Colorado 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
- I am pro-choice. However, I do not believe that providing funding for abortion services is a valid activity for the government. Therefore, I would vote to terminate funding for Planned Parenthood (or any similar organization).

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 that the budget should be balanced but not on the backs of taxpayers. I believe that defense spending can be responsibly and significantly cut if we define the role of the military to be defending America and not policing the world. But this is only the beginning. I believe that massive cuts can be achieved across the board, including eliminating the Dept of Education, phasing out agricultural subsidies, eliminating the Dept of Energy, eliminating the Dept of Commerce, eliminating foreign aid, etc., etc., etc. We also need to reform entitlements materially.

Campaign Finance

1. Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- The Citizens United decision was, as you know, decided on the grounds of free speech - which is why it was supported by the ACLU. The court decided that individuals do not lose the right of political free speech when they band together in a corporation or union. The most effective way to reduce the influence of money in politics is to reduce the influence of the government on our economy. A Big Government is always a Corrupt Government. Eliminate the ability of the government to reward and punish, and the incentive underlying money in politics will disappear.

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
- I believe that the private sector is a far more effective source of economic growth than the federal government. Therefore I believe that federal spending should be cut, leaving more money with the private sector. Corporate taxes are a particularly growth-destroying form of taxation since they impose a second layer of taxation on investment. We would be far better served with a tax system that exclusively taxes consumption, which would be simpler, less distortionary, less prone to special interests and more pro-growth. Until that arrives, cutting corporate taxes is an effective means of promoting these goals.

Education

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- No. The Department of Education did not exist until 1979; it clearly has not improved education; and there is no logical or Constitutional role for the federal government in education. Education should be returned entirely to the states. Within the states, I support a greatly expanded role for school choice, preferably through vouchers. The existing monopoly system of public education performs like all monopolies: servicing its clients (and teachers) badly and costing too much. In particular, the public school system is extremely detrimental to lower-income and minority groups, which cannot afford to live in the areas of good public schools.

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
- I believe that we should be buying "insurance" against the risk of catastrophic climate change by taking action against greenhouse gas emissions. The question is: what is the most effective way of doing this? Economists (including the recent Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus) are in virtually 100% agreement on this: a carbon tax, which will create the right incentives for conservation and the development of alternatives, is the most effective way. I therefore support a carbon tax combined with the repeal of all other regulations and subsidies. The carbon tax should also be revenue neutral, with 100% returned to households.

Guns

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Certainly at the federal level, there is not role for gun-control legislation, which is reserved to the states under the 10th Amendment. Each state needs to decide this question for itself, but the right to self-defense should not be impeded.

Health Care

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- The ACA is a disaster. It is predicated on the belief that you can sell home insurance to people after their house has burnt to the ground and must fail. We need radical free-market reforms in our health care system since we have the worst of all possible worlds: a for-profit systems where the government has massively distorted consumer incentives and choice, and has massively restricted competition and the supply of health care. The results are predictable: extraordinary high and non-transparent prices. A free-market system, combined with health savings and insurance against catastrophic risks, would be cheaper and more effective.

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
- The wall would be an enormous and ineffective waste of money, both in terms of illegal immigration (since most arrive by overstaying visas) and curtailing the flow of drugs (since the ready availability of drugs in prisons proves that they cannot be stopped in this way). I believe that illegal immigrants who have set down firm roots in America - as evidenced by paying taxes, learning English, having clean criminal records, having jobs/families/businesses/houses, etc. - should be granted residency, but should have to qualify for citizenship under the normal rules. This also applies to Dreamers.

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- The Libertarian Party has supported marijuana legalization since 1972, long before it has acquired fashionable support from other parties. As a Colorado resident, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, I can confirm that legalization is not only morally justifiable on the grounds of freedom and fairness, but it has also been socially beneficial (including, for example, by reducing opioid consumption). This is long overdue.

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
- The question about nuclear weapons is extremely difficult and can only be answered on the case-by-case basis. Historically, countries hostile to us (eg., Soviet Russia and China) have developed nuclear weapons that we have addressed through deterrence. However, I can imagine a country where the ability and willingness to use nuclear weapons is so high that we might need to use military force and therefore this option should not be categorically excluded. As for the Middle East, I favor withdrawing all of our forces from this area, ground and air. We are accomplishing nothing beneficial in this region.

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. Stop the wars. They are not making us more secure, in fact the opposite through "blowback" terrorism, and they are costing a fortune and destroying our young.2. Cut taxes AND spending, because tax cuts without spending cuts are a charade and we are passing an enormous burden to our children. Massive cuts in the federal government are both possible and desirable, but will never be done by the two old parties.3. Create a federal government so small that we don't have to fight over it. A Big Government is always a Divisive Government.