Card image cap

Mark Neumann'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.
What is the Political Courage Test?

Issue Positions

For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2022.

  • "As a physician I have always been guided by the principle of patient autonomy for healthcare decisions. And I believe that all people have a right to comprehensive healthcare services. In obstetrical care the choice for interrupting early pregnancy is a standard of care and should be available to all women as part of their comprehensive healthcare services. The choice of carrying a pregnancy is already difficult enough. We should support women in every way that we can when they choose to bring new human life into our world. We should not burden them by outside interference." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "In Congress, I will work to repeal the Hyde Amendment, and will work to ensure a federally guaranteed right to an abortion." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • "We need to pass federal legislation that explicitly protects all women’s right to the full range of pregnancy care and support, including safe abortion care. These healthcare services should be available to all regardless of anyone’s ability to pay. Medical decisions should be made between patients and their doctor, not by politicians." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • "Progressive taxation is necessary to defend democracy from the risk of sliding into oligarchy. There is always a tendency for wealth accrue to increased wealth more rapidly than non-wealth. This tendency results in more and more power concentrating in fewer and fewer hands. This leads to oligarchy and is a fundamental threat to our democracy: good governance of the people, by the people and for the people. Democracy depends upon a tendency toward an egalitarian distribution of power for all citizens and progressive taxation is a time-honored way that our democratic tradition has preserved itself from oligarchy." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Single payer, publicly funded, national healthcare insurance is the most economical and most equitable way to achieve full healthcare services for all people." (ballotpedia.org)
  • "We can expand and improve the existing Medicare system, to cover all medically necessary care, affordable prescription drugs, and long-term care. All services should be payment free at the point of service, with no deductibles or co-pays." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • "In Congress, I will fight to expand and safeguard Social Security." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • "I believe that votes are not things. Votes are people. People have hopes and dreams, worries and fears. People have voices and those voices speak by their vote. Campaigns should be job interviews before the voters to help them choose whom they want to serve them in governance. Campaigns should be public service and should, as such, be publicly financed. Our privately financed campaigns are extravagant marketing battles and exercises in social engineering. As such, they distort the process and give huge advantage to wealthy voices. In the absence of publicly financed campaigns, we should heavily regulate indirect campaign contributions." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "In Congress, Mark will support the Fair Representation Act and other democracy expansion efforts. Mark refuses to accept campaign donations from for profit corporate PACs." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
  • "In Congress, I will support the reduction of our bloated defense budget. I will also oppose unnecessary military interventions, and military aid to oppressive foreign governments." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • "Our nation needs to reflect deeply on its military use policy. Just what exactly does our country wish to gain by making military expenditures equivalent to the next seven nations' expenditures added together? What is the expected return on all this investment? What is so important to us, as a country, to have all this military might? We need to stop engaging in unilateral military adventures throughout the world. We will do much better by investing primarily in diplomacy and collaboration within the community of all nations to find long term solutions for all perceived geopolitical threats." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "We must ensure that working people do not bear the economic burden of our necessary transition to a greener economy. We can save American families money with investments in weatherization, public transportation, modern infrastructure, and high-speed broadband." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
  • "I believe that it will be necessary for our federal government to continue making financial investment to meet the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency before us. This investment needs to be directed toward the base of our economy and in support of local and state governments battling the epidemic. More investments should be made, with local oversight and regulation, to support small business. Creating publicly funded, locally controlled, opportunities for employment could become necessary. We already know that we will need many more public health workers to perform case identification and tracking of exposures to control the epidemic." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "In Congress, I will vote to repeal No Child Left Behind and its successors, and work toward decreasing class sizes, empowering teachers, and reducing administrative overhead." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • "I think families and teaching professionals are already highly motivated to provide the highest standards of education for their children and pupils. The focus of "No Child Left Behind" legislation on testing and financial coercion has done immense damage to the education of children and the work of teachers. The attempt to provide "one-size-fits-all" directives for the entire nation is fraught with disadvantage and insult to the intensions and incentives already existing locally across our country. We need to support stressed schools, not punish them. We need to support public education, not undermine it by private school and interests." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "We absolutely need to get off of fossil fuels as our source for energy. There is just no two ways about it. The sooner the better, and this is certainly something that our federal government must help to achieve through public policy, by withdrawing fossil fuel subsidies, by limiting access for fossil fuel drilling in public lands and by stimulating renewable energy technology development. The longer we wait, the harder we make it for the generations of people who will follow us living on our small, blue, dot of a planet in a very big universe." