POLITICAL COURAGE TEST – QUESTIONNAIRE

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Hi Candidate Welty,

Thank you for your call, and confirmation of your answers to the Political Courage Test. I have processed your responses, and have marked you as Passed. You can view/share your answers at the following link:

https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/1292/harry-robb-welty
Thank you for your willingness to demonstrate political courage, and please let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,

James Wypych
Director of Elections Research

Abortion
Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?

C – Pro-choice

Other or expanded principles
I have been pro-choice for fifty years subject to reasonable restrictions. As I explained to a Republican endorsing convention for Congress in 1992 it is a shame that the Republican party takes such an extreme view on the issue and yet legislatively neglects the lives of children once they are born. That subjects the political euphemism “pro-life” to considerable skepticism.

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Budget
In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
Y – Yes
Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare?
Y – Yes

Other or expanded principles
A recent report of the financial state of Americans at the outset of the Corvid-19 epidemic revealed that about 70 percent of the nations citizens were not in a financially good condition just before the economy nose dived and unemployment soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Intelligent social legislation has been stoppered by Republicans for thirty years to the detriment of the nation under the addled notion that business can make everything better than incompetent government.

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Campaign Finance
Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
Y – Yes

Other or expanded principles
Jane Mayer’s book “Dark Money” vividly explains the motivation, method and skullduggery of the most ideological 1 percenters who have given Republicans unrivaled supremacy in elections for a very long time thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United. It is ironic that it was a Republican President,Teddy Roosevelt, that first clamped down on corporate financing of federal elections.

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Defense
Do you support increasing defense spending?
N – No
Other or expanded principles
The only exception to this would be my desire to take care of volunteer servicemen and women who have returned tour after tour to conflict zones until they come home broken and prone to suicide.

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Economy
Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
Y – Yes
Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
Y – Yes
Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19?
Y – Yes
Other or expanded principles
Of these three yeses I feel most strongly about question 1. As for #2. I think the Federal government must make sure not to penalized corporations that do their business in the United States while US corporations abroad escape similar taxation. 3. The taxes used to support corporations in the pandemic have not been fairly distributed. Some handouts went to the undeserving. Worse, some of the neediest Americans employers were bypassed. These conditions need to be rectified.

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Education
Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
N – No

Other or expanded principles
I come from a state that once led the nation in education spending. I am willing to abide by the Republican notion of letting states figure out what is best for them in large part because I fear that under the wrong administration some states with sterling public education systems will be dumbed down by legislation that favors less deserving public school systems.

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Energy and Environment
Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)?
Y – Yes
Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
Y – Yes

Other or expanded principles
Yes, yes, yes, You have only to look that the headlines on the back pages of our dwindling newspapers to read of the massive escalation of climate damage and global warming that threatens land and sea and everything living. Its on the back pages because twitter politics has taken over the national conversation.

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Guns
Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
Y – Yes
Other or expanded principles
left blank

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Health Care
Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”)?
N – No
Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19?
Y – Yes
Other or expanded principles
I am not opposed to a gradual shift to a single payer national health system.

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Immigration
Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
N – No
Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
Y – Yes

Other or expanded principles
Yes. with major caveats. Our borders have been traditionally porous. Until recently we have benefited greatly by the hard work and initiative of people seeking a better life in the United States. I am outraged and appalled by the brutality inflicted on the refugees fleeing poverty, war and persecution. A more even handed approach that does not give up on border control is necessary.

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National Security
Should the United States use military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a weapon of mass destruction (for example: nuclear, biological, chemical)?
Y – Yes
Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts?
Y – Yes

Other or expanded principles
For part 1, – I am a fan of President Obama’s acknowledgement that sometimes our military offers critical insurance to discourage other nations from taking aggressive actions.

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Trade
Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)?
Y – Yes

Other or expanded principles

Yes, but again with a caveat. When we set up NAFTA there was talk, but only that, of protecting American workers who might lose jobs to overseas expansion. The result was a massive loss of former jobs compounded by the evisceration of unions by the Right to work politics of the Republican party. The victims of these jobs losses have cast their lot with blind nationalism to the nation’s peril.

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Administrative Priorities
Please explain in a total of 100 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.

1. My greatest concern is for the protection of an environment that is being degraded at a possibly unstoppable rate of increase.
2. I have always viewed the United States as a critical world leader during times of crisis. For the past four year that leadership has been squandered and turned against the world. I want reason and fair play back in the nation’s politics.
3. We need a level playing field in America to assure that Americans in greatest need have a social safety net that gives them homes, an education, health insurance and a future for our children.

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