Rob Lydon'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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Rob Lydon has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
California Congressional Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| This reflects a commitment to overall spending reduction, not a position de-emphasizing our need for a strong military. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards? | ||
| I support federal standards in education which are relevant to workforce development, but not those pertaining to social or religious issues. Education, in my opinion, should be focused at providing a foundation of basic skills- language, mathematics, science, critical thought and civics- upon which the arts, humanities, vocational education can be built as students indicate interest and aptitude. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I believe in the rule of law. As such, my position is that until/unless the second amendment is itself amended, I cannot in good conscience infringe on the right of the people to bear arms. That said, I would support amending the constitution to reflect the views of our current culture. | |||
| No | Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| Any legislation is inherently less than perfect. The Affordable Care Act is flawed, and needs to be assessed and revised based on its performance at reaching certain benchmarks. Introducing a regular review and revision process, conducted in the open is essential to national acceptance and trust. | |||
| 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? | ||
| In my view, all of us, including native Americans, are immigrants. As such, calling immigration without permission unlawful is hypocritical, as many of our ancestors did not have permission. That said, I believe that anyone coming into our country to avoid the consequences of criminal conduct needs to be returned to their country of origin for trial. All others are welcome, provided they are willing to integrate into our culture and work to support themselves. We currently have a process by which that can be accomplished, but it needs to be expanded. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| There is a caveat here. Any change needs to be made gradually and judiciously, be based on data, not result in the abuse of people in so-called cheap labor nations, nor disproportionately impact our workforce. | |||
| My top three priorities currently are as follows: First, develop a long term plan and balance the budget through a combination of reducing spending and increasing taxation. This will be painful for all Americans, but without eliminating deficit spending, our nation will go bankrupt, making all other issues irrelevant. Second, ensure quality education for all Americans, including community college. Third, include in all legislation fiscal and performance benchmarks defining successful outcomes and a specific timeframe for mandatory review. |
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