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "We absolutely need to get off of fossil fuels as our source for energy. There is just no two ways about it. The sooner the better, and this is certainly something that our federal government must help to achieve through public policy, by withdrawing fossil fuel subsidies, by limiting access for fossil fuel drilling in public lands and by stimulating renewable energy technology development. The longer we wait, the harder we make it for the generations of people who will follow us living on our small, blue, dot of a planet in a very big universe." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "Americans have a right to own guns that is guaranteed by our Constitution. This right, like all our rights, is not unlimited. All rights butt up against others all the time, and this is where good governance develops regulatory policy to resolve the tension between contesting rights. People have a right to pursue safety and happiness in their communities and local communities need to develop public policy that meets their specific local needs. Firearm violence is a public health risk. It is normal for communities to develop policies and regulations to manage public health risk." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "I am outraged over yet another elementary school shooting. 90% of Americans support background checks. But, today a handful of politicians are lining their wallets with NRA $ and it's costing us human life. We must stand up and fight against this. Our children deserve to be safe." (www.facebook.com)
  • Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
  • "Businesses hire people to provide service by the work that they perform. This contract between employer and employee is essential to the operation of any business. People are known to fall ill and are known to have children and are known to have injuries. This is just the reality of what it means to be a human person. When a business hires a person, the deal includes the risks as well as the advantages of the hire. So, planning to support employees through times of illness, child rearing and injury is just part of the deal." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "People immigrating to the United States have made our country what it is today. The arrival of folks with new traditions and heritage has contributed to and made our American identity robust, rich in character and flourishing. It is true there have been times of social stress and prejudice as traditions encounter each other. Our capacity to resolve these tensions through attitudes of hospitality have made us stronger and prouder to be American. We need to produce policy and legislation to carry on the work of integrating new people arriving today as we have always done." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "People immigrating to the United States have made our country what it is today. The arrival of folks with new traditions and heritage has contributed to and made our American identity robust, rich in character and flourishing. It is true there have been times of social stress and prejudice as traditions encounter each other. Our capacity to resolve these tensions through attitudes of hospitality have made us stronger and prouder to be American. We need to produce policy and legislation to carry on the work of integrating new people arriving today as we have always done." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "To be blatantly truthful, the work of military force is to kill people and destroy property. The threat of using military force to do those things is what makes it tempting to try to influence or coerce other people's behavior. That kind of pressure on people's choices is experienced by them as oppression, and oppression results in backlash. We need to be circumspect about the use of military force and threat. It does not get us to a place of voluntary international collaboration and cooperation that we need to meet the global challenges of our day." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
  • "American support for this extremely destructive war against the people of Yemen must end. Rather than sacrificing our principles to cultivate a better relationship with the Saudi dictatorship just to ensure access to oil, we should build an economy that moves away from fossil fuels." (www.facebook.com)
  • "In Congress, I will only support trade deals that ensure workers’ rights. Federal contracts should only be awarded to companies that demonstrate a firm commitment to high labor and environmental standards." (markneumannforcongress.com)
  • "Our world's multitude of local economies interact with each other in ever enlarging circles of influence and interaction. We need fair trade policy to protect local wages from the practice of offshoring jobs by international corporations, pitting workers against each other and moving jobs to countries with weaker environmental protections. We also need to allow smaller countries to protect their local industries. I support supply management to ensure farmers are paid a fair price and tariffs to protect against market volatility. Focusing on exports undermines the wealth and benefit of preserving small family farms and a thriving rural community." (justfacts.votesmart.org)
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
Pro-choice Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
As a physician I have always been guided by the principle of patient autonomy for healthcare decisions. And I believe that all people have a right to comprehensive healthcare services. In obstetrical care the choice for interrupting early pregnancy is a standard of care and should be available to all women as part of their comprehensive healthcare services. The choice of carrying a pregnancy is already difficult enough. We should support women in every way that we can when they choose to bring new human life into our world. We should not burden them by outside interference.
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?
Progressive taxation is necessary to defend democracy from the risk of sliding into oligarchy. There is always a tendency for wealth accrue to increased wealth more rapidly than non-wealth. This tendency results in more and more power concentrating in fewer and fewer hands. This leads to oligarchy and is a fundamental threat to our democracy: good governance of the people, by the people and for the people. Democracy depends upon a tendency toward an egalitarian distribution of power for all citizens and progressive taxation is a time-honored way that our democratic tradition has preserved itself from oligarchy.
Yes Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
