Michigan 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
- Women need to control their own bodies. In consultation with their own medical care providers, they should make decisions without the government controlling family planning and health care decisions. We also need to stop the attacks on Planned Parenthood which is an important health care provider (e.g., cancer screenings, etc.) that does not receive government funds for abortions.

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
- Reverse the tax cut for corporations and the wealthy Make federal income tax more progressive. The nation has significant expensive problems (infrastructure, health care, etc.) and we need to raise revenue to address these problems. Look closely at defense spending to reduce military missions around the world and question large "hardware" purchases such as the proposal for new nuclear weapons. We need to make sure all Americans have access to health care, good schools, clean water, etc.--and this requires new revenue.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- There is too much influence of money over politics and too many avenues for interest groups to spend and funnel money to shape campaigns. We also need legislators with the courage to do the right thing rather than be so concerned about their future political careers that they are obedient servants of Political Action Committees.

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
- There are times when it is important for federal spending to stimulate the economy, especially if we need to generate jobs and thereby put money into people's pockets--to be spent on goods and services. A signficant infrastructure repair effort, for example, would increase employment opportunities in good-paying jobs and have the effect of promoting the nation's economic well-being for individuals and for enterprises that use roads and water systems. U.S. corporations already were not paying the actual tax rate even before the recent gift of cuts.

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- The nation's future depends on the quality of our education system. The federal government is in a position to make research-based decisions that push states to provide quality education for all students.

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
- The fate of the earth hangs in the balance. We need to aggressively invest in renewable energy and the regulation of emissions to counteract climate change. We are already seeing the adverse effects of climate change (volatile weather, droughts, etc.) with catastrophic flooding and other effects unquestionably in our future if we do not take action. We need to stop the attacks on science that prevent us from studying and using our best approaches for this most important problem.

Guns

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Yes. We must not only improve background checks, we must also end sales of military-style rifles and high capacity ammo magazines to the public. The Supreme Court's interpretations of the 2nd Amendment protect people's ability to own firearms, but leave open our opportunities to regulate sales, mandate recordkeeping and registration, impose waiting periods and age requirements, and other means to try to reduce the risks of suicides, homicides, and accidental shootings.

Health Care

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- We need to aggressively work to make sure that everyone is guaranteed access to the health care that they need through single-payer universal health care (Medicare for All). The Affordable Care Act should stay in place as we work toward the universal health care goal so that we protect people with preexisting conditions and make sure policies are required to cover the care that people need.

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 is a terrible idea. Unrealistic for much of the terrain and a horrible symbol for the country of the Statue of Liberty. It is a gigantic waste of money when border crossings have declined for years and a more significant issue is people who fly into the country and overstay their visitor visas. We need to acknowledge that there are American businesses that rely on undocumented workers because of jobs and locations that do not attract citizens. There must be a path to citizenship for those who have been in the country for years

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- We have wasted too many lives and too much money treating marijuana as a criminal justice issue. We need to treat it like alcohol with regulations for public health, consumer protection, public safety, and commercial zoning.

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?
- Unknown Position

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

3. Other or expanded principles
- Use of military force to stop spread of nuclear weapons: not a simple "yes" or "no" problem--it depends on context and nature of threat. We have been too quick to use military force in the past without understanding context or thinking about consequences (e.g., ill-advised invasion and occupation of Iraq). Thus we need to focus on continuous diplomacy and engagement with the complex world and not adopt simple, reactive declarations about asserting our military might. There are terrible consequences for people--here and abroad--when we resort to violence too reflexively.

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.
- My priorities are Medicare for All (universal health care); environmental protection (stop climate change, keep clean water and air); and fixing our electoral system to stop foreign cyber attacks and make it easier to vote. These issues, along with spending on infrastructure and education improvements, require funding. These are among the important problems and needs that our country must address and therefore we must pay for them with tax increases by increasing the progressivity of the federal income tax and looking to transfer from Defense and other depts. that may have more than they need