Aaron Pettigrew'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.
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Aaron Pettigrew has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
Tennessee Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I proudly support the Life at Conception Act. | |||
| No | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| No | Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| Because of the decades of bad spending decisions by Congress, we must start cutting spending first. As for Social Security and Medicare, there must be a Constitutional Amendment supporting them first and that must include a full audit of the entire funding system and accounting, then such considerations can be addressed. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Within limits. Contributions are necessary for most candidates but any new or rewritten laws and regulations must be carefully considered both to limit the ability to "bribe" politicians and to encourage the ability to support them. There are nany proposals to address this that have already been written and I intend to review them before supporting any particular plan. | |||
| Yes | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| Primarily for the purpose of protecting, supporting and caring for our servicemembers. Even though a lot is being done to improve technology and equipment for the Armed Forces, a majority of it is still very old and requires scavenging to keep it working. We also must improve care and services available for our veterans. There is no excuse why any veteran should be homeless unless it truly is their choice. There is no excuse why we can't provide health and mental health support, especially for service related needs. | |||
| No | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Financial relief does not always mean giving money or putting taxpayers on the hook for loans. It can be done in the form of tax and legal/regulation relief that doesn't impact safety. Not all of that relief should come from the Federal Government either, the State and Local Governments are also responsible but because the guidelines they followed are from Federal agencies there is a shared responsibility. | |||
| No | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| Without a Constitutional Amendment, Education is not a Federal Government power. The only Constitutional purpose for a Federal Department of Education would be to offer a central point of information to share what works well and what doesn't, for the sake improving the General Condition of the United States as a whole. Having some basic functional standards is practical for the sake of portability within the United States but Constitutionally the power does not exist. | |||
| No | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Unknown Position | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
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| I left the greenhouse gases question blank because there are some genuine health, safety and environmental concerns as well as the air not being a local issue but this is not purely a Government matter. There are private sector industries developing to improve and eliminate emissions and they are making it work. Sometimes the Government must work with the private sector, not as a purely restrictive force. | |||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| If you want to discuss harsher penalties for non-defense related gun violence, I am open minded but the reason for the 2nd Amendment is so that we can protect ourselves, our families, our property and our communities not just from crime but also from tyranny. It is also an irrefutable fact that if criminals of all kinds fear their victims, crime goes down. We may never be able to eliminate evil intentions but they are less likely to happen when good people can defend themselves. | |||
| Yes | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| Both these questions are linked, the Affordable Care Act was in itself a response to the problems that Government already caused the Healthcare industry dating back to the 1930's and employers offering health insurance was a result of Government Unconstitutionally controlling pay. Because healthcare has developed so prominently, safety and transparency standards are a necessity but the Government intrusion into care providing and insurance has caused the overwhelming majority of the problems in the cost and availability of care and much of that intrusion was at the behest of doctors in Congress. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| Yes | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| Even if you support DACA and other amnesty ideas, the Federal Government must first use all tools to secure our immigration system from illegal immigration before doing it. The easiest way to understand my point of view for immigration is to relate it to my house, if you knock or ring my doorbell and come with good intentions, I will likely let you in but if you give me any reason to believe you're trying to take advantage of me or have harmful intentions, you will leave willingly or not. | |||
| Yes | 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)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support reducing military intervention in Middle East conflicts? | ||
| They key to the first question is the word hostile but there are also genuine reasons for assisting the rest of the world and especially allies with similar defense, especially if a ratified treaty calls for it. The second question must also consider our allies such as Israel and the treaties we are party to. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| As a general rule, yes but we must also consider geopolitical facts and whether a Nation, such as China, has designs toward world dominance. | |||
| Restoring and strengthening Constitutionally protected Rights to Speech, Religion, Assembly, Redress, Keep and Bear Arms, Privacy, Property and Innocence until proven guilty. Cleaning up and simplifying Government agencies, implementing specific, limited Charters on them as well as insisting that they be lead by people experienced in the fields they regulate. Cutting Government spending, while there are some areas where the Government needs more resources, there is so much Unconstitutional Government that needs to be cut that such changes could easily be paid for without increasing costs. |
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