Florida 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
- Roe v. Wade is the law of the land. We need to build a culture of life from the bottom up, not the top down by creating a society that provides women and families with paid maternity leave, affordable childcare, and ensures that women can support their families by being paid fairly. We need to invest in empowering women, so that they can choose to have children when they are ready to raise the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs.

Budget

1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- Yes

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

3. Other or expanded principles
- We need to support our veterans and take care that all of our troops abroad are protected, but the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about must be challenged. Our military spending needs to go to honoring the commitment we have made to the men and women who have fought for their nation and not to big corporations who seek to line their pockets with massive defense contracts. Unnecessary wars have exploded our national debt, flooded the VA with veterans needing help, and have taken resources away from our citizens here at home. We need new priorities.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I believe that the Supreme Court struck a major blow to our democracy with its decision in Citizens United. The first amendment and the bill of rights was meant to protect the rights of the people, not to extend the rights of corporations or other such entities. Citizens United is nothing more than legalized bribery. Money is not speech. If it is then hard working American families will have lost their voice.

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
- Large corporations utilizing loopholes and tax havens need to be stopped and made to pay their fair share of the tax burden. Unless measures are taken to halt these practices I could never be in favor of tax cuts for large corporations. I am however, in favor of reducing taxes for small businesses. Part of my plan to revitalize the middle class is to ease the tax burden on small businesses during their first three years of existence which are the years where most small businesses fail. In order to rebuild main street we need to rebuild our small businesses.

Education

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Teachers need to have the freedom and flexibility to construct lesson plans that they know will serve the students of their communities best. Some essential standards such as literacy and civics education are necessary, but the federal governments' role in education should be one that supports the initiatives of the states and school districts. I could support more federal oversight only if I knew that testing standards would become more uniform instead of varying from state to state as wildly as they do, and if I knew that the standards were generated by educators and not politicians.

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 think that it is time that the United States got serious when it comes to combating climate change and transforming our energy sector. The future is in Green Technology and the United States has the opportunity to lead the world in industry once more. We should be discouraging the use of fossil fuels which are finite and destructive while encouraging the research of clean, renewable energy sources. I don't want America to have to buy solar panels from China or windmills from Germany. We should be leading, and they should be buying from us.

Guns

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- We should not have to be afraid to send our children to school. Sensible gun measures that would make us safer and that do not violate the second amendment are possible. Universal background checks are one such measure. No more gun-show loopholes or straw man internet purchases. I am also for increased funding for the ATF and a ban on military style rifles, two measures which would help keep weapons of war out of the hands of violent individuals.

Health Care

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Our healthcare system as presently constituted is an expensive, inefficient patchwork that does not serve the American people very well at all. That's why I support a Medicare-for-All plan with universal coverage and shared and reduced costs. Universal healthcare systems have been implemented in many nations all over the world and I believe that it could work here too. I also believe that the pharmaceutical, insurance, and hospital corporations have gone unchecked for too long. We the people need to start calling the shots instead of them.

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
- Young people who are considered "DACA children" should not have to return to their country of origin. Many of them have little recollection of their country of origin, if any at all. We made a commitment to those young people when we asked them to step out of the shadows, and sending them back to a place that they have never known would be cruel and unusual. They should be placed at the end of the line as to citizenship but should not be sent back to a country that is foreign to them.

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- The medicinal benefits of marijuana have been well demonstrated over the course of the past decade and so I think that it is time for the drug to be removed from its listing as a schedule one substance for federal purposes. As to its usage as a recreational substance, I think it prudent to leave such decisions up to states and localities.

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
- American intervention in the Middle-East since 9/11 has been disastrous. Thousands of young men and women have lost their lives and we have spent trillions of dollars with very little to show for it. Our policy towards the Middle-East needs to fundamentally change. Regime change and/or occupation needs to be replaced with concerted efforts at diplomacy and multilateral economic sanctions of rogue regimes that refuse to comply with international standards of conduct.

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.
- The two pillars of my campaign are fighting income inequality and stopping the corruption that generates it. To fight income inequality I will push for a universal healthcare system that will require a higher tax up front but will save us money in the long term. I will also push for a new public works program that will prepare our workers and our infrastructure for the 21st century. To combat corruption I will work to undermine and make transparent the moneyed interests that have flourished since the Citizens United decision.