Mark Sullivan's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
Additional Information: Click on this icon to reveal more information about this candidate's position, from their answers or Vote Smart's research.
Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Mark Sullivan has refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2014 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests.
Issue Positions
For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2014.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "To balance our budget we need a careful, balanced , and fair approach to fiscal security. Spending cuts and Revenue increases must necessarily be equally employed to successfully deal with our deficit." -- (votesmart.org)
- "To promote jobs I would encourage improving infrastructure. We need to maintain and improve our broadband services, highways, railroads, and electrical power grid. Spending on infrastructure is an investment in our nation's future." -- (votesmart.org)
- "Funding is certainly the most important issue we face in education.I would encourage increased emphasis on distance learning through improved broadband . To make more challenging and interesting courses available to students all over the 3rd district. This can be very important to our sparsely populated rural district." -- (votesmart.org)
- "I don't favor the pipeline because of the eminent domain concerns." -- (votesmart.org)
- "We need to expand and promote new renewable and sustainable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal. While we work on these sources we must continue to utilize our existing resources. Improved efficiency, conservation, and environmental safety should be of the highest priority.A big cash bank balance could seem very insignificant if our children and grandchildren inherit a nation with polluted air, undrinkable water, and eroded soil." -- (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "The healthcare act is certainly flawed. I don't believe we should repeal the law totally, because we probably won't be able to get a new bill any time soon. Healthcare is so important to the economy and our people that we must deal with it now.The healthcare issue has gotten a good start from the Obama bill if we fix the junk in the bill and build on the rest we can easily make healthcare more affordable." -- (votesmart.org)
- "Illegal immigration is another topic that Congress needs to take a good, hard look at.Border security is important to deter terrorists, but the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. are not going to go away.He supports a program that would allow them to earn their citizenship via a work permit, with no law violations and steady employment. Otherwise, ignoring the problem could prove detrimental. "The country can't have a permanent underclass of economic slaves," Sullivan said.Our policy needs reform. Both parties agree with that but once again gridlock and partisanship have stalled any progress toward that end. In good conscience we must provide healthcare to prenatal babies and children born here" -- (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "We must defend our nation in the most effective way possible.New technology should be employed to make our country safe, save lives, save money, and put less boots on foreign soil." -- (votesmart.org)
- "I will fight to preserve Social Security.It's not only realistic it is very important to our economy as well as our seniors.Some have been calling for privatization of Social Security. Imagine how many seniors would be impoverished now if that was the program in the 2007-2008 recession.I would encourage later retirement for middle aged workers because our life expectancy is much longer than when SS was established. Incomes have also risen so I would suggest a higher cap on SS income for tax purpose." -- (votesmart.org)
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
| Yes | Do you support United States' combat operations in Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | Do you support a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan? | ||
Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing the federal budget.In order to balance the budget,
| Yes | do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| Yes | do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| No | do you support reducing Medicaid spending? | ||
| No | do you support reducing Medicare spending? | ||
| Yes | Is balancing the budget a legislative priority? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | Do you support spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the temporary extension of unemployment benefits? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the 2010 temporary extension of tax relief? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act? | ||
| Yes | Should individuals be required to purchase health insurance, as mandated in the 2010 Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Yes | Do you support allowing illegal immigrants, who were brought to the United States as minors, to pursue citizenship without returning to their country of origin? | ||
| No | Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration law by state and local police? | ||
| Yes | Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | ||
| No | Should the U.S use military force in order to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| Unless ALL options have failed. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
SpendingIndicate what federal spending levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category; you can use a number more than once.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.
| Slightly Decrease | a) Agriculture | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Education | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Medical Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| m) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Slightly Increase | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | j) Payroll taxes | ||
| k) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Preserving Social Security. If we need to increase retirement age for persons not yet receiving benefits it makes sense as we are living longer. Incentives for folks who take later retirement. Medicare must be preserved. If we can fix and retain the affordable health care act it shoud relieve stress on medicaid and medicare. Food security, an ag safety net that helps protect consumers from food price shocks such as the drought we are currently in. Energy policy that includes new renewable resources and better and cleaner uses of existing resources. |
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