Patricia Maher's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
On The Ballot: Running, Democratic for U.S. House (NY) - District 4
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.
Patricia Maher has failed to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2020 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
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 2020.
- Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? "Pro-Life" (votesmart.org)
- In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? "No" (votesmart.org)
- "Expanding Social Security. Increasing benefits for senior citizens and students. Additional funding for these benefits will come from eliminating the payroll tax cap, (by cutting income taxes, making it tax-burden neutral)" (votesmart.org)
- "We need to expand Social Security by boosting senior benefits, extending the Student Benefit for children in college and vocational school, and eliminating the payroll tax cap to increase revenue while closing the long-term Trust Fund shortfall." (votesmart.org)
- Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? "Yes" (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? "Yes" (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? "Yes" (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? "No" (votesmart.org)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- "Ending free trade and the outsourcing of American jobs. We need fair trade agreements that promote democracy, that contain strong labor and environmental standards, and that put the American people first." (votesmart.org)
- "I support renegotiating existing free trade agreements to make them fair for us, while fighting against proposed free trade agreements like the TPP. Tariffs should be put on countries that we have high trade deficits with and engage in unfair trading practices like currency manipulation. We need fair trade agreements that protect jobs here at home while promoting democracy and strong, enforceable labor and environmental standards abroad." (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.
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I strongly support pro-choice legislation. Abortion is not an easy decision, and one that some may not agree with due to religious and moral beliefs, but regardless they should be safe, legal, and rare. The law of the land, Roe v. Wade, must be upheld and must not be infringed upon. | |||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | ||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| I support middle class tax cuts to stimulate economic demand, while increasing taxes and closing loopholes on the wealthy to increase revenue. Since 2009, 95% of all income has gone to the richest 1%, and this is the first period of economic expansion when the vast majority of people are actually seeing their incomes stagnant or decline. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I support a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Citizens United decision. Super PACs and their unlimited expenditures distort democracy, while making money and corporate interests the master of politicians, rather than the people who elect them. Washington is the real problem. Some of our elected officials have become career politicians, never working a real job, but continually living off the taxpayer's dollar. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support lowering taxes as a way of promoting growth in the economy? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| These tax incentives must be specifically targeted in order to provide the greatest benefit to the American people. For example, I support federal grants and tax credits for existing and start-up small businesses on Main Street to revitalize our downtown areas. I also support tax incentives to bring good-paying jobs back home to America, and close tax loopholes on companies that continue to outsource jobs overseas and place their profits in offshore tax havens. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| It has to be the right type of reform. I oppose Common Core because of the scripted modules that undermine the essential teaching relationship by preventing the individualized exchange between teacher and student. Grants should also be available to low-performing school districts, and create a variety of incentives for teachers to work in these districts. We need a combination of competitive grants and non-competitive funding to states and local school districts to achieve equity among states and populations. | |||
| No | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| No | Do you support reducing restrictions on offshore energy production? | ||
| As someone who is running to represent a district on the South Shore of Long Island, I believe that drilling off the coast would be a disaster for the local ecosystem, would ruin the tourism industry, and could potentially result in a catastrophic disaster like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I support the U.S. ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, as well as other international agreements on climate change and pollution standards. | |||
| Yes | Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| I support universal background checks, greater access to mental health facilities, closing the gun show loophole, and keeping guns out of the hands of convicted felons and the mentally ill. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| I support comprehensive immigration reform that increases border security. We need to protect our borders from the illegal movement of weapons, drugs, contraband, and people, while promoting lawful entry and exit. We need to create a pathway to legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants living here. These immigrants are already living here in this country, and as long as they do not have criminal records should be integrated into our society. | |||
| 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 governments hostile to the United States from possessing a nuclear weapon? | ||
| We need to use sanctions through our alliances as well as through the UN to contain and eliminate the threat of nuclear proliferation. | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| Private investment accounts are risky and do not guarantee a positive return, as shown by 401(k) plans. Administrative overhead alone can consume up to 30% of private accounts. Retirement security would have been decimated in 2008 if Bush's privatization plan had been passed. Social Security gives a stable positive return, and is an efficient and effective program. We need to expand Social Security by boosting senior benefits, extending the Student Benefit for children in college and vocational school, and eliminating the payroll tax cap to increase revenue while closing the long-term Trust Fund shortfall. | |||
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 | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Maintain Status | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Slightly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Maintain Status | k) United Nations | ||
| Maintain Status | l) Welfare | ||
| m) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Maintain Status | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | b) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Excise taxes (alcohol) | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Excise taxes (cigarettes) | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Excise taxes (transportation fuel) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | j) Payroll taxes | ||
| I strongly support eliminating the payroll tax cap. Right now, any income earned over $117,000 is not subject to payroll tax. That means a millionaire pays less of his income in payroll tax than the average middle class household. Eliminating the payroll tax cap would provide more revenue for Social Security, closing 80% of the projected long-term Trust Fund shortfall while making the tax code fairer. Furthermore, I support raising payroll taxes slightly to cover the remainder of the projected gap, which would be offset by a corresponding income tax cut to make it tax-burden neutral for most Americans. | |||
| 1. Expanding Social Security. Increasing benefits for senior citizens and students. Additional funding for these benefits will come from eliminating the payroll tax cap, (by cutting income taxes, making it tax-burden neutral). 2. Ending free trade and the outsourcing of American jobs. We need fair trade agreements that promote democracy, that contain strong labor and environmental standards, and that put the American people first. 3. Cutting the red tape on Hurricane Sandy relief: allowing people who were misled into taking loans and are now in debt to obtain grants. |
Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.