Jim Rash's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Jim Rash submitted the 2010 Political Courage Test after the official deadline and release of results to the media. The candidate's late responses are provided here as a public service.
Delaware Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| Leviticus 17:11 states that life is in the blood. Blood doesn't exist until about day 17, therefore, I believe that life doesn't begin until about day 17. What's important to this issue is that I will never vote to federally fund abortion. | |||
1) SpendingIndicate what federal funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.2) TaxesIndicate what federal tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.
| Eliminate | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Maintain Status | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Maintain Status | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Slightly Decrease | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Eliminate | d) Education | ||
| Eliminate | e) Environment | ||
| Eliminate | f) Homeland security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Eliminate | h) Medical research | ||
| Eliminate | i) Scientific research | ||
| Eliminate | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Eliminate | l) Welfare | ||
| Eliminate | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Eliminate | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| No | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| 6) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Bringing all of our military back to this country would enable us to decrease our budgetary requirements to a fraction of what they are today. We should focus on Intelligence gathering, not hardware buildup. We have the capability to be anywhere in the world in a matter of days or hours depending on the situation. Our posture needs to be one of defense which, I believe, includes eliminating justifiable threats to our security. Congress has Constitutional authority to do this with Letters of Marque and Reprisal. The UN does not. | |||
| All taxes should be paid by the end user. Businesses nor corporations pay taxes. They're passed to the conumer in the prices paid for goods or services anyway. If people knew just how much the government was taking in taxes we would have a smaller government. Nearly half of all wage earners pay no income tax. Income tax is the most unfair tax. That's why it was forbidden by the Constitution until the 16th Amendment was passed. The 16th Amendment needs to be repealed. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| No | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| Social Security needs to be made solvent. This can be done by eliminating unconstitutional departments and agencies within the Federal Government without raising taxes or extending the age before receiving benefits. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| No | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | ||
| d) Should candidates for federal office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | |||
| Yes | e) Do you support giving the President the power of the line item veto for items concerning appropriations? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related training and job-placement assistance when released? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support reduced prison sentences for non-violent offenders? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory prison sentences for selling illegal drugs? | ||
| Capital punishment should only be used when irrefutable evidence exists...DNA, for instance. Mandatory sentencing hasn't been proven to be effective. | |||
| No | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| No | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Education should be handled principally at the local level. Financial aid should be a loan from a bank or other lender and not the Federal Government. There is no constitutional authority for the Federal Department of Education. Eliminate it. | |||
| No | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| No | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | ||
| No | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| Climate change is Washington's War on the Weather. Research doesn't support it. A state's natural resources (oil) should be regulated (or not) by that State. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual citizens to own guns? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| Only violent criminals should restricted from gun ownership. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Should the federal government expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support relaxing regulations on the importation of prescription drugs? | ||
| Let me explain my answers. Optimally, the Federal Government shouldn't be considering any laws regarding any commodity or service. That's reserved for the States, or the people. Until the Federal Government abides by the Constitution, I would vote for every bill that makes insurance more accessible to all by the free market. Somebody needs to tell Washington that health insurance is not a right. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | ||
| No | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| The only Constitutional authority Congress has is to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. It's up to the States to decide how they deal with immigrants, both legal and illegal. The Federal Government does not have the right to regulate immigration as they would have us believe. | |||
| No | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing economic development assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | ||
| No | e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | ||
| Yes | f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | ||
| No | g) Do you support increasing sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy United Nations mandates? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq? | ||
| Yes | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| The greatest cause of inflation is war. That's because if we have a balanced budget money would have to be borrowed to fight that war. Every war we've been in beginning with the Korean war has been the result of a U.N. resolution. We need to let other countries decide what government they have. Non-intervention has worked well for Switzerland and it can for us. | |||
| No | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support allowing openly-gay men and women to serve in the United States military? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the federal government end affirmative action programs? | ||
| The government doesn't have any business telling citizens who they may or may not marry. Marriage licenses first came about during the time of the Civil War to keep blacks and whites from intermarrying. Now they're used to discriminate against gay Americans. Discrimination by the government is completely unconstitutional. Shut the Marriage License window. George and Martha Washington didn't have a marriage license. | |||
| My primary priority, if elected, will be to cut the size and scope of the Federal Government. As Ed Clark, the 1980 Libertarian presidential candidate said, "I don't want to cut the fat out of government, I want to cut the muscle." Secondly, by legislating responsibly, more Libertarians will be elected to Federal office. When we have enough Libertarians in Congress that neither major party has a majority, the madness will stop overnight. Every piece of legislation will have to include our principles of smaller government, lower taxes, and more freedom. That's when the people will have won. |
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