Morrison Bonpasse'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.
Morrison Bonpasse has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2016 Political Courage Test.
Presidential Election 2016 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Women around the world should have access to safe, legal abortion. Such abortion services should be funded by governments for those women who cannot afford them. While providing access to abortion, governments must ensure that all men and women have access to effective contraception, as it will be through effective contraception that the need for abortion can be significantly reduced. It is also through universal access to contraception that global birth rates must be reduced in order to achieve zero population growth and then the reduction of the size of the human population. | |||
| 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? | ||
| The United States currently spends more on defense than the total of the next 10 largest defense spending countries. In addition to reducing the U.S. spending, we should offer more military forces to serve with United Nations peacekeeping forces. The savings from the reduction of the size of the U.S. military should be spent on thwarting global warming and stopping wrongful convictions. Our progressive income tax system must task the wealthy at a higher percentage than lower-income citizens in order to generate income, but also in order to reduce the inherent drift in capitalist societies toward income and wealth inequality. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| I support the regulation of direct and indirect campaign contributions from all groups. Further, the country should adopt public financing of elections, as is currently the system in Maine and several other states and municipalities. Every citizen's voice and vote should count the same, regardless of income and wealth. Before such full public funding is achieved, the U.S. should adopt a Constitutional Amendment to reverse the holding of the Citizens United case, and to establish that corporations are creations of the government and are not to be regarded as citizens, except as provided by statute. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Capital punishment, the killing of criminals by our governments, should cease immediately. Among the many reasons for such abolition is the risk of wrongful conviction and the unequal imposition of execution upon the poor and upon racial minorities. I favor the legalization of recreational drugs and the regulation of their sale and use. People who publicly abuse drugs, like those who abuse alcohol, should be referred to counseling or other therapeutic processes. Prison sentences in the U.S. are much longer than is necessary to deter crime, and minimum sentences worsen that problem. Minimum sentences should be replaced with sentencing ranges. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| My three "Yes" answers depend upon circumstances. 1. Federal spending can prime the economic pump when economic activity is down, but it must be reduced otherwise. Further, the Government should run budget surpluses in good times in order to repay the Debt, which must remain available for deficit spending during poor economic times. 2. Taxes must first pay for government services. In good times, taxes must be high enough to create surpluses and in poor times, lowered to promote growth. 3. Tax incentives can be used to encourage the direction of economic activity, but the benefits must outweigh the costs. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | ||
| Again, my "Yes" answer depends upon circumstances. If the education reforms are important enough to the nation, then Federal requirements may be necessary. However, Federal support of education should consist of more revenue sharing to the states for education rather than with competitive grants. That funding should depend upon educational and financial need more than the ability of local grant writers to write grants. | |||
| No | Do you support building the Keystone XL pipeline? | ||
| Yes | Do you support funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | ||
| Generally, we should leave fossil fuels in the ground and prevent their carbon from emitting into the atmosphere. Simultaneously, we should fund and encourage the development of renewable energy sources. 1. The Keystone XL pipeline should not be built to carry oil that should not be extracted from the Earth. Instead there should be investments in renewable energy. 2. We need a worldwide program to replace fossil fuels completely with renewable energy resources as soon as possible. 3. Fracking must be regulated to ensure clean air and water and be discontinued and replaced by renewable energy sources. | |||
| Yes | Do you believe that human activity is contributing to climate change? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| No only are humans contributing to climate change, but we are also forcing the extinction of many plants and animals. This year I wrote the book, "Too Many Humans! The Imperative to Return the Human Population to 1 Billion." That was the size of the human population around 1800, when the fossil-fueled Industrial Revolution began. The Federal Government should regulate greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide, with the goal of substantial reduction. The global carbon dioxide levels must be returned to the level of 1800 of about 300 parts per million. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| There is too much violence and too many guns in the U.S. and the world. According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 31 people are murdered in the U.S. every day and another 55 commit suicide with a gun every day. It's time for a national conversation and a commission to develop ways to reduce violence and gun violence in our country. Those are goals which are surely supported by those who own guns and those who do not. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Not only must the Affordable Care Act not be repealed in any substantial way, it should be expanded so that every American has access to health care. In addition, the funding for health care should be moved away from employers, because it makes their costs of production higher than their international competitors whose governments fund most of health care. The U.S. must focus on promoting healthy living, including the further eradication of tobacco smoking and the reduction of the consumption of processed foods and meat. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| We have processes for legal immigration, and foreigners seeking to live in the U.S. and become citizens must use those processes. However, for too long we have permitted illegal immigration and now we have many millions of people who have lived in the U.S. illegally for many years. Therefore, I support President Obama's initiatives to provide a path for citizenship for those illegal immigrants who seek that status. At some point, the level of immigration should be restricted to the level of out-migration, as the United States seeks to stop its own population growth and thereafter to reduce the population. | |||
| Yes | Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Marriage between two people is an inherently important social institution in every society. It provides stability in human relationships and often is the foundation of families with children. Therefore, it should be the goal of every society to open the institution of marriage to all adults, regardless of their sexual preference. A key to the reduction of violence in all societies is the enhancement of loving, stable relationships, despite the intolerable levels of domestic violence; and marriage must be part of that enhancement. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| It does little good to label people as terrorists. It's more important to identify crimes and arrest and convict criminals, as has been done in the U.S. When the U.S. identifies a person who has allegedly committed crimes, indictments should be presented to United States Federal Courts or to the International Criminal Court. The United States should not kill suspected criminals without trials. The key to global nuclear non-proliferation is to recommit the United States to nuclear disarmament, as provided for in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Otherwise, our efforts look like, "Do as we say, not as we do." | |||
| No | Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | ||
| The Social Security system is a remarkably successful social insurance program begun in 1935, largely thanks to Frances Perkins, the first woman Cabinet Secretary and FDR's Secretary of Labor. Its administrative costs are low and its investments have been prudent, i.e. U.S. Treasury securities. There is little evidence that individuals can do better on average. The system should be strengthened by eliminating the contributions income cap. Instead of the option in the question, people should be encouraged to save money for retirement in other ways, in addition to Social Security. There are tax incentive systems, plus old-fashioned savings and investments. | |||
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 | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Environment | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Homeland Security | ||
| Greatly Increase | g) International aid | ||
| Slightly Increase | h) Medical Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Scientific Research | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Space exploration | ||
| Greatly Increase | k) United Nations | ||
| Slightly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Slightly 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) | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Inheritance taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | k) Payroll taxes | ||
| g. Within the category of "International Aid," most of the increase that I advocate should go to funding family planning, birth control and abortion services. With full access to effective contraception, I am confident that the people of the world will reduce the global birth rate to below the death rate, which will lead to the necessary gradual reduction in the size of the human population. | |||
| b. and c. "Corporate taxes" and "Small business taxes" should be the same. They should be simplified, simplified and simplified and ensure that every corporation pays its fair share. f. The "Excise Taxes (transportation fuel)" category should be restricted to fossil fuels. Renewable fuels, such as solar-generated hydrogen for fuel cells, should not be subject to excise taxes. g., h, and I. Our income tax system should be simplified, simplified, simplified. For example, they should be paid by individuals and not families. j. Inheritance taxes should be high enough to reduce the ability of wealthy families to maintain inter-generational wealth. | |||
| The President is the head of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government and s/he must faithfully execute the Office of the President, i.e. the laws governing that office. Executive Orders are one tool of that management responsibility and they should be used as is legally permitted and justified. Executive Orders should not be used to thwart the intent of laws passed by the Congress and signed by the President or otherwise allowed by the President to become law. |
| 1. Justice: STOPPING/correcting Wrongful Convictions. The U.S. must effectively stop wrongful convictions by bringing them to a level of .1%. Existing wrongful convictions must be corrected. This will save billions. 2. Environment: Global Warming ? Population Stabilization The U.S. should support programs to bring the U.S. and global birth rates down to the levels of the death rates to achieve ZPG (Zero Population Growth). This will save billions. 3. Global Economy: - Single Global Currency The U.S. should embrace the development of a Single Global Currency to replace the U.S. dollar. This would save the world hundreds of billions. |
Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.