Joel Funk's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Joel Funk submitted the 2020 Political Courage Test after the official deadline.
Illinois Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I'm a firm believer in personal liberty and self ownership. Decisions about birth control should be left up to the individual. Abortion is a sensitive issue that people can hold good-faith views on all sides. I believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration. | |||
| Yes | In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| Yes | Do you support expanding federal funding to support entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| Providing a base level of support to our seniors is a fundamental principal of society. Additionally, we have an obligation to ensure that we are providing assistance and opportunity to those in poverty. We must recognize that all of us at some point in our lives may find ourselves needing a hand up - and in giving that help we not only are a more just society, but we investing in our community. | |||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| We have seen the direct impact of wealthy individuals and interests being able to in effect buy campaigns by ensuring their agendas and viewpoints dominate the conversation. This goes against the very idea of a representative republic and sets the voters at a disadvantage to an equation based on wealth. | |||
| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| Our defense spending is at a level that far exceeds every other country in the world. We need to reduce our overseas expenditures on our military, prioritize our efforts, and structure a military that is focused on defense not global dominance. We also need to use our military to push innovations that will not only make us stronger but have been the backbone of much of our domestic economic success. | |||
| Yes | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| We have seen time and again through history that smart spending - especially on infrastructure and education - can have dramatic impacts on our communities and our economy. We have completely changed the fates of entire states and generations through our public works and our emphasis on the sciences and fulfilling our desire to explore the universe. These types of programs drive business innovations, put Americans to work, and inspire us to be better. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| The balance between federal, state, and local control of education has become muddled at best. We have too many unfunded mandates, we have placed far too much emphasis on testing and we have lost sight of not only teaching the subject matter but inspiring our kids for what comes next. We need engineers, scientists, artists, and writers - we have a whole generation to reboot in a totally different economy. There is a way to incentivize these priorities and let communities work to meet goals rather than dictate terms. | |||
| Yes | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| We were succeeding with programs at home that were saving everyday Americans money and making our grid much smarter and dramatically changing how we consumed energy - we stopped that for ideological reasons and it was wrong. We need to return to those goals, and then redirect our federal budget domestically and in defense spending to support innovations in energy usage and management because it will not only save us billions in the long run - it will change our security position globally. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| The gun debate has is all or nothing when most of us exist in the middle. Fix universal background checks so they work. Empower law enforcement to crack down on the illegal gun market. Pass federal legislation that holds gun owners accountable if their gun is lost or stolen and they fail to report it. Address the role guns play in family violence. Individuals with active restraining orders set by a judge based on evidence of violent behaviors or threats should not have a gun. Violence from domestic situations bleeds into our first responder community, our schools, and our kids. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| The ACA was a critical first step in addressing the crisis in our health care system. We have out of control costs, far to many layers business bureaucracy between a patient and a doctor, coverage gaps that cost lives and just as big a problem with access to care as much as cost. We must adopt a system like every other developed western power, which is a public option that provides healthcare for all of its people. Currently, the healthcare industry charges us whatever they want while most modern countries reap the benefits of collective bargaining. | |||
| No | Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| The wall doesn't work and neither does arbitrary rules forcing people back across and line to reapply again when they are already here. These are not solutions - they are ideological talking points. Reduce the costs and time associated with the naturalization process. Secure a pathway to citizenship for those that are currently here whose only violation is unauthorized presence in the country. We can create a merit-based solution that gives immigrants a chance to serve their new country in a way that contributes to the common good and a path to citizenship at the end of their service. | |||
| 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? | ||
| We must be secure at home, be in a position to protect our allies, and able to support and implement UN Security Resolutions. We must no longer unilaterally invade, destabilize, and implement regime change interventionism. Refocus on our domestic priorities: building on our energy independence, and realigning our DoD budget and State Department goals so that we are proactively building new allies and containing threats without having to seek a War Powers Authorization. We have weakened our longtime allies and left ourselves open to new threats because we have lost our leadership role. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| We have just seen how Tariffs don't work. Americans paid the price both in lost markets that did serious damage to our agricultural economy and at the register in added final costs to our families. Trade works when we build on improving our domestic economic infrastructure and also boost markets with our international partners so their economies grow to need more American goods and services. When we bundle intellectual property and labor rights with market access we know American businesses and workers can compete. | |||
| We must end the "Forever War" our country has been fighting for almost two decades that has destroyed our economic power and left our domestic needs unfunded and lagging behind. 1. End the wars that are costing us trillions and undercutting our security and our economy 2. Refocus our domestic tax and spending policy on infrastructure and encouraging innovation so we can compete globally 3. Fund education and bridging wealth inequality by rebuilding our American workforce. We are quickly reaching a wealth inequality gap not seen since the Great Depression. By all measures our middle class has been decimated. |
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