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Dan Severson's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)

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Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.

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Dan Severson has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.

What is the Political Courage Test?

Florida Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test

Pro-life Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
Life begins at conception. Abortion should be illegal unless to save the life of the mother. Too many couples are unable to have children and are heartbroken that they cannot have a family. Adoption is the humane solution or helping the mother to financially keep the child. Abortion is murder of a life. As your congressman I will sponsor and vote for the Fetal pain bill and the life begins at conception legislation which will undo the wrong Supreme Court Decision of Roe v Wade.
No In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
No Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare?
America is a capitalist society. Everyone, regardless of origin has the inalienable rights to pursuit of happiness. In Individuals make wealth. Government does not make wealth, it spends individual wealth. Unless we get back to individual responsibility and self determination, big government will continue to systematically remove our freedoms and liberties in the name of the greater good. The power is in the people, not the government as laid out in our Constitution.
No Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
Washington is a cesspool of corruption. Special interests and lobbyists have taken over the legislative process by buying influence. Good candidates are discouraged from running because they can't raise the same amount as the politically connected. This does not serve the people. The FEC should cap the amount of money raised and spent on a campaign and limit the ability of special interests to influence elections just like we restrict foreign government from participating. We need significant campaign finance reform to drain the swamp.
Yes Do you support increasing defense spending?
Defense is a constitutional mandate; education, EPA and housing are not. Underfunded military has direct affect on our readiness and National Security and can limit our response time and capability during crucial engagements. Peace through strength has been a positive policy for peace since Teddy Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson negotiated disaster through appeasement and brought on the follow on devastation of WWII. Unless we aggressively fund a space force program, we will loose the space battle to China and once that happens, we loose the ability to defend our forces on the ground and water.
No Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
Yes Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
Yes Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19?
The government restricted the ability of businesses to operate, the private sector was shut down. When government breaks something, government becomes responsible to fix it. There needed to be some compensation to ensure viability for the business after the economy opened up and for that reason there was a need for PPP.
No Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
Education is a local issue. No one has a greater interest in the quality of the education than the parents of the child. I would argue that National Teachers Unions or State Teachers Unions do not have the interests of the students first but rather the Teachers from whom they collect dues. I oppose Teachers Unions as their interests do not lie with student performance but rather teacher pay scale.
No Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)?
No Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
If environmentalists were sincere about the environment they would embrace nuclear energy. Instead they promote bird killing wind turbines and unreliable solar energy sources that cannot compete in the free market system because of the huge capital outlays with minimal return. They are neither efficient nor environmentally friendly.
No Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
We have seen the efforts to erode our 2nd amendment rights. Now the same people are calling for removal of the police to leave our children vulnerable to attack from terrorists or video game tweekers. Anti gun groups care nothing about rights or rule of law, only about removing someone else's right to defend themselves. Restrictions on the 2nd amendment are unconstitutional and we cannot give into their emotional pleading. If they refuse to defend our children, then we must either remove our children from their oversight or vote them out of positions of authority.
Yes Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
No Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19?
Mandates unless funded should be unconstitutional. If a business gives those benefits it becomes part of the reason they have loyal employees. If they can't afford to provide it, they should not be forced to do so by a free society that protects individual liberties. Most small businesses do not have the working capital to fund long periods of down time without product sales to subsidize a protracted layoff.
Yes Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
Yes Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
One exception may be the DACA individuals here. Those could be given a green card and placed in the back of the line for processing to citizenship if their are no criminal records and they have been a contribution member to the community that they reside.
Yes Should the United States use military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a weapon of mass destruction (for example: nuclear, biological, chemical)?
Yes Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts?
We need to identify areas of potential problems, negotiate and if need be provide a quick strike and then extraction. No prolonged engagements and minimize the force exposure. Protracted presence is expensive and perceived by those being occupied as an invading force after a short amount of time. The middle east is a tribal conflict and we cannot resolve their centuries long infighting.
Yes Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)?
Provided those barriers do not exist in the country we are doing business with. If they restrict their market to America, we have the right and the obligation to do the same for our country. An equal playing field means all markets are open and their are no restrictions in either direction.
Clean the waters of SW Florida. We need to continue to address the Everglades project that has been on the forefront since 2001. We have made little progress in cleaning up the problem even after throwing many $ Billions at it. Steady funding from the Federal government is needed and I will go after that funding. National security and economic opportunity are linked and decoupling from China's economy is key to both of those issues. We need to bring home critical industries and create tax incentives for investments and labor force development to facilitate that process.

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