I believe that votes are not things. Votes are people. People have hopes and dreams, worries and fears. People have voices and those voices speak by their vote. Campaigns should be job interviews before the voters to help them choose whom they want to serve them in governance. Campaigns should be public service and should, as such, be publicly financed. Our privately financed campaigns are extravagant marketing battles and exercises in social engineering. As such, they distort the process and give huge advantage to wealthy voices. In the absence of publicly financed campaigns, we should heavily regulate indirect campaign contributions.
No Do you support increasing defense spending?
Our nation needs to reflect deeply on its military use policy. Just what exactly does our country wish to gain by making military expenditures equivalent to the next seven nations' expenditures added together? What is the expected return on all this investment? What is so important to us, as a country, to have all this military might? We need to stop engaging in unilateral military adventures throughout the world. We will do much better by investing primarily in diplomacy and collaboration within the community of all nations to find long term solutions for all perceived geopolitical threats.
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 providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19?
I believe that it will be necessary for our federal government to continue making financial investment to meet the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency before us. This investment needs to be directed toward the base of our economy and in support of local and state governments battling the epidemic. More investments should be made, with local oversight and regulation, to support small business. Creating publicly funded, locally controlled, opportunities for employment could become necessary. We already know that we will need many more public health workers to perform case identification and tracking of exposures to control the epidemic.
No Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
I think families and teaching professionals are already highly motivated to provide the highest standards of education for their children and pupils. The focus of "No Child Left Behind" legislation on testing and financial coercion has done immense damage to the education of children and the work of teachers. The attempt to provide "one-size-fits-all" directives for the entire nation is fraught with disadvantage and insult to the intensions and incentives already existing locally across our country. We need to support stressed schools, not punish them. We need to support public education, not undermine it by private school and interests.
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 absolutely need to get off of fossil fuels as our source for energy. There is just no two ways about it. The sooner the better, and this is certainly something that our federal government must help to achieve through public policy, by withdrawing fossil fuel subsidies, by limiting access for fossil fuel drilling in public lands and by stimulating renewable energy technology development. The longer we wait, the harder we make it for the generations of people who will follow us living on our small, blue, dot of a planet in a very big universe.
Yes Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
Americans have a right to own guns that is guaranteed by our Constitution. This right, like all our rights, is not unlimited. All rights butt up against others all the time, and this is where good governance develops regulatory policy to resolve the tension between contesting rights. People have a right to pursue safety and happiness in their communities and local communities need to develop public policy that meets their specific local needs. Firearm violence is a public health risk. It is normal for communities to develop policies and regulations to manage public health risk.
No Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
Yes Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19?
Businesses hire people to provide service by the work that they perform. This contract between employer and employee is essential to the operation of any business. People are known to fall ill and are known to have children and are known to have injuries. This is just the reality of what it means to be a human person. When a business hires a person, the deal includes the risks as well as the advantages of the hire. So, planning to support employees through times of illness, child rearing and injury is just part of the deal.
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?
People immigrating to the United States have made our country what it is today. The arrival of folks with new traditions and heritage has contributed to and made our American identity robust, rich in character and flourishing. It is true there have been times of social stress and prejudice as traditions encounter each other. Our capacity to resolve these tensions through attitudes of hospitality have made us stronger and prouder to be American. We need to produce policy and legislation to carry on the work of integrating new people arriving today as we have always done.
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?
To be blatantly truthful, the work of military force is to kill people and destroy property. The threat of using military force to do those things is what makes it tempting to try to influence or coerce other people's behavior. That kind of pressure on people's choices is experienced by them as oppression, and oppression results in backlash. We need to be circumspect about the use of military force and threat. It does not get us to a place of voluntary international collaboration and cooperation that we need to meet the global challenges of our day.
No Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)?
Our world's multitude of local economies interact with each other in ever enlarging circles of influence and interaction. We need fair trade policy to protect local wages from the practice of offshoring jobs by international corporations, pitting workers against each other and moving jobs to countries with weaker environmental protections. We also need to allow smaller countries to protect their local industries. I support supply management to ensure farmers are paid a fair price and tariffs to protect against market volatility. Focusing on exports undermines the wealth and benefit of preserving small family farms and a thriving rural community.
The slogan for my campaign is that I am "For Healthy People and a Healthy Planet." I believe that we need to change our healthcare financing system to eliminate the costly and burdensome profiteering by private health insurance, pharmaceutical industry and provider monopolies. A single payer, publicly funded, national health insurance plan is necessary. It will provide more value for lower cost. And we need to stop using fossil fuel for our energy source. Our ultimate, long term energy source comes from the sun, and the quicker we make use of this resource by renewable energy technology, the better.

Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.

arrow_upward