, and public safety should be a priority if we change our current laws.

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?
- No

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

3. Other or expanded principles
- Our mis-adventures into the Middle East were a bad idea and they haven't gotten any better with time. We've squandered lives and money over pipe dreams cooked up in billionaire-funded "think tanks". The only beneficiaries have been the same billionaires and the arms merchants. The zig & zag of Middle East power struggles is not worth the life of one American boy. Efforts should be made to discourage nuclear weapons. Current U.S. policy requires nations to build nuclear weapons as the only way to be sure we don't invade them. Our nuclear policy is insane.

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.
- I want to shift taxes from productive activities and onto monopoly power, particularly natural resource monopolies. This doesn't necessarily increase, or decrease funding but changes how funds are raised. It will neutralize monopoly power and lead to a high wage economy. Most people will see their taxes reduced and lower living costs. I support a carbon extraction tax to be spent as a pass-through rebated back to the citizens on a per-capita basis. This will be revenue neutral by definition but will profoundly change the incentives vis-a-vis extracted carbon consumption.