Virginia 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 do allow for early abortions for rape, incest, medical necessity. I also tend to legislatively favor more objective standards such as pain, heartbeat, or viability that can be used without references to specific religious perspectives. We need much more emphasis on making pro-life decisions a reasonable option including reducing the cost of adoptions.

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
- Our nation has a spending problem. Until we are willing to seriously look at and address spending, tax adjustments are pointless. Government consistently has shown a tendency to spend whatever it gets (plus some) and simply raising taxes would only further fuel that harmful practice.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I do have some concerns about limiting freedom of speech especially for unions and special interest groups since these can be a consolidated voice of individual opinions. But the amount of money being poured into indirect political contributions since Citizens United poses a real threat to the role and influence of individual citizens in the political process. Finding the correct balance here will be difficult. At least some regulation though I believe is called for and necessary.

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 view federal spending in most areas as a necessary evil at best. Trying to fuel economic growth through federal spending which will result in either higher deficits or increased taxes does not make sense and is likely to have the opposite effect especially long term. In terms of corporate taxes, the details will be important but generally speaking I believe lower corporate taxes that are competitive internationally will help promote economic growth, jobs, and innovation.

Education

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I believe that parents, teachers, community leaders, and -- at least as they get older -- students are best suited to determine how to educate our young people. Different places require different approaches - it is not a one size fits all situation. At the most, federal standards should be used to define a minimum baseline and even then I think other organizations (college board, National PTA like associations, colleges, etc.) might be a more appropriate option as opposed to legislators and government bureaucrats.

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
- Environmental issues are an area I am not as "libertarian". I think funding should be limited and ideally forms of public-private partnerships. But I am not completely opposed to it. I also believe some regulation on greenhouse gas emissions is appropriate but they need to be based on solid science and also take into account the costs. If we push the bar so high that industries simply relocate to other countries with lower standards, it does not help the global environment and hurts our country's economy.

Guns

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I find most gun control legislation to be of questionable value in that they generally only negatively impact law abiding gun owners while criminals will simply ignore them. I do support restrictions on violent criminals and some classification of mental illness provided that due process (including right to trial by jury) is followed before their right to bear arms is restricted or taken away.

Health Care

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- The ACA was poorly designed in that it tried to blend aspects of free market and socialized medicine. In my opinion it managed to pick up the problems of both. Overall I also believe we have placed too much emphasis on "coverage" and "cost of insurance" while we should be focused on how to we make healthcare itself more affordable. If we lower the cost of healthcare itself, then everyone benefits regardless of what insurance they have.

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?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- I am not a full open borders type and do believe in strong border security. I do NOT believe the proposed wall is the best solution to that due to cost, effectiveness, need to acquire privately owned lands, and a host of other factors. Also the wall only "protects" one part of our borders. There are better solutions. In the case of return before citizenship, I generally support that in fairness to people who enter legally and have to wait many years to become citizens. There could be limited exceptions, however, for cases such as DACA.

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Specifically, I support decriminalization / removing marijuana from the federal illegal drugs schedules and allowing states to determine recreational use criteria similar to how alcohol and tobacco products are typically handled. This is slightly different from legalizing it for recreational use on the federal level.

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
- In regards to nuclear weapons, I lean towards "yes" to using force to prevent a hostile government from gaining that ability but with a lot of reservations. The specifics would need to be carefully vetting by Congress before such authorization should be made. In regards to the Middle Eastern conflicts, I do not support increased American intervention in any capacity including air support.

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. Criminal justice reform - end civil asset forfeiture, end prison for victim-less crimes, reform sentencing guidelines for non-violent crimes. 2. Re-evaluation of the proper mission of our military (defense of our nation) and structuring the military to fulfill that mission. Stop questionable and apparently endless deployments to bring our troops home. 3. Working towards a balanced budget with a specific focus on spending reform.