Alina Valdes' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Alina Valdes has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
Florida Congressional Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| The government should not interfere in women's reproductive choices as this is a very personal matter best left to the individual, the doctor, and the family and friends she chooses as confidants. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Everyone needs to pay their fair share of taxes for the collective good and I would propose increasing taxes on the wealthy and large corporations while concentrating more on eliminationg loopholes, tax havens, and outsourcing. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| We need to work on campaign finance reform by eliminating Citizen's United and Corporate Personhood. Elections need to be transparent and eliminating dark, unlimited contributions will go a long way towards a fair and equal process where one person equlas one vote. | |||
| No | Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| No | Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| We are a nation of compassion and second chances. Life without parole is an alternative for heinous crimes where there is no chance for rehabilitation especially in repeat offenders. It is more cost-effective in the long run and allows for any errors to be corrected. Non-violent drug offenses should be treated with counseling and a chance at rehabilitation. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Trickle down economics has been shown not to work so I support putting people to work in infrastructure repair an maintenance, which would create millions of good jobs. This would stimulate the economy by having more people having money to spend. I also agree with giving small businesses tax incentives so they can grow and hire more workers. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
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| Certain states need to invest more in educating their children and this would be one way to incentivize education reforms to better prepare their children to compete in the global economy. People are the most valuable resource we have and preparing them for the future is the best investment we can make as a country. | |||
| No | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| We need to shift away from fossil fuels and start investing and supporting sources of renewable energy. The current fossil fuel consumption is unsustainable and using fracking and other methods of removing limited sources of energy from the ground is no longer economically feasible or prudent. Looking to the skies to harness unlimited energy like the sun and the wind is the way to go. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I absolutely believe the science showing that climate change is real and global warming is caused by human activity. We have seen a direct correlation between the elevation of greenhouse gases and the industrialization and increased use of fossil fuels throughout the world. We not only need to regulate the production of greenhouse gases but impose a carbon tax as incentive. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| We know that gun violence is a public health issue in this country causing over 30,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of physical and psychological disability issues every year. Mandatory background checks and limiting assault rifle sales are two policies that could be adopted in addition to providing broader access to mental health services. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| I believe that the ACA has gone a long way in providing health care to more people than the system had before, but we need to find a way to provide health care to all people in this country. This could be done by adopting a one payer system which would lower costs to direct patient care and lower administrative costs. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
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| I support comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. There are millions of undocumented people who have been living in this country for years, have families with American born children, have jobs, pay taxes, and own property. To deport all these people, most of which have been law-abiding contributors to the society, is economically not feasible. | |||
| Yes | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Love is love and is not predicated on sex, ethnicity, or race. I support same-sex marriage as well as allowing these marriages to be recognized for the purposes of benefits, property ownership, inheritance, and any other rights bestoyed on traditional marriages. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| We need to expand and strengthen social security and allowing people to remove some or all of this money puts them at higher risk of loss as happened in the great recession of 2008. Many who had their money invested in stocks and other high risk vehicles lost their entire retirement funds. Social security has always been a stable pension plan available on retirement and it should remain intact. | |||
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.
| Maintain Status | a) Agriculture | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Arts | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) International aid | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Slightly Decrease | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Small business taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| 1 - Health care 1 - Infrastructure repairs and maintenance | |||
| 6 - Loopholes 1 - Outsourcing tax | |||
| We need campaign finance reform in order to take the dark money out of politics, make the process transparent, and make elections fair and equal for all who choose public service. We need to provide health care for all using payroll taxes like we do for social security and Medicare while eliminating insurance company premiums. We need to provide millions of jobs by investing in infrastructure repair and maintenance as well as divesting from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. |